Willingham was taking in 2 and absolutely bottom level 3 star talent in 2004 and 2005. He was more of the filter feeder type that waited for those kids to contact him and plead their cases.
He also couldn't develop receivers worth a darn, and insisted on running a stripped down version of the West Coast Offense with a triple option quarterback at the helm. Not smart at all.
Weis had his faults, especially when it came to hiring the inept Jon Tenuta and turning over the keys to him on defense. That all by itself resulted in the difference in all six losses, since that stupid "jailbreak blitz every down" method was all too easy to burn with mediocre offensive talent.
But, in the end, Charlie left the place in much better condition that what he inherited. Those putrid classes of 2004 and 2005 contributed very few players playing meaningful minutes, and the only reason why 2005's class did better was because he brought in 3-4 players who did play some good minutes, especially Turkovich and Duncan.
Under Charlie, we were finally routinely bringing in 4 and 5 star talent, and that each of his recruiting classes fielded at least 10 players who played meaningful minutes.
To put it this way, with the lack of true junior and senior talent in 2007, even Nick Saban wouldn't have been able to get us to .500.