110 Fall Practice Spots
In re-reading an article on JH opening up all 110 practice spots for fall it occurs to me that a scholarship athlete would have to have 26 walk-on players pass them to be in danger of loosing their practice spot.
Can you think of that many guys currently on scholarship who, outside of medical reasons, have developed that little since they were awarded a scholarship to begin with?
If you find it distasteful to use names in your speculation, feel free to just name a position where we may have way too many good alternatives for a specific athlete to pass.
I'm just trying to understand the scope of this "news" and understand if it is even a thing. It just doesn't seem like it would happen that often, but I could be very wrong about that.
I kind of read the whole thing as a motivational tactic, I could be wrong. Maybe some guys are getting complacent in their preparation and in workouts?
Definitely a motivational tactic, but I could also see it as a way to indirectly tell a scholarship player its time to transfer.
Haha. I could see Harbaugh forwarding a link of his podcast to said player - "Hey take a listen I had some really good information on this week's podcast"
I think it's pretty unlikely that a scholarship player would be "passed" by 26 walk-on players and lose their spot without transferring of their own volition.
If the player is a young player (in their first or second year at M), then presumably the coaching staff saw enough of them in high school to justify offering them a scholarship, and is willing to keep them in practice to see if they develop. And most players who aren't young players would transfer to someplace where they can play long before dropping out of the top 110.
It happens. We have had walk-on players become starters and big contributors over the years. For them to get there they have to passing up scholarship players. So it's not out of the realm of possibility some scholarship players are not in the top 110.
Players don't always develop like you think they might or take to the coaching like you hoped for and basically make no gains from where they were in high school Then you can get some walk-ons that were slower in developing but after a couple of years of college really come into their own and can be a very good player.
Obviously the occasional walk on passes a scholarship player. But that is not the same as getting passed by 26 walk-ons.
That's kind of what I thought when reading the article. I know Scholarship athletes get passed all the time by PWO's, but to not even be able to practice? I think it would be rare.
Thanks to all for your insight!
Players one year away from graduating have good reason to stick it out and do a grad transfer rather than leave immediately.
This gets said often, but from a football perspective, why does that make sense? If a player is going into their fourth year is buried on the depth chart and will graduate, they can stick around another year or they can transfer. Either way they don't play in games, but can practice. The advantage of transferring is that they can spend the year learning the new team's system so the following year the can better compete for playing time.
Obviously, if they're that close to graduating it probably makes sense to get the degree.
You just answered your own question.
They're not likely to play pro football. Getting that degree is important.
Here's a few more reasons.
Being buried on the depth chart doesn't mean they have giving up on earning playing time either. Transferring a year before you're eligible to play is worse than doing a grad transfer in terms of finding the right fit. Things can change during that year you sit out. While learning the system early is important for QBs, how important is it RBs or a bunch of other positions? Generally speaking, players that grad transfer from Michigan play big roles at their new school..
It's a meritocracy, baby! Bring on the competition.
With Wilson and Hewlett drawing praise at RB, and three freshman scholarship RBs coming in, Kurt Taylor is a candidate.
Eddie McDoom is a candidate with Perry and Oliver passing him in the slot, and walk-on Schoenle constantly getting mentioned. Obviously you have Black, DPJ, and Collins at WR too. He's the 3rd or 4th slot, and 7th WR overall - probably safe, but close.
Where does Ron Johnson figure in? Where do Joel Honigford and Nolan Ulizio figure in?
Ultimately, I think all scholarship guys will be in the top 110. One or two might miss that cut, but I'd be a little surprised. Taylor seems the most likely of all, given the walk-ons at his position and the incoming freshman.
Honingford is a RS Freshman....
110, man. That's 100...and then 10 more. I just threw this together for fun. Here's what 110 looks like:
Offense: 6 QBs, 8 RBs, 4 FBs, 12 WRs, 6 TEs, 20 OL
Defense: 9 DEs, 9 DTs, 10 LBs, 10 Safeties, 10 CBs
3 Kickers & 3 Punters
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So relating back to your post: Evans, Higdon, Wilson, Hewlett, Kurt Taylor, Samuels, Haskins & Turner would fit just fine. You'd have to have a 3rd walk-on pass you up. And if they do, or if Kareem Walker is still here, no problem. We've got 4 FB spots and I can only think of 3.
McDoom is 7th WR? No problem. Does he have 5 more buddies he can bring? We've got room.
You get the idea. 110 is a ton of dudes. You have to actively suck to get left off that puppy while on scholarship.
No way McDoom is in there. He's one of only 7 scholarship wide receivers and one of those is a true freshman that had exactly one other D1 offer. He's going to play. And I'm thinking that with Crawford gone that Oliver will probably be playing some on the outside.
Yeah, let’s have a thread where list college kids who we think are terrible. That sounds like fun.
Dick.
Drake Harris says hi
Maybe an Offensive Lineman.
I'm just grateful that this is occurring *after* the roster got below 85. If the order of events were different, we'd be contending with ugly oversigning claims ... and would have to face the real possibility that the claims are correct. Yay, to orders of events mattering!
Outside of those being “encouraged” to look elsewhere, the only type of player I could see being a good candidate would be an non-EE incoming Frosh on the OL or DL that is clearly headed for a redshirt due to weight/body development. Even then I am sure others would use this against M on the recruiting trail.
Psuedo-unrelated, but someone better at editing than me needs to update the "Depth Chart By Class" matrix under the "Useful Stuff" tab!
As others have sort of pointed out in the thread, it doesn't necessarily have to do with 26 walk-ons being ahead of a scholarship player for them to be out of the 110. If a scholarship player is not on the 110 it would probably be more about position by position allocations, so maybe 2-4 walk-ons are ahead of a scholarship player at a certain position group. Not great, but not impossible based on missing time due to injury or undisclosed disciplinary issues.
Pretty sure this is a non-issue/motivational tactic but the Jeff George Jr thread definitely made a big deal about JH's comment as well. So goes the offseason where every bit of info gets ground up and made into something.
This is just Harbaugh motivating people at a time he can't personally work with them.
There is not a single scholarship athete on the football team (besides injury) who isn't one of the best 110 players on the team. Some of the previous comments mention guys who have been passed by walking....maybe they have, but not by 26 of them. The board is out of control today with some of these comments and comments of the walk on QB transfer.
All I care about is that kids be allowed to remain in school here and keep their scholie as long as they have gone to both class and practice. I don't care if they aren't in the 110 for camp.
We made a promise to these kids. They need to get 4 years of a paid for education.
They don't need to be passed by 26 walk ons, they just need to be buried at their position.