BillySee58

Yes, RB is the easiest position to replace, and I didn’t think he was freshman year Jamario. Just thought a Siggers/Adaway 1-2 punch would’ve been the best in CUSA (unless you count McCormick and QB Frank Harris). We can’t build an offense around Siggers but I don’t know if can build one around Adaway for the same reasons. Which is why it would’ve been nice to have them in tandem, so we wouldn’t have to over-rely on only one of them staying healthy. Luckily a duo of Adaway and Torrey is nothing to be worried about, compared to the rest of the roster. Also, not sure it’s fair to paint Siggers as injury prone. He had a minor injury in 2019 because some dirty player at USM was gator rolling his ankle after a tackle, then he had the knee injury against UAB which bled into this year. It took him a month or two to get back to ~100% and he was there at the end. It wasn’t new injuries popping up.

We’re at 83 scholarship guys by my count. If we add 7-10 more guys like JD mentioned, that’s 90-93 scholarship guys. We were sitting around 77 scholarship guys last season, which is pretty close to where we sit most seasons. So we could lose about another 12-15 of our current scholarship guys and still have more players on scholarship in 2021 than we did in 2020. It’s easy to see all of these transfers and get concerned about our depth, but we are almost assuredly still going to have a handful more scholarship players in 2021 than we did in 2020.

Agreed. I would think Rucker is gone but holding out hope until announcement is official. Also, the sit-out free transfer is a one-time deal. Since Rucker was given a waiver and allowed to play immediately this season, that may preclude him from being able to play immediately again should he want to transfer to another FBS school.

Along these lines the connections thing also gives HS coaches too much credit in influencing their players decisions. Much more often than not it’s more important on convincing their parents than their HS coaches.

Loved the amount of guys contributing today. Hopefully that pays off come tomorrow. Good win

Cut the turnovers down and be more decisive offensively. Otherwise pretty good stuff.

I don’t think so. Would imagine those probably all go to the defensive side of the ball.

No. We get 25 per class. Defections doesn’t change that.

Agree with everything except Siggers. The only RB we can legitimately make an argument is better is Adaway. Siggers looked like the Siggers of old at the end of the season and that’s a legit all-CUSA caliber guy. We can’t judge the situation on the current roster. What do we look like come August? That’s what matters.

I sure hope so. Jordan Rucker (Purdue transfer) started the season, then opted out a few games in. Seems like the other opt out guys have been among the ones hitting the portal this week. Hope Rucker comes back.

By my count we’re now at 83 scholarships for next season. We have at least 7 spots left in our class.

Right before the season started. John Davis, originally out of Euless Trinity. https://meangreensports.com/sports/football/roster/john-davis-jr-/4953

These awesome 2019, 2020, and 2021 classes are still almost fully intact. Excited to see what we look like as these guys start to make up the meat of the roster, not just the backend depth and redshirts.

I could absolutely see us getting some JUCO guys. Imagine a JUCO freshman, currently under the radar, having a solid freshman season and being a full qualifier. We could bring him in and get 4 more years of him. Even JUCO sophomores we get them for 3 more years. There’s definitely benefit to looking their way when a lot of schools might be full from HS and D1 transfers.

Guh. I really thought he could play. Good luck to him.

Wish we had utilized him more, thought he had some moves with the ball in his hands. He was behind RS SO Rod Burns (a former walkon) and with our two most high profile recruits coming in to play his position (Bryson Jackson and Caleb Johnson) it looked like we had recruited over Kealon Jackson. Best of luck to him. Seemed like a team player, and was even listed as our emergency deep snapper.

Yes. He had 343 yards and averaged 7 yards a carry in his last 4 games he played. Looked like he just needed time to get back. Also looked like our coaches were sort of semi-redshirting him at times, saving him for next year and ensuring he wouldn’t go into the offseason injured again. He looked great towards the end. Sucks to lose that.

This hurts. I thought he, being back at full strength, and Adaway would make for a dynamic 1-2 punch in the backfield that could give us a leg up on most CUSA opponents. Still confident in our running back group but he was a CUSA stud and we aren’t sure how many of those are on his roster. Good on him for getting his degree.

I like that idea a lot

His father also had cancer, which he applied for a hardship waiver which allowed an extra year for him. Think that’s part of why he technically had two years of eligibility left heading into this year. Crazy.

Correct

These were the right decisions. Especially Jennings.

By my count we, between signees and players who have not indicated they are transferring or leaving the team, we have about 87 scholarship players. That number could be a little higher if there are some former walkons currently on scholarship that I’m not aware of. We should have about 7 spots left in the class, likely for transfers as we have not offered anymore 2021 high school recruits since winter signing day. We normally carry about 80 scholarship players a season with 85 being the old limit, waived for 2021 as only freshmen through juniors count towards that 85 limit in 2021. Not sure what our athletic department wants our scholarship numbers to look like for next year, but I’d imagine it won’t be much more than the traditional 85 cap. Once we finish adding guys, we could lose 9 more guys currently on our roster and still be at 85, approximately. Here’s the current positional breakdown on scholarship for 2021, by my estimation: QBs: 6 RBs: 8 (would expect some defections here, especially with 3 seniors) WR: 10 TE: 6 (includes Pirtle) OL: 16 DL: 15 (includes a couple seniors) LB: 12 (includes a couple seniors) DB: 13 K: 1 (Mooney, but not sure if he’s actually in scholarship) Another thing to note, there aren’t many seniors left, so we will be heavy on guys who will be eligible in 2022 and beyond. This means we are going to likely see more defections to come this year and next, in order to make room for a 2022 class. TL;DR: Between COVID giving players an extra season and players not needing to sit out a season if they transfer, it has created the perfect storm of roster turnover.

Both good points. Something else to consider, how many scholarships is our athletic department okay with having for football next year? We are allowed to have 85 scholarship players NOT including seniors, so the total amount of scholarship players could be closer to 100 with seniors if we wanted it to be. But how many are we comfortable with budgeting for? If we plan on bringing in a host of D1 transfers plus the recruiting class we just signed, how do we make room for those guys if everyone came back? I would guess that’s part of it and why the timing was so synchronized.

Right, my thoughts as well. Even Novil I would hate to see go but I wouldn’t take that as the world ending given the circumstances that he is a grad transfer and he gave us four years already. KD Davis, Murphy twins, Stout, Gaddie, if guys like that were to go in the portal that would be a sign that something is wrong. Based on the statements these players are making and where they were on the depth chart and in their career, that doesn’t seem like the case.