Yeah, Saban had massive pull, Alabama will be very intersting next year, Deboer is a really good coach, but losing this talent, espically Downs is massive
They’ll be fine next year. They score plenty of points and will get into the extended playoff format. He has to pull a big time recruiting coordinator. I’m sure that he will.
If your goal and dream is to be an NFL football player and you have a 3 year window to make that happen in this lifetime, perhaps you change your mind and go to a place that is likely to be more stable and improve those odds. Why not?
It was particularly bad when D’antonio left because he was so damn good at developing players. He never started with 4 and 5 star guys, but they often played like they were once he got a hold of them.
Players don’t specifically go to Michigan ONLY to play for Jim Harbaugh like they clearly did for Saban, at least as far as I can tell. I’m not saying Harbaugh isn’t a major factor, but he’s not the greatest coach of all time.
If Harbaugh does leave, Sherrone Moore gets that job, and hiring from within/retaining a ton of position coaches will minimize the effect that Harbaugh leaving would have.
If Saban did this two years ago and they promoted Sarkisian, you wouldn’t be seeing nearly this many people leaving.