They all wanted Stoops. Ferentz looked like a total failure of a hire in comparison.
There's a long list of bad hires that worked out and good hires that failed. Chizek and McDermott were seen as great hires. A lot of people thought Fred was a desperate hire.
What it really goes to show is that it is really just about impossible for any of us to know if this hire will work out or not. The two main drivers of success (imho) are the drive/ambition and intelligence of the person. And let's face it, none of us really have any insight on that with CMC or any hire. About the only thing we can see that might tie to that is prior history of success/winning.
We all have our preferences about HC experience, system, etc etc. None of that really matters as much as intelligence and and almost pathological desire to succeed.