AllTimeFU wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 9:07 amHow have the COVID year players impacted these numbers? Should we expect to see more of the younger (non-Freshman) players get more snaps when the game dictates it because we want to take care of the old knees and get ready for the COVID departure?The Jackal wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 8:44 amI think you are seeing the fruits of a lot of work.Purple rain wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 7:47 amI can't wait to see our Dins next week. These dudes can play the game. We have an older Mature football team. There is a lot of excitement around this squad.
- The grad school programs are keeping guys in house we might otherwise lose, and allowing us to be an attractive option for key transfer players.
- By all accounts, it seems our S&C program is a good one.
- No longer are we having to play freshmen in key roles. Some guys earn that playing time off the jump, but that's not because we necessarily need warm bodies to fill out a depth chart.
- On both sides of the ball, we rotate players a lot. I'm sure we'll see younger guys start getting some snaps during the season, get their experience up, and have them in a position to take over starting roles as juniors and seniors.
- If we keep this trend, we'll continue to have veteran teams. While we have a more mature group, we have 21 juniors, 20 sophomores, and 57 freshmen. Of our 12 grad students, 8 are transfers. So, with the grad program, we could be looking at 25ish seniors/grad students every season.
I think that's a complicated question. Over the last few years we've seen a lot of players reclassify. I do not believe every player that could use eligibility did use that eligibility. So, I think it is almost a player-by-player analysis.
I believe that any player not on a football roster in Fall 2020 would not be eligible for the extra eligibility. So, the singing classes for 2021, 2022, and 2023 would not be able to take advantage of that, I believe. At this point, I believe everyone has probably reclassified based on that eligibility, so the roster now probably looks the way it will look going forward.
The COVID year certainly has impacted the current roster, though. We've got a few guys still on the roster that were in the 2018 recruiting class (Gilby and Blackshear, for example). Matt Sochovka, believe it or not, was in the 2017 class. So, we've got key contributors milking out all of that eligibility.
In terms of playing time, I think you'll see Furman start working in the younger guys. I expect we'll see some young WRs get plenty of reps (E. Harris, Ferguson). I expect we'll see a few of the next-wave offensive linemen get in the rotation. Maybe a few of the freshman DE (Stoneking and Bussey). I'm sure we'll see some younger DBs start working in.
