His biggest challenge will be the lack of available scholarships. How many players will graduate? How many scholarships will he use on HS kids? How many scholarships for transfers and JUCOS?
How about Tyler older brother in the portal?
To your point, by simple count there are a total of 10 seniors/graduates as it is an underclassmen dominant roster. You'd have to figure that with the transfer portal working both ways and by having the standard end of season discussions in an appropriate/professional way that another 5-10 players will move on. So, perhaps we will see upwards of 20 scholies open up? Might be a bit lighter than most years but hopefully not too much.
That would be a great pick up.
Slow down, I’m not looking for him to pull three rabbits out of the hat just yet. Just want to see how a guy that has been out of coaching for 5 years who lives in Idaho does with this first window - holistically.
That was my assumption. He was double dipping, getting paid by UCLA & ESPN, and got to spend more time with the family. Who wouldn't take that deal?
I'm hoping Tyler gets another year to rehab and learn while his brother Taisun takes control!
I heard all those unanswered texts from Dan O, too.
So with the cap of 7, seems like we could do the 10 that lose eligibility and another 7 for a total of 17?
No - depending on number of transfers staff can sign a total of 32 “new signees” but cannot exceed the 85 scholarship limit.
He would of been stupid to not take that deal. His family made so many sacrifices, so to get that kind of opportunity would be crazy to not take advantage of, his payout was $12M. His family suggested he get back to coaching, and what I love the most, he could have called any school for an opportunity instead he chose UConn. Dave said he told him the truth about how difficult this job would be and he still was up for the challenge. Shows his competitiveness as a coach.
Cool - thanks for the insights! I figured the floor was 17 but beyond that it got fuzzy to me. Hopefully we score well in the portal - gotta strike while the iron is hot!
I’m sure a lot of guys want to see where else they can get offers and see it as an adventure. So much goes into being happy at college, it could go beyond football too. I know some kids transfer just to leave their GPA behind if they are in trouble academically. I also knew kids that transferred solely because they wanted to go someplace that was easier.
And maybe some of them are tired of playing for a losing program? It has to be tough.
That way they'll be sure they are where they'll be wanted next year.
As for this recruiting class, I think the portal is more important than the HS recruiting class due the potentially limited number of available scholarships and the holes in the roster. It looks like the roster could be very thin at QB as Tyler P will be recovering from an ACL injury, we have never seen Leon, and JZ is a big question mark as he did not perform this year. I would bring in 1 to 2 transfer QBs.
Edsall failed miserably at shoring up OL and LB knowing we had a young line that hadn't played a down in over a year. This is where we need to add experienced plug n play guys. I generally don't like the approach of bringing in P5 benchwarmers or guys rehabbing from injury. Go and get the best from a lower league or Juco team who's hungry to get noticed. If Coach has connections across the country we should be able to do this. I hope DB has worked to streamline the academic eligibility process because we can't afford to have our hands tied.
Fair.