no argument from me that we were going to lose guys due to #s, and some who were leaving to go where they see a real passing offense as a better opportunity, which is why I locked in on DBs and how many of those guys were likely to be in the mix for a major role. From your list of Pope, Amos and Downs, add Little, Ricks and Kite. I get Pope leaving since he was behind Downs at the time - just like Blackshire leaving as he's behind an entrenched starter but of Amos, Downs, Ricks, Kite and Little; Amos and Downs are certain starters, and probably 2 of the three from Ricks, Kite and Little are starters... I mean if we are having to manage the numbers, I think we'd choose to manage them from a position of greater depth than this one...
Pope left because Saban left, basically. He was DB7 for us for most of the year but he really had a hard time picking us or UGA out of high school and once Saban left, that was probably the reason he came here in the first place, to learn from him. I think if Pope had stayed he would have been no worse than the dime safety for '24 and could have started.
Little, I'm not really sure about (meaning in regard to his abilities). He never really stood out to me. Others thought he had a fairly unlimited ceiling. Either way, by the end of the year, he wasn't getting on the field until Pope, Hubbard and Mitchell were already playing. The thing I could see really pushing him out the door was when Malachi Moore said he would come back for an extra year. Little's future here I think was at Star. I don't think he had the quickness to play CB but we'll see about that as he moves on.
Ricks apparently was not developing the way we hoped. I had someone tell me, flat-out, "no loss there." I think it's too early to say that and he might do better in a different defense. Again, we'll just have to see.
That leaves Amos and Kite, and there's no reason either of those guy should have gone. I'm assuming Amos left for two reasons, $$ and the same reason Pope left (no Saban). Kite makes no sense at all. He stayed consistently ahead of Little and Ricks the whole year at CB. Once Amos left, he practically was guaranteed of starting at CB ahead of Jahlil Hurley. If this is a money/NIL thing, that was going to be an issue whether Saban was here or not, because unless we change our NIL approach going forward, we weren't going to get into bidding wars for our guys.
I'm moderately worried about CB (and OT) heading into this spring. Those are my two positions of concern. Our biggest loss, talent-wise, was Downs, but it's mitigated somewhat by the fact that Downs played a high safety spot, which isn't terribly hard to replace. From a defensive functionality standpoint, the loss of Amos might prove to be worse. There's going to be a lot of pressure on Domani Jackson to prove he just needed a change of scenery. The other CB position will either be Hurley or a true freshman, and I think it ends up with either Jaylen Mbakwe (who is my early pick to be the dime -- it will be either him or Hubbard) or Zabien Brown. The other key is keeping Devonta Smith healthy for the first time since he's been here.
