Marlin has always been able to grab a single player or two and make them better. Much better. The Beard, Payton, Long, several others, this year's standouts. It's evident by players leaving and for the most part not doing better elsewhere.
Marlin has had two weaknesses in my opinion.
1) Even before the portal he had a problem keeping players, so I came up with the phrase "Never stop recruiting" years before the portal existed.
2) Even with each player getting better, Marlin has lacked in making them play better as a team, the well documented standing around complaint as an example.
Except for some reason about every 5 years he almost puts it all together. Almost.
Here's to a great team in 2028