This program is in free fall. As bad as Coach Eli was, and he was very bad, even he would've found a way to hang on to the not 1, not 2, but 3 game changing players that looks like have left since late last season.
Small schools need big time players. Every single one you lose hurts. Exponentially. Now multiple that by 3 and add it to an already weird move up to 3A. It spells "Dewey Defeats Truman" for Chapel Hill.
Forrest is a baseball school now. The rise of the baseball program under Burkett and the fall of the football program under the last 2 guys parallels the Vols in some respects. UT's football program is in better shape than Forrest's but the Nico stuff was a circus and Chapel Hill's revolving door for coaches and players is NIL-esque.
If Palmer pulls off a 7-3, 8-2 type year, I will eat so much crow on here I'll be spitting out feathers til the end times.