Willis was the MAN. I don't know for sure if he'll fully recover from the knee injury, but the news now is he's ahead of schedule and should be able to run a little in mini camps and maybe ready for full speed come training camp time in July.
Remember though, McGahee only ran for one year at Miami. Portis was the man the year before. However, McGahee is fast, he's got moves and he's got power. He can also catch out of the backfield. He's the complete package at RB, IMO.
Fatty, as for Ward, we don't know if he'd have made a good NFL QB or not. He never got the chance. He was smart and went to the sport where he wouldn't get crushed every week.
One of the reasons Weldon took over for Johnson, IIRC, is that Johnson wasn't making the second and third read as well. He'd take the sack or get rid of it while the 3rd option was open. Weldon was better at making the progressions, and got better results. I don't think Weldon lost a game as a starter until wide right one, and you can blame that more on the defense (Terrell Buckley gave up a first down on 4th and long that set up the go ahead score for Miami, and even then Weldon got them into FG range before Thomas missed.)
I agree that the system and players around them make the QB look better, however, Wuerffel was a good college QB, the system just made him into a Heisman winner. He'd make the correct reads and go through his progressions when the first and second choices were not there (except in 1994 in the 4th quarter against us!)