there was a huge shift in philosophy and resources from the top down once Pope left and I give credit to the administration, athletic department and boosters in addition to KY in the change to their approach and ultimate recruiting success.
The NIL stuff is the wild frontier and in its infancy but I think they are realizing how to leverage it. I think Pope leaving crystalized this shift for everyone. Pope is a great coach and is evident with his success especially this year and who he left to coach for. I think a big part of the philosophy shift is being a little caught off guard with Pope leaving (nobody was seriously thinking he could be the next UK coach until a day or 2 before - I sure wasn't) and the fact that we don't really have a deep pool of coaching candidates to pull from and acknowledging that we have to be serious about NIL and resources all around if we want to compete.