There's always next year and here's my best guess...

Offense
QB - Vick, Spraque, Leffingwell, Windham, Duckworth
RB - Patterson, Edmond, Brown, Irons, White
WR - Cochran, Rodriguez, Cope, Walker
WR - S. Smith, C. Wilson, Dixon, Wyatt
WR - L. Smith, Reid, Sawyer, C. Brown
TE - Mangen, Morgan, Boland
LT - McQueen, Murdock
LG - Lucas, Everhart
C - Powell, Lagenkamp
RG - Wood, Gibbons, McCray
RT - Watson, Lowery

Defense
DE - Basham, Sayles
NG - Crutcher, Tautaki, Porter, Aloese
DT - McCleod, Purdum, T. Davis
DE - Laseak, K. Smith, Smart
SLB - Johnson, Moore
MLB - Russell, Schany
WLB - B. Brown, Grillot
CB - Bass, Brown, Ellis, Layton
CB - Wells, Stewart, Harris
SS - Kristoff, Macer, Alexander
FS - Ingol, Toran Davis
Nickel - Carpenter, Scipio, D. Jones

I agree, our D-fence will lead this team next year. It will be very very hard up point against us. Basham and Crutcher will cause Olines nightmares

It's all about the big, big improvement. 

If Trae Clark arrives then he should be a factor in the middle of the d-line.  Also if I'm not mistaken Kristoff is one of the fastest players on the team.  I agree, defense should be the strength of the team next year. 

Here are more detailed comments:
QB - I haven't heard whether Windham will return or not. Now that his legal problems have been cleared up, I presume he would be eligible to return, if he chooses. If so, he'd be 2d or 3rd, I would think.

I said it earlier this year to some disagreement, but I like the way this dline is shaping up. I thought they played better than advertised this year. Crutcher is a monster and Basham looks like our best DE in years. Is there a chance Sayles starts on the other end?

You seem to think Clark will arrive and be like Marcellis #62 when he walks through the door. I am not there on him. Clark had 19 ttl tkls, 5 solo and 14 assists at the juco level. This year Crutch had 50, McCloed had 38, Purdum had 30 and Tautuiaki/Davis had 27 at the D1 level. Do you really think Clark comes in and takes snaps from these men?

L.C. Thanks for the link to the stats.

Here are Clark's JUCO stats. While we're at it, here's a picture of him. It's hard to know where he'll fit in the mix, but it should be a deep defensive line.

Well, they changed the punter, Russell took Moore's job, Bass took Shaw's spot, McCloed took Purdum's spot, Basham became a freshman starter. Paul might be wrong about this.

I'm not sure where Paul got that rule. I've never heard it. I'm pretty sure the starters are up to each individual coach. The one rule I have heard is that "you won't lose your starting spot due to injury", and maybe that's what Paul is thinking of. Over the years I've seen a lot of change in the starters. Another example from this year is Wood replacing Gibbons as the starter at RG, and then there were all the changes at SLB, where the starter was initially Atwell, then Grady, then Teipel, and finally Jovon Johnson for the bowl.

Did he wait a year to enroll? Or is it just taking him longer to establish eligibility?

Well, accepting your observations on those players, for a moment, do you see anyone behind them better that should have been starting in their stead? I think that's the key to proving your premise that those players were starting due to loyalty.

Let's look at Kristoff. He "started" games in 2011 and 2012 at SS when Hughes was hurt or not available. Other than walkons, there weren't really any other players listed at SS. This year was his first year as the real "starter". Should he have started, or do you think Ingol or Toran Davis were better?

Next let's look at TT. Yes, there were times he wasn't playing that well, but, on the whole, I don't think Vick would have been better. Perhaps in time Vick will be a better QB than TT, but at this point, he just isn't there yet.

Finally, what about Russell? Should Blair Brown have been starting? When Brown was hurt, then who? Or, do you think they would have been better off moving Moore back to MLB, and starting Jovon Johnson at WLB?

All these three positions have one thing in common - they had little depth this year. Since I didn't get to see much football this year, I have no real opinion on how well or poorly these three players played, but I don't think there was a lot of alternatives to play in their stead that would have been better.