They lost a TON of talent and production. What...20 guys who were major impact dudes, including multiple Day 1 and 2 picks, and a 3 year starter at QB who will 100.0% be replaced by a downgrade.
So they're unquestionably worse at the most important position in sports.
They lost an NFL RB, two NFL WRs, an NFL TE, and several offensive linemen.
They replaced them with mid recruiting classes, and a couple portal kids.
On defense, they lost 2 possible Day 1 linemen, several linebackers, several starters in the secondary. One area they have recruited well is at DB, so they might be OK to plug some holes there. But who is replacing Verse? Who is replacing Fiske? Tatum Bethune led the team in tackles. Gone. Kalen Deloach was 2nd. Gone.
I think Mike is a good coach, and they have some talent. But last year was their chips in the middle of the table year. And it almost worked. They paid Verse to come back, they got some really high level starters out of the portal, they were old and experienced at virtually every spot.
Now they're young and inexperienced, and the kids who are filling holes are from average recruiting classes and "hope and pray" portal kids.
They have the #4 ranked portal class, by the numbers. 15 total kids. Are literally any of these kids solid starters like Coleman, Fiske, Bell, etc? Roydell Williams is a solid player...is he an NFL back? Sean Murphy has done zero at Bama. Malik Benson has done zero. Jalen Brown has done zero.
I just really don't see it. Maybe Norvell proves me wrong, we'll see. But IMO this team will be MILES worse than last year's version.