During a bout of kid-induced insomnia last night, I thought I'd take a look at the scholarship numbers and consider some of the impacts of the free eligibility year and the forthcoming Signing Day. It got interesting.
To start, if nothing else changes, below is the scholarship distribution for the 2021 season going into Signing Day. I think I accounted for everyone, and note that there are five players I'm unsure about (L. Bell, R. Blankenship, M. Turner, J. Adams, A. Delfin). To stay conservative, I added them (and @BCarlisle37 can correct me):
So if nothing changed, and staying conservative, Tech would have 6 spots available for 9 current commits, which is imminently doable. Thus there are no immediate concerns. This was a bit of a surprise to me.
The question then becomes how aggressive could Tech be in optimizing the roster? I looked through the above table and identified players that I see as attrition candidates (emphasis on candidates, as i have zero intel and know nothing). Those (+ my justification) are:
QB:
Elliott (performance)
Anthony or Allen (competition)
RB:
n/a
FB:
n/a
T:
Rossell (competition)
Lewis (competition)
G:
Brewster (performance)
Ballard (performance)
C:
n/a
WR:
Graham (graduation / unhappiness)
Powell (graduation / move on with life)
Magee (performance)
DE:
Baker (graduation / move on with life)
DT:
Wells (performance)
Shaw (competition)
LB:
Dickey (competition)
CB:
Taylor-Cortez (performance / competition)
Calhoun (competition)
FS:
n/a
SS:
Hurt (performance)
K:
Boniol (competition)
P:
Farlow (performance)
For a total candidate pool of 18.
Thus the total scholarship opportunity in the most aggressive scenario is (79 - 18) = 61 / 85
Which leads to the nice round number of 24 that Tech could sign.
Do I expect Tech to be that aggressive? Absolutely not. But there is clearly a path for Tech to sign a 15-18 person or so class, consisting of mostly freshmen but also reserving 3 or 4 scholarships for players that fall out when P5's do their very own version of this math.
Tech should be able take those and find immediate upgrades at OT, CB, maybe pass rusher and, yes, quarterback.
So, net net, I was surprised by that. Tech isn't currently in a major crunch, and can quite easily work themselves into a favorable position if they want to aggressively rehaul the current roster.
To start, if nothing else changes, below is the scholarship distribution for the 2021 season going into Signing Day. I think I accounted for everyone, and note that there are five players I'm unsure about (L. Bell, R. Blankenship, M. Turner, J. Adams, A. Delfin). To stay conservative, I added them (and @BCarlisle37 can correct me):
| SCHOLARSHIP DISTRIBUTION | (* denotes redshirt) | (** denotes ineligible transfer) | (+ not sure if on scholarship) | |
| Position | Freshmen | Sophomores | Juniors | Seniors |
| Quarterback | J. Head C. Holstein | *A. Allen | *W. Elliott *L. Anthony | |
| Running Back | H. Dixon | G. Garner | *I. Tucker | |
| Fullback / H Back | +*J. Adams | |||
| Tackle | D. White *W. Hankinson | *B. Rossell | M. Gause *A. Lewis | |
| Guard | *J. Brewster *S. Ballard B. Hale | *C. Henderson | *J. Mote X. Guy | |
| Center | J. Gilbert | +*A. Delfin | *K. Russey | |
| Wide Receiver | *K. Maxwell *J. Means T. Harris C. McWilliams | *S. Harris *W. Toussant *T. Magee | *G. Scott *J. Johnson *G. Hebert | *I. Graham *C. Powell |
| Defensive End | B. Bell *M. Clark J. Mason | +L. Bell *T. Allen | *E. Kendzior *W. Baker | |
| Defensive Tackle | *K. Rose D. Cobbs K. Spears | *S. Shaw *D. Jackson D. Hall | *M. Williams *M. Wells | *G. Wilbon |
| Linebacker | *A. Walker *M. Carabin T. Grubbs K. Fisher | *K. Fulp J. Dickey | *T. Baldwin | |
| SAM | J. Kelly *K. Morrison T. Marshall | *E. Barnett | ||
| Cornerback | *C. Thornton *C. Johnson C. Woods | *B. Calhoun *D. Taylor-Cortez | *D. Brown | *Z. Hannibal |
| Free Safety | *C. Archangel | *J. Cole | *K. Ladler | |
| Strong Safety | *B. Williamson | *K. Hurt +*M. Turner | ||
| Kicker | *J. Barnes G. Boniol | |||
| Punter | *B. Farlow | |||
| Deep Snapper | +*R. Blankenship | |||
| Total | 31 | 12 | 21 | 14 |
| Grand Total | 79/85 |
So if nothing changed, and staying conservative, Tech would have 6 spots available for 9 current commits, which is imminently doable. Thus there are no immediate concerns. This was a bit of a surprise to me.
The question then becomes how aggressive could Tech be in optimizing the roster? I looked through the above table and identified players that I see as attrition candidates (emphasis on candidates, as i have zero intel and know nothing). Those (+ my justification) are:
QB:
Elliott (performance)
Anthony or Allen (competition)
RB:
n/a
FB:
n/a
T:
Rossell (competition)
Lewis (competition)
G:
Brewster (performance)
Ballard (performance)
C:
n/a
WR:
Graham (graduation / unhappiness)
Powell (graduation / move on with life)
Magee (performance)
DE:
Baker (graduation / move on with life)
DT:
Wells (performance)
Shaw (competition)
LB:
Dickey (competition)
CB:
Taylor-Cortez (performance / competition)
Calhoun (competition)
FS:
n/a
SS:
Hurt (performance)
K:
Boniol (competition)
P:
Farlow (performance)
For a total candidate pool of 18.
Thus the total scholarship opportunity in the most aggressive scenario is (79 - 18) = 61 / 85
Which leads to the nice round number of 24 that Tech could sign.
Do I expect Tech to be that aggressive? Absolutely not. But there is clearly a path for Tech to sign a 15-18 person or so class, consisting of mostly freshmen but also reserving 3 or 4 scholarships for players that fall out when P5's do their very own version of this math.
Tech should be able take those and find immediate upgrades at OT, CB, maybe pass rusher and, yes, quarterback.
So, net net, I was surprised by that. Tech isn't currently in a major crunch, and can quite easily work themselves into a favorable position if they want to aggressively rehaul the current roster.
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