National Signing Day 2016

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ST_Lawson
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sealhall74 wrote:I used to think that the I55 corridor along with Missouri and Wisconsin were prime targets. Problem with that approach is that every MVFC school is recruiting the same kids. I like reaching down south into Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. Let's face it. Every kid wants to compete in the MVFC thanks to the success NDSU has had the last few years.
Right, there's plenty of talent, especially in the Chicago and St. Louis areas, but you're right, we're competing with all the schools in our conference. We go a bit outside of that range and we can find kids that want to play but maybe didn't get picked up on by most of the MVFC teams.

Unrelated...check out the purple bow tie that Darron Wheeler is rockin'...
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WIU0812
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I would think they would want around 5 more kids at only 17 that would put us at around 68 kids if we always had that small of a class. I always like the idea of about 85 to 90 so there are plenty of back ups and plenty of talent learning. I am sure they may land a couple extra kids, if they end up round 20 to 22 that would be perfect.
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sealhall74
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Something I have wondered about is with budget situation like it is, are we forced to get by with less than the 63 full scholarships that are allowed?
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vatusay
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I'm hoping there are at least a couple FBS transfers.

17 seems like a small class.
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vatusay wrote:I'm hoping there are at least a couple FBS transfers.

17 seems like a small class.
coach said he plans on adding a couple more possibly 1 this weekend but you also have to remember we didn't lose many guys to graduation so there were fewer scholarships.
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vatusay wrote:I'm hoping there are at least a couple FBS transfers.

17 seems like a small class.
The other day LN57 and I were talking about numbers of available scholarships based on who graduated and who has left the program. From my list, I had 13 seniors who graduated and 5 who had decided not to continue playing football at Western, so that's 18 "spots"...scholarships would depend on if they all were full-scholly or if any were partials (FCS can split scholarships...offer 1/2 a scholarship to two players, for example).

If we've signed 17, that covers most of our scholarship limit already. Might have room for a couple more depending on who's been offered what (full scholarship vs partial). Walk-ons don't immediately get scholarships (but might earn one later if they're good enough, work hard enough, and there's scholarships available), so we can bring in some of those as well for kids who are willing to go that route.
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Also the guys who had been here 4 or 5 yrs were hendrickson recruits so some players lost there scholarships after he left and chose not to return making it a smaller group.
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Did not know they were limited to that many scholarships

Thank you for the info!
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vatusay wrote:Did not know they were limited to that many scholarships

Thank you for the info!
Yup, and for reference, here's some more numbers to look over...
Scholarship limits for Div. I FBS is 85 (head count...means it has to be 85 actual full-scholarship players), for FCS it's 63 (but they can be split however they want), DII is 36, and DIII has no scholarships.

Based on the numbers I had for last year, we had 102 players on our full roster...so that's an average of ~62% of a full scholarship per player. That's not how it actually works in practice...you'll have something closer to maybe 53 players on full scholarship, 20 on half scholarship, and the rest as "walk-ons" (no scholarship). That's likely an oversimplification, but that gives you an idea of what the coaches have to work with. They have to come up with the math that fits their team, school, players, etc....but it's gotta total fewer than 63 scholarships.

Most likely, the 13 seniors who graduated were full-scholarship players. The players who left were mostly freshmen who didn't think they'd get playing time or didn't think they'd end up getting a scholarship in the near future. In many cases, they decide to go to DII school, where the competition for playing time and a scholarship is somewhat less (despite the fewer scholarship numbers). It's hard to say exactly how many scholarships we had available, but from the numbers I have, my best guess as to how many scholarships that accounted for, we're already pretty close to our scholarship limit...but obviously the coaching staff will have a MUCH better handle on that situation than I do.

Another interesting thing to think about....when FCS teams play FBS schools, quite often you will see the game start off close. The FCS team will still be within maybe a TD at halftime...but then the FBS school starts to blow things open in the second half. Scholarship differential is a large part of that difference. FBS has 85 D1 full-scholarship-quality players, FCS might have 35 or 45 or whatever (and then another 20-30 on partial scholarship). If you look at the starters for teams in the MVFC and starters for teams in the MAC, there's not a huge difference...we're going to match up pretty well with them. However, once things get into the second half and you start having to dig into the second string/backups due to starters getting tired or injured, you can quickly start getting to the point where you're playing non-full-scholarship players against more D1 full-scholarship players. Generally (not always, you're going to have exceptions) if a player is of a certain level, they will earn a full scholarship. If they're not quite at that level, then they'll have partial scholarship (or none) so that they can prove themselves and maybe earn a full scholarship.

So, you start off the game with roughly equal players (maybe the FBS has a slight advantage, but the FCS can stay close or even lead if they play well or have a lucky break or two), but later in the game, FBS has second-string players that are still roughly as good as the FCS team's starters. At that point the FCS team is putting in their second-string players, where there's a bigger drop-off usually, and that's where the FBS team usually pulls away.
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vatusay wrote:I'm hoping there are at least a couple FBS transfers.

17 seems like a small class.
Richmond only signed 15 guys for there recruiting class this year.
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