They did not play a lot and when playing were just OK...that's my point. Their loss should be based on performance, not potential. Not a big loss to me. Replacements played as good and sometimes better. Either way, the line play needs to improve next year.
I'd agree that the line play needs to improve, but improving the results is going to be a tough job given that we are losing six guys who started this year and are bringing back just three guys with starting experience. I guess you can say they all sucked so it doesn't matter, but they were still the best players we had available at those positions and now they are gone. Certainly there are players on the roster who will be in the mix and many of their names have been mentioned in this thread and others. Recruiting will add more options, but I don't think you should dismiss:
Christenson and Bjorklund had all the starts at LG. Bjorklund also started 3 games at RG. I think Christenson missed 3 games due to injury and Bjorklund was somewhat limited by his knee.
Campion missed 8 games, he started at RT the other 4.
Bobek was a starter at center for five weeks until injured. Moore did a good job as a replacement and I think he's solid as a starter going into next year.
Bush was a backup, but started 4 games at LT.
Lauer was the starter at LT against TCU and started three other games there later in the year. He missed 7 games due to injury.
Hayes was a non-factor as far as I recall.
So they are losing six guys who totaled 32 starts. No, they aren't losing first team all-conference caliber players, but there are a lot of snaps to be replaced. Put another way, Connor Mayes, Pirsig and Moore may be penciled in as starters next year, but there isn't much experienced depth behind them. Lauer and Bobek would have provided depth, at a minimum. If we learned one thing this year, it's that you always can use more guys. I'm sure that some of the redshirts will step in and they will look for some juco help, but line depth will almost certainly remain a topic of concern heading into 2016.