[ED: Sometime last week in one of our many illuminating comments threads (which one I don't know, and I'm too lazy to look), someone expressed their curiosity in Ole Miss' attrition number for the past few recruiting classes. The party line for this season and our expectations of it has included Ole Miss' recent inability to retain talented players once they reach campus. Everything from injuries, to legal trouble, to academic failure, all the way to players simply getting a bad case of the crazies, has worked to deplete the Ole Miss roster of talented players at nearly every position.

User RequiemforaNutt - an apt name given the nature of this post - looked into this phenomenon and chronicled who of the past four recruiting classes did not leave the Ole Miss program under welcome circumstances. His findings are as follows.]

• 2008: 31 signed (5 Jucos), 26 enrolled (1 greyshirt), 10 left program, 7 remain - Notable losses - QB Nathan Stanley, WR Andrew Harris and WR Melvin Harris.

• 2009: 37 signed (2 Jucos), 30 enrolled (2 greyshirts), 12 left program, 13 remain - Notable losses - ATH Tig Barksdale, QB Raymond Cotton, DE Craig Drummond, ATH Jesse Grandy, S Jamar Hornsby, TE Z. Mason, WR Pat Patterson, HB Rodney Scott, DE Gerald Rivers, and HB Tim Simon.
• 2010: 26 signed (3 Jucos), 22 enrolled (1 greyshirt), 5 left program, 13 remain - Notable losses - LB Clarence Jackson, DE Delvin Jones, CB Tony Grimes, OL Josh Tatum, OL Kermit Tyler, OL Mike Brown and FB Martez Eastland.
• 2011: 29 signed (5 Jucos), 28 enrolled (2 greyshirts), 5 left program, 23 remain - Notable losses - ATH Nick Brassell, OL Mitch Hall, WR Tobias Singleton, and QB Zack Stoudt.

Bottom Line: over 4 classes, 123 signees (15 Jucos), 105 enrollees, 32 left program, only 56 remain. That means that Ole Miss' retention rate over the four years of Houston Nutt's "leadership" is roughly 46%. Forty. Six. Percent. Less than half.

As Paul Harvey famously said at the end of each broadcast, ". . . and that's the rest of the story . . . "