The Feb. 2 signing day is close. Here’s the latest on the numbers on the Oregon State football team’s recruiting class. I’ve done this before, but a new NCAA rule must be calculated in for those who love to count.
The new rule is that greyshirts are counted in the year they sign, not the current year. What does that mean?
According to NCAA rules teams can sign the maximum of 28 players each year. In OSU’s current case, it could sign 28 players and the five greyshirts on campus count in last year’s class.
So with five greyshirts and the potential 28 athletes, the Beavers could have 33 newcomers this summer/fall.
In reality, the Beavers are at 22 newcomers at this point plus five greyshirts. So they can take up to six more commitments.
That won’t happen because of the rule that there can only be 85 scholarships used each year.
So, here are the numbers. OSU lost 18 seniors last year, and has six other scholarships to give because of two retirements, two transfers, one open scholarship not used last year and Jacquizz Rodgers left for the NFL.
That brings OSU’s openings to 24. That means it’s over the scholarship limit by three at the moment. DE Noa Alusei from Portland’s Jefferson High already said he’s going on a Mormon mission and will be a greyshirt. So that means OSU is really over by two.
The numbers will work out with normal attrition of the current group of players or recruits not being eligible. If none of that happens, the Beavers will greyshirt some of this year’s recruits.
Coach Mike Riley said before the Alusei commitment he would take about four more. So, if there are any offers out who commit, the Beavers will take them.
Readers have asked if there’s news on recruiting because it seems slow. Any good athletes out there will probably wait until signing day to do the media splash in their hometowns. Historically there might be a flurry of lower-ranked guys commit before signing day.
I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but the Beavers have solid reputation and get recruits who comit early. Most of the class was committed by the end of the season.
12 comments
Greg Jorgensen says:
Jan 26, 2011
Hey cliff. I am a little concerned about the lack of 4 star athleats we have commited. I know Riley does not care about stars, rakings, and ratings but that only is a good story if we win. As a die hard beaver missing a bowl game this year and loosing to the ducks for 3 strait years somthing has to give. Are we just not going after better rated players or are they just not interested in playing for us. What do you think?
Cliff Kirkpatrick says:
Jan 26, 2011
The Beavers go after four and five star guys all the time. They only get one four-star guy a class.
You just want me to set off another argument on my blog. I love those, so here goes.
Top guys don’t want to go to OSU because it’s out in the middle of nowhere in a small town with bad weather. If you are good and a good weather school wants you, and it happens to be in cool city, you go.
Reaching the top at an OSU happens on rare occasions. The reason being is it doesn’t have a backlog of four and five star guys.
JackBeav says:
Jan 26, 2011
Someone should tell Blacksburg, Oxford, Tuscaloosa, Manhattan, Lawrence, Ames and Iowa City that they are booming cities with lots of excitement.
The Beavs are in an area of the country vastly underserved by those who would call themselves recruiting services. And they will remain that way until these “services” see a viable revenue flow from this region. They rely mostly on a database created by compiling the offers made to kids and who offered them. Then they sell paid subscriptions to the fan bases in the largest population centers–or where football has a greater following–in order to tell those fan bases what they want to hear.
The reality is that the Beavs have missed on some big time athletes, but they have some commitments from some very very very underrated kids.
Go google Tyler Trosin and tell me how that kid gets only two stars from the people who claim to know what they’re doing in rating these kids.
They might explain that away by making excuses with key words like “sleeper” or “late-bloomer”. But the flip side is that they rate some kids with the definitive term “can’t miss” and ra
JackBeav says:
Jan 26, 2011
…and rate them as five star prospects. When a “can’t miss” prospect misses (due to anything besides freak injury), that’s a stain on any ratings service that is exponentially larger than any of their correct ratings.
JackBeav says:
Jan 26, 2011
How do the grey shirts, early enrollees and JUCO signings affect all this? As I understand it, they can be counted against the previous calendar year if they enter school in the first period of the new year, but count against neither year in terms of gross numbers if they sign a financial aid agreement (or a JUCO LOI) outside of the spring signing period.
I believe the SEC rule considered this loophole by limiting any one year to 25 newcomers, but there’s a lot of fudging going on in the same league that began this rule two (?) years ago.
Here’s how I understand the Beavs situation if they would have been following the rule over the past couple years: They signed 18 last year in the spring period. The one who did not make it (Molesi) does not matter because he did sign. The Beavs then had the opportunity to bring in an additional seven players so long as they a) qualified b) enrolled in the first term of 2011 and c) there was room under the 85 scholarship limit beginning the next year. I think they would allow an overlap during the winter/spring terms so long as that overlap includes scholarship players who have exhausted their eligibility. So if any of our commits for 2011 graduated early they could be rolled into this group of seven along with JUCO signees and late qualifiers like Darryl Jackson–instead of waiting until next month’s signing period and being counted against 2011.
I’ll be interested to see how UW plays this one. They currently have 26 commits to fill 20 (maybe 21) open slots after signing 31 players last year (and bringing in 27 including grey shirts). Does this mean that they can sign all 26 plus two more so long as they a) grey shirt seven or eight of them and b) they have those slots available in 2012 due to attrition by eligibility exhaustion?
Cliff Kirkpatrick says:
Jan 26, 2011
You basically got the rules down. Just keep it simple.
1. Only 85 scholarships at the start of training camp in August.
2. Only 28 can be signed in any one year – at least that’s the number this year.
3. Your greyshirts are not of the 28. However, if you have five greyshirt for this year, you can only have brought in 23 newcomers the previous year.
The point is you can not sign more than 28 each year. If you do have a growing number of greyshirts.
Coaches over recruit to make sure they have full rosters each year. And some like that they have guys already set to come in for the future.
JackBeav says:
Jan 26, 2011
Gotcha! So the Beavs could have brought in as many as 10 early enrollees/late qualifiers/JUCO signees other than the 18 who signed last spring so long as they kept it all under 85?
midwest beav fan says:
Jan 27, 2011
Thanks for the update Cliff.
Some good points “jackbeav”.
RenoNVbeavr says:
Jan 27, 2011
The star system is anything but a perfect science. The likely #1 pick in this year’s NFL Draft (DT Fairley, Aurburn) was rated a 3-star coming out of HS. One of the greatest players to ever play at OS -Jaquizz- was a 3-star prospect and his brother James, who I’d argue is even a better overall player, was a 2-star athlete. Alot of 4-5 star athletes dont pan out. Also, are you saying that Boise St. gets 4-5 star athletes??? Hardly. Riley and his staff are getting exactly the kind of athletes that they need for this program and what you’d expect. Would I like more 4-star recruits to get the juices flowing: absolutely. However, its just not going to happen at OS unless the team starts ascending to UO heights.
cordialduck says:
Jan 27, 2011
speed is the real sleeper that the ranking services underrate. in college, speedy 2 or three star recruits can be coached and schemed into matches for the 4 and 5 star recruits. Some get lots bigger in college. Few get too much faster. Gotta love those 3′s. One could make a case that USC, even under Pete Carroll, got less overall results per number of four or five star recruits than he should of, even in the national championship years. And Notre Dame continues to rank Top 15 in recruits every year, but SLOW recruits. Thus the parade of coaches and losses. A lot less head problems with those 2′s and 3′s also. I always admired Riley and Chris Peterson’s ability to generate great play and wins against the top-ranked recruiting schools with great kids that got short-changed on the star rankings.
songdog79 says:
Jan 27, 2011
Many of you have made good points. Thanks too for explaining the recruiting guidlines. My humble opinion is that Riley consistantly develops 1,2,3 star recruits into 4&5 star athletes. He does more (development and improvement) with less (budget, facilities, climate, surroundings, reputation) than any other coach in the conference. I always hope Riley will take us to another level (ie; Ucks), but have to appreciate the job he does. Speed is the real sleeper (as stated by cordialduck). Remember when the Beav’s won the Fiesta vs. ND? Beaver speed embarrased ND. If you’re a HS kid, with real speed, the Uck program is more appealing (thanks too to Phil and his multi-million recruiters). Riley has done well eye-balling talent and developing them into top level competitors.
I support Mike, and love the Beav’s!
Beavergopher says:
Jan 30, 2011
Any word on Simi Kuli Cliff? I think this is the year he finally shows up!
I am surprised that the success of the previous two years did not lead to some higher profile recruits in this cycle, especially at RB and DT. Quizz did get a lot good press and players like going where their position is featured in the O or D schemes. Really was disheartening to lose out on YB’s little bro last year. I think that said a lot about the coachers ability to sell OSU.