I guess optimism is a strange thing coming from me, but I'm not all that worried.

Of the four who submitted their draft status, I think only two have the prospect of a high draft pick without another season: Colquitt and Mayo.

Colquitt statistically didn't have a great season (saw he was ranked 36th in the country in some relevant stat, but can't find that article now).

Mayo is the only one I think might have a high enough draft rating to at least make him think about skipping his senior year, but I'm not even sure about that. So I wouldn't worry much about four players making the jump. I'm thinking maybe one goes.

Trooper Taylor and Baylor? He could just be using that as leverage to be considered for the UT OC position.

I'm afraid we'll lose him, at least temporarily, if he doesn't win the OC job. There's hope he'd come back later, as that would be his second stint at Baylor as well.

If that turns out to be the case, I hope that the OC hire is someone who can be a successor to Fulmer. Cutcliffe has all the qualities of a good head coach except he's not a very good recruiter. At a big time football school, I think he's better-suited to be a coordinator. At Duke, though, just his credentials as a QB coach will be enough to land a higher caliber recruit than Duke has been getting.

So, hire Fulmer's successor as OC, let Fulmer play out the three or four years he wants, promote the OC to HC. If we're lucky, maybe Trooper will be available to be our OC then, with several seasons under his belt.

When guys go early, it can have benefits for recruiting.  For one, high school guys will see that it's a program where they might make the NFL a year sooner (whether leaving academics for the NFL is overall a good things is an entirely different issue, and I'm not touching that here).  Also, it opens up more holes that an incoming recruit might be able to fill during their freshman year - or at least get more game experience during the season.  Both of those are very attractive to NFL hopefuls (i.e. many-star recruits).

So, while it's usually the best juniors that choose to go early, it does open up more opportunities for the incoming guys (and underclassmen already on the team).

Personally, I think the best response of the fan base is to be supportive of the decisions of juniors who choose to leave, and of those who choose to stay.  Sure, we'll be disappointed to see some of them leave, but if people get too acidic about it, it just makes the environment here look bad.  (Not that we are, just a thought.)

No Mayo and I Colquitt !But hay It's Christmas and a time for giving not getting. So God bless you one and all. And Joel thanks for another great year on Rockytoptalk and I'm glad the family is ok ! Merry Christmas -Phil