ND WR Equanimeous St. Brown Declares for NFL Draft

and is projected as a later round pick. He should stay in school to boost his draft stock, but he's either not happy at ND, doesn't think they can help him or both.

In no way is this good news for ND. 

I'd guess his younger brother had already decided not to attend ND. If he was coming, that would give Equanimeous a good reason to stay.

The dad didn't like ND's S&C program. Didn't think it got Eq ready/strong enough his first year. That was a big reason middle kid, Osiris went Stanford and not ND.

This season's passing game didn't help matters either.

Amon-Ra is likely headed to USC as his HS QB is signed there as well.

Yeah, maybe he and ol' purple face didn't get along....not on the same page so to speak.

will lose their two quality OL in McGlinchey and Nelson. Nelson is their biggest loss because he was the best player in the country all year long. He's a lock to get drafted at top 10-12 as a LG.

Every team loses a number of starters every season to graduation or the FNL.  It's not uncommon for a team to lose 3-5 on each side of the ball.  Sure, losing star players like Baker Mayfield or Josh Rosen will almost always be felt significantly, but losing a wide receiver, or even a few linemen is common and rarely causes a significant drop off.  in most cases, teams like ND have quality, experienced depth ready to step in so that even if there is a drop-off, it is not significant.  ND has recruited fairly well, and has had a relatively stable staff in place for more than 3-4 seasons, so I would imagine that their roster is stable enough that these losses will not be all that harmful.

I think that as Michigan fans, we may slightly overestimate the effect of graduation because when we have lost quality starters in the past few years, the back-ups have been very young, inexperienced players.  This, however, is the result of changing coaches 3 times in a decade, which has effectivley caused us to take off a few recruiting years.  

That game will depend, as seemingly every big game with us does, on how the offense holds up. IF it holds up.

If it can get to even an average level, they can definitely win in South Bend. We already know what we're getting with Don Brown's defense, and if it's paired with a competent offense, dare I say even a good one, this team is capable of winning titles. But If we see minimal to no improvement from the OL or the QB next Fall, expect more of the same: defense keeps it close but they just don't have the gas to hold up for four quarters on the road against a good team by themselves. 

When I read his name, I keep asking myself, "Is his name 'Equanimeous Street' Brown or Equanimeous 'Saint Brown'?"

Regardless of whether ND can replace his skill set, ND certainly cannot replace that name!

That's really something.  His dad went out of his way to search for a wife to give him the babies he wanted and ultimately chose her based on her toes, knees, and intelligence?  And his actual surname was supposed to "Brown" but that didn't look stately enough on a uniform so the dad decided to start calling them "St. Brown"?  I hope it works out well for the kid and he's able to fulfill his father's dream... er... I mean... his own dream of playing in the NFL.