Re: Not happening. But, in general, if YOU want to do some

Moosehead · 2021-03-03T17:16:47.349Z

Atlanta sports talk radio buzzing about DK being a great fit for Georgia. They are young and thin at corner. Plus he could provide scouting for Sept 4th. Don’t shoot the messenger. Just passing it along.

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Not happening. But, in general, if YOU want to do some

Mar 3, 2021, 5:09 PM

research, look up the numbers in SEC upper tier (of which I only grudgingly include Georgia) football schools yearly signing classes, and tell me how they magically keep the total under the 85 limit if players are not being routinely "culled" on an ongoing basis. The Transfer Portal is just another way to extend this, making it even easier to accomplish the turnover.

Since the SEC is still Alabama and then everybody else, I will use them as an example. 2013 was a year that will go down in infamy. Bama had 14 schollys available come signing day, but signed TWENTY SIX kids. I excerpt the CBS article below:

(((Alabama wasn't very far from the line to begin with. The Crimson Tide only lost a dozen scholarship players from last year's unusually young BCS championship team, including three early departures for the NFL and a former walk-on (long snapper Carson Tinker) who was awarded a scholarship before last season, leaving them with at least 70 scholarship players scheduled to return in 2013 and a maximum of 14 available openings. Still, on signing day, Bama added almost twice that number -- including, yes, a two-star prospect from California, Cole Mazza, who is projected strictly as a long snapper. Few other schools had so few slots to fill, and the ones that did did not come close to overshooting the mark by such a distance: Relative to the competition, Saban and his staff effectively recruited as if scholarship limits do not exist.

Of course they do exist, and one way or another Alabama must toe the line by the start of preseason practice like everyone else. That can happen any number of ways, and already has: One of the 26 signees in the new class, three-star offensive lineman Bradley Bozeman, has already agreed to "grayshirt," or delay his enrollment until 2014 so as not to count against this year's scholarship cap; a few of his more touted classmates will probably be forced to follow suit. One or two others may fall short academically. As we've already seen, legal and disciplinary issues can unexpectedly thin the ranks overnight. Inevitably, some veteran backups will read the writing on the wall and decide to transfer some place with a more accommodating depth chart.

If all else fails, it comes down to making cuts, preferably in a fashion that doesn't involve actually having to say, "you're cut," which Saban adamantly denies he has ever done. The first to go are usually fifth-year seniors who are unlikely to contribute, a relatively uncontroversial move as it's common at many schools for veteran backups to bow out quietly after four years with a degree in hand. (Alabama has several candidates for this path, most notably linebacker Jonathan Atchison and defensive linemen William Ming, Anthony Orr and Chris Bonds, all members of the 2009 recruiting class who have yet to earn a letter.) Injured players may be asked to accept a medical hardship, which allows them to remain on scholarship without counting against the cap but effectively ends their career, even if the injury is not necessarily career-ending. (Saban has been criticized in the past for using the hardship more than any other coach, and by players who said they felt pressured to accept a hardship. At least one player who was released for medical reasons has gone on to play at another school, albeit on a much lower level.) Though all transfers are technically voluntary, some may come with a tacit endorsement from coaches -- only looking out for the player's best interest in getting on the field, naturally. Asking an incoming recruit to delay enrollment after he's signed a letter of intent is a last resort. But whatever it takes, there is no way around the fact that somewhere in the vicinity of a dozen players currently slated to wear the Crimson Tide uniform this fall will be culled from the roster over the next six months.)))

Now, they, and others, have gotten more "creative" in recent years since the NCAA tried to crack down on this. And, the SEC is in no way alone. They just live in the "glassiest" of glass houses. So, be very careful when you begin to throw those stones.

(For the record, here is a complete breakdown of Alabama's current roster by signing class, including incoming recruits in the class of 2013 and the four recently arrested players -- Brent Calloway, Tyler Hayes, D.J. Pettway and Eddie Williams -- who have been suspended from the team but not dismissed.)

No other team is facing that level of inevitable, automatic attrition.