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-- Brent Venables is a happy man.

In December of 2016, Venables was asked about the prospect of some of his players leaving for the NFL with eligibility remaining (none did).

He winced as he thought of all the guys he lost the year before, after the first national title game against Alabama.

"Losing those five juniors last year was like, 'Whoa.'" he said. "We just got lucky there, being able to come back and have -- you can't do that every other year and expect to maintain."