With the number of commits at 27...

[WestCoastBull]

who can we keep? This is the first year I've paid close attention to recruiting (a little hard to get USF news in Cali) so I have some questions. DT Hill is already enrolled and will count towards last year. I read somewhere that OL Rose will also count towards last years class. I know we're still after a handful of players. Gregory is gone so there is one more. Do release current players from their scholarships or do we retract offers from players that are already commited to accommodate better players? Seems like those options would make it more difficult recruiting form their respective schools in future. Lastly, with a such a deep and talented class who do we "gray shirt?" I found this link explaining red-shirt and gray -shirt where Texas Tech signed 34 using this method.

Cheers, WestCoast

[Who'sYourData?]

The info is spread around, but here's what I've gathered to this point. 

Hill counts as last year, Rose will count towards this year. 

A team can sign 25 in one year, but we currently only have 21 scholarships available.

It is expected that three or four players currently on scholarship (at least?) will transfer out for various reasons.  Mostly because they can see they won't get playing time since the new recruits are superior athletes and we are deep at a particular position.  They will move on to a smaller school where they would be the big dog.  Nothing wrong with that, it happens all the time.

There are at 2 to 4 players counted as commits that are not expected to make the grades, so they won't be taking up a scholarship.  They will sign anyway, so we can tell them that we love them.  But once they go to a JuCo, they would be free to sign with any program in the future, not just us.

[Who'sYourData?]

Grayshirts fall in two categories, as near as I can tell.  There may be a player or two that are one or two classes away from being able to qualify.  They could go to a prep school in the fall, and start attending USF the following spring, after football season.  Then there are players that agree to simply wait until the spring to enroll.  In either case, their scholarship counts towards next season.  These players would more than likely be redshirting anyway, so there isn't much lost on their part.  They can come in during the spring and attend spring drills to get a head start on the next class of freshmen.  They can also use the extra time to begin weight training on their own, and get a headstart scholastically before they have to start going to university classes.

As stated above, sometimes the player needs to grayshirt to get their academics in order.  The other grayshirts are guys that the staff likes, but not top tier talent.  When they are recruited they basically make an agreement with the staff that they will defer enrollment if the school signs too many players.  The advantage to the player is that they can get a firm agreement from a higher quality school than they could get otherwise.  They can get into, say, USF a semester later, or into FAU right away. 

[Mama_Bull]

Then there may be a player who our academic commitee won't let us sign on LOI day, who leavitt has told he will hold a scholarship open for a length of time to see if he can become later eligible. That happened last year with OL Green who never did qualify to meet USF standards.

This year, I don't see us holding open a fall scholarship for someone who hasn't signed, because we probably won't have any available. Still, it's quite possible that Leavit will keep one open for them for next year, if they enroll in January. I could see that happening with both K Kelly and T Williams, should they qualify.