9. Ole Miss: The players who comprised the nucleus of Hugh Freeze's epic 2013 recruiting class are all doing three-and-outs. Former No. 1 overall recruit DL Robert Nkemdiche, who caused a ton of havoc at the line of scrimmage, is gone, although his final days in college football were actually quite stormy. The tougher pieces to replace are star WR Laquon Treadwell, who dazzled all season, and LT Laremy Tunsil, who did miss a bunch of the season because of a seven-game NCAA suspension. Folks in Oxford are hopeful that top 2016 recruit Greg Little can come in and take over for Tunsil. That is a lot to ask of a true freshman O-lineman, but as we noted this summer, coaches who have worked with Little rave about how polished he already is.
Okay, Bruce. What were you watching on Saturday's this fall? It certainly wasn't Ole Miss or Nkemdiche.
Tackles, tackles for loss, and sacks ... three areas we can look to and make a pretty solid judgment on how a player did in a season, right?
Tackles: Nkemdiche not ranked. Tackles for loss: Nkemdiche, not ranked. Sacks: Nkemdiche, not ranked. And, before anyone starts saying, "he mailed it in in 2015-'16" ... he wasn't ranked in any of those three categories in 2014-'15 either.
He certainly had the potential to cause a lot of havoc ... he certainly didn't live up to his potential.
