For a college coach, sending players to the NFL should be a mark of pride. It means the players they spent long hours recruiting and coaching developed the way the coaching staff anticipated.

For LSU, the way they’ve been developing talent is becoming a headache more than anything. Florida coach Will Muschamp, whose team faces LSU this weekend, summed it up succinctly in the Wednesday coaches teleconference, saying that you can’t make up for the talent LSU has lost over the last two years simply through recruiting.

Just how much talent has fled Baton Rouge in recent years? The numbers are astounding.

In Les Miles’ time at LSU, starting with the 2005 season, LSU has been pumping out NFL prospects. From the 2006 draft, the first NFL draft after Miles took over for Nick Saban, 60 LSU players have been chosen to play football on Sundays, a solid output of 6.7 per year.

That number has been boosted greatly over the past two seasons, though. The 2012 and 2013 teams both had nine players picked in the subsequent NFL drafts (2013 and 2014). While the 18 total players is definitely a big number, LSU has experienced similar exoduses during Miles tenure and weathered the storm better than they have this year.

Following the Tigers’ worst Miles-led season, an 8-5 campaign in 2008, LSU sent six players to the league, as well as in the two subsequent seasons. Their records from 2009-11, following those seasons when they lost six players apiece: 9-4, 11-2 and 13-1, culminating in a BCS Championship game appearance following the 2011 season. Even after losing another five players from that 2011 team, LSU went 10-3 the following season.

It’s fair to ask what the difference is this season. LSU has lost talent before, so why do they look so lost on the field now? There’s an easy answer.

Of the 42 players drafted from Miles’ teams up through 2012, only eight of them were early entries into the draft — juniors or redshirt sophomores that made the leap. In 2013 alone, eight underclassmen left for the draft (seven, if you exclude Tyrann Mathieu, who was dismissed from the team). Another five underclassmen followed suit and left after last season, totaling either 12 or 13 in two years. By comparison, Alabama has had half of that — seven players — leave early for the draft in the past two seasons.

A closer look at who has left explains LSU’s problems even further. Four defensive linemen have gone pro over the last two years, three of them underclassmen. Not coincidentally, defensive tackle is now the Tigers’ weakest spot anywhere on the roster.

Two receivers from last year’s team, Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry, left eligibility on the table to earn Sunday paychecks. Now, LSU is starting a sophomore and multiple freshmen out wide. While Travin Dural and Malachi Dupre are talented, they’re big play receivers not quite suited to getting the tough, chain-moving catches.

There’s more that goes into LSU’s depth issues this season. The program has suffered departures outside of the players heading to the draft.

Those are a lot of bodies to replace on a team. Even with Miles pulling in some of the top recruiting classes every year, he’s still asking 18- and 19-year-old student-athletes to compete at the very highest level of college football against players with several years of experience already.

It’s not like things are hopeless in Baton Rouge. Miles is working on another top-15 recruiting class for next year, and the freshmen and sophomores carrying the load this year will be veterans earlier than anticipated. That is, as long as they’re still on the roster next year.