George's Potpourri 6/11 - Scholarship Math, June 2008

The Trojan football roster is at a high point in quality, but as of now, we still have three uncommitted scholarships to award. Will Pete hold onto those to boost the numbers in the 2009 recruiting class or will he find JC or D-1 transfers to fill it up as the season approaches? In his early years, Pete had a record of using all scholarships but that may be changing. We only had 82 scholarship players this time last year also. The NCAA allows D-1 institutions a maximum of 85.

Perhaps two of those three scholarships are already being held for Alfred Rowe and Vincent Joseph who are both academically ineligible, off the roster, and reportedly at other institutions making up work.

In this case, I think the coach may in fact be holding the scholarships for the 2009 class since we only have 15 players using their final year of eligibility. With those 3, it would give us at least 18 scholarships to award, and that number could increase as events unfold. Let me remind you that we're dealing with college age men and things don't always proceed as planned. More than one player in the incoming class still have tests to pass and grades to achieve in order to be eligible. Other issues may intervene such as the legal situation with Maurice Simmons. For purposes of making my scholarship count in the table at the end of this column, I've assumed that everyone who has signed a Letter of Intent will be successfully enrolled and part of the team this fall.

Here is the list of players using their last season of eligibility:

Please note that both the Punter, Greg Woidneck and the Kicker, Davic Buehler are on the above list. We may be using scholarships to recruit freshmen or promote current walk-ons for those positions.

In projecting the number of scholarships available for 2009, much depends on future events. We have the 15 being vacated by the seniors, plus the three currently open, plus any spots vacated in the future for academic, medical, citizenship or other reasons. Based on experience with the process, I expect us to have between 18 and 20 scholarships to give in 2009. That number could go down if we take some transfers this fall or players currently academically ineligible regain their eligibility.

Thanks to the Rollover depth charts provided by Joe Andras for information used in the above column. Here is a link: [link]