re: How many Freshman will Leave the Vols?

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Augusta is good, but nothing short of a miracle and there will be a very noticeable drop off in production on the Missouri DL this season. Their 3 best returning players have 4 sacks and 12.5 TFL combined( Worst in the league). Compared to Barnett, Maggitt, and JRM who have 23 sacks and 46.5 TFL combined between them (1st in the league). It should be fun to see whose become the cheetah and who the prey in Butchs 3rd year.

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Im not into the whole troll-fest, but I will respond to this since it is legit football discussion. I can honestly see why people would think that, just like I can see why people used that exact same argument last year, then our line turned out better than it was previously. And who knows, we could take a step back, but I certainly dont think it is likely.

First of all, last year we didnt have one of the top dlineman in the country coming into our program. Secondly, the returners from the year before all got to play more previously than this year's returners the year previous which doesnt discredit the reloading argument. Lastly, and most tellingly, Pinkel has never been one to rave about individual players unless they are genuinely rave-worthy. He has been talking up Charles Harris more than almost any player I can remember.

Like I said, we could very well take a step back, losing Bra tley for the season sucks big time. But I think that would be more of a surprise than continuing our excellence on the dline.