Published in July 4th, 2009
Posted by nxojkt in Football, Roster, Scholarship Numbers
With the departure of Evan Cardwell from the Alabama football team, the scholarship numbers situation is becoming more clear. Throw in the confirmed academic status of a couple of incoming freshmen, and you start to be able to gauge exactly what has to happen for Alabama to hit the magic number of 85.
EDIT – In the few hours since this was posted, it has become public that Charlie Kirschman has also left the Alabama team, having earned his degree. All of the information below will now reflect that.
With the departure of Kirschman and Cardwell, Bama currently has 72 scholarship players returning. That is counting all four of the January enrollees – Kerry Murphy, Jermaine Preyear, James Carpenter, and Chance Warmack. With Warmack and Carpenter already on campus, Bama can bring in 23 more players for the signing class of 2009. Add those two numbers together, and you get 95 – which is 10 too many.
The way the roster breaks down is as follows:
Seniors (20) – Eryk Anders, Javier Arenas, Terrence Cody, Drew Davis, Brandon Deaderick, Branon Fanney, P.J. Fitzgerald, Baron Huber, Marquis Johnson, Mike Johnson, Tyrone King, Mike McCoy, Colin Peek, Cory Reamer, Chris Rogers, Ali Sharrief, Leigh Tiffin, Roy Upchurch, Lorenzo Washington, Justin Woodall.
Juniors (16) – Earl Alexander, James Carpenter, Luther Davis, Preston Dial, Terry Grant, Darius Hanks, Charlie Higgenbotham, Kareem Jackson, Rolando McClain, Greg McElroy, Brian Motley, Taylor Pharr, David Ross, Travis Sikes, Milton Talbert, Chavis Williams.
Sophomores (23) – Mark Barron, John Michael Boswell, Josh Chapman, Marcel Dareus, Nick Gentry, Brandon Gibson, Demetrius Goode, Robby Green, Jeramie Griffin, Jerrell Harris, Dont’a Hightower, Mark Ingram, Chris Jackson, Julio Jones, Chris Jordan, Marquis Maze, Alfred McCullough, B.J. Scott, Brad Smelley, Chris Underwood, Courtney Upshaw, William Vlachos, Alex Watkins
Freshman (13) – Undra Billingsley, Glenn Harbin, Star Jackson, Barrett Jones, Alonzo Lawrence, Robert Lester, Tyler Love, Ivan Matchett, Kerry Murphy, Jermaine Preyear, Damoin Square, Chance Warmack, Michael Williams
I have included Love and Jones with the freshmen, because I believe that they will still be awarded medical redshirts for the 2008 season. It is possible that those redshirts could be denied, and if that is the case, I will adjust my numbers to reflect that.
With Warmack and Carpenter already on campus, Alabama can bring in 23 more players for the class of 2009. Alabama actually signed 27 players as a part of the class, and has get that number down to 25.
At the end of May signee Quinton Dial announced he would begin his career at junior college, leaving 26 players left in Bama’s class. Of those 26, all but three are already on campus:
Incoming players enrolled (23) – Jonathan Atchison, Kenny Bell, Chris Bonds, James Carpenter, D.J. Fluker, Nico Johnson, Kendall Kelly, Dre Kirkpatrick, Mike Marrow, A.J. McCarron, Darius McKeller, Willam Ming, Brandon Moore, Kevin Norwood, Anthony Orr, Tana Patrick, Trent Richardson, Petey Smith, Anthony Steen, Ed Stinson, Chance Warmack, Kellen Williams, Rod Woodson
Among that group Kirkpatrick was late getting to campus because of a correspondence class that he had to finish. He has passed that class, been cleared by the NCAA clearinghouse, and is enrolled in Summer II classes.
The three remaining guys are Michael Bowman, Eddie Lacey, and Darrington Sentimore. Word came down late this last week that Bowman had completed his summer work and been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse. I don’t know if he will enroll for Summer II, but my guess is that he’ll get here as soon as possible.
As for Lacey and Sentimore, both guys are still working on their academics, and both are still optimistic about making it to Tuscaloosa this season. Lacey has indicated that July 24 will be the date that he knows, while Sentimore has not given a specific date.
If both of them qualify, that would put Bama one over the limit of 25 incoming players. How will that work? Obviously someone will have to defer enrollment until January. Two strong candidates for that are Kellen Williams (knee) and Kendall Kelly (hip) – who have both had recent surgeries. Rod Woodson also had surgery recently, and could be a candidate if the Tide struggles to get below the 85 limit, though that doesn’t appear to be the plan at this time.
If Lacey and Sentimore both fail to qualify, then Alabama will bring in a maximum of 24 players – which would give the Tide coaching staff one more scholarship to work with as far as getting the total number below 85. If it is determined that Williams and Kelly still need to defer enrollment to let their injuries heal, that would be two more spots.
So it looks as though Alabama will still have to lose between eight and ten players from the current roster in order to get below the limit of 85.
At the end of the spring – after the departures of Prince Hall (transfer), Jennings Hester (medical hardship), and Corey Smith (transfer) – I decided to bite the bullet try to predict where the remaining cuts would come from.
The guys I predicted were: Evan Cardwell, Nick Gentry, Demetrius Goode, Baron Huber, Tyrone King, Charlie Kirschman, Taylor Pharr, Chris Rogers, Travis Sikes, Milton Talbert, Alex Watkins, and Chavis Williams
With Cardwell and Kirschman now apparently having left the team, the other ten guys here remain a possibility. These are my guesses, and nothing has really changed to make me change those guesses. Understand that I am not hoping for any of these guys to leave the team. As I’ve said before, they have all done more for the football program at Alabama than I ever will. But the fact is that there will have to be players leave the team, and these are my guesses at the most likely players.
There are other options to consider, though. While I included Tyrone King in my guesses, he could opt to remain with the team as a walk-on – giving up the scholarship that he earned last season. The two other guys who earned scholarships prior to last season – Leigh Tiffin and P.J. Fitzgerald – could also opt to return to walk-on status.
Throw that into the mix, as well as the fact that Bama could possibly only bring in 22 players as a part of the 2009 class, and there could be less of a need for attrition. If those things all worked that way – Sentimore and Lacey fail to qualify; King, Tiffin, and Fitzgerald return to walk-on status; Williams and Kelly defer enrollment – Bama would only need to trim four more players to reach the 85 limit.
The potential wild card in all of this is that there were several members of the 2008 class that were rumored to have offered to pay their own way. If any of those guys did refuse their scholarship, then they wouldn’t count towards the numbers. There is some argument over that rule on various spots on the internet, but there is no questioning it – if a player never receives institutional aid from the school, then they never count towards the scholarship limit.
Does that mean that any of the players – the rumors were about Tyler Love, Barrett Jones, and Brad Smelley – actually did pay their own way? Not at all. This could be pure speculation on the part of lots of folks on the internet, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see that all of these kids happily accepted their full scholarships.
The other thing to take into consideration is the case of transfer Phelon Jones. The talented defensive back transferred to Alabama from LSU, and his father indicated to the media at that time that he would be on full scholarship begining this fall, though he won’t be eligible to play until 2010. His father has claimed lots of things to the media, and not all of them have been true; so I’m not convinced that Phelon will be on scholarship this fall, and won’t be until I’m told otherwise.
So that’s where things stand as of the fourth of July. I fully expect that we will see things change pretty rapidly over the course of the next few weeks. The total number of scholarships does not have to be at 85 until the fall term opens, which is August 19.
As things change, look for updates here.