GAINESVILLE, Fla.— It’s always a numbers game for college football coaches across the country.
How can we build depth across the board without missing out on elite talent?
Head coaches are always trying to plot out the best way to balance out their roster, while juggling injuries and now even a pandemic. As the fall approaches, there may be questions surrounding the college football season, and even when the next in-person recruiting visit will take place, but these coaches are still working on the next recruiting class.
Florida especially cannot slack off.
Since Dan Mullen’s arrival, the Gators head coach has tried to fix a roster that was mismanaged for years. Both Jim McElwain and Will Muschamp allowed the roster to become lopsided – ignoring class balance at several positions and affecting depth for years.
As Mullen and company head into their third season in Gainesville, how well has the group recruited the needed positions? Do they finally have quality depth?
Here is a quick look:
Florida Gators current scholarship situation. (Read and Reaction/Jacquie Franciulli)
As one can see by the above chart, Mullen and company have clearly done a better job of balancing the roster in the trenches – something that Mullen’s predecessors had failed to do.
Florida currently sits at 84 scholarship athletes, with the NCAA allowing a team to have up to 85 players on scholarship. For this exercise, we are assuming that former walk-on offensive lineman Tanner Rowell will retain his scholarship after earning one last fall, meanwhile we have not included wide receiver and 2020 commitment Leonard Manuel to the chart, since he has yet to sign with anyone – the likelihood that he does end up in Gainesville is looking slimmer every day.
With Elijah Conliffe’s season-ending injury last season making him eligible for a redshirt this year, I classified the Virginia native as a redshirt junior, thus the Gators will have only 18 seniors graduating at the end of the season. However, that number could very well increase if you take into account transfers and players that could choose to enter the NFL Draft like Marco Wilson and Kyle Pitts.
So here is the math for 2021:
The Gators brought in four transfers and signed 23 recruits in the 2020 class but were able to count four of those signees back to 2019 because they early enrolled in January. What this means is Florida signed 23 players towards 2020-2021 and can bring two early enrollees next January to count back to that class, freeing up two extra spots in this upcoming class. So technically Mullen and his staff are able to sign up to 27 players if they choose., however, I think a 27-man class is highly unlikely.
Unless there is a lot of attrition, a source tells me that the Gators could close out the class at around 23-25 players.
As of publishing, Florida has 20 commitments in the 2021 class, which is good enough for the No. 8 class nationally on 247 Sports, No. 2 in the SEC.
With about five spots to play with, or seven if UF wants to max out the class, the Gators have the opportunity to continue to balance out the roster. As the chart above illustrates, the Gators are set to lose five senior linemen, three defensive tackles, and most of their experienced safeties – that’s a lot of holes to fill, especially at defensive tackle where there is a huge gap behind the group.
Although the staff have done a good job securing a few commitments in those positions, I can see Florida try to fill in the gap in the secondary and in the trenches with the final spots.
But these scholarship numbers are not just important from the recruiting aspect, they are also important when you consider the implications of the 2020 season.
Playing football in a world with COVID-19 will be a challenge for every team in the country, but particularly those that lack depth in certain areas – just look at Florida last season.
Due to injury and attrition the last two years, Florida played with as few as 64 scholarship players in 2019. Now throw COVID-19 into the mix, and a team could very well face a scenario that sees them without a big part of its side for two weeks due to quarantine.
Mullen and company have done a good job so far of trying to balance the roster out. However, with just a quick look at that chart, one can see the trouble Florida would be in if their starting defensive tackles were forced to quarantine for two weeks.
This season could very well be decided by roster numbers.
Featured image used under Creative Commons license courtesy Photo-Gator