Breaking down Virginia Tech’s scholarship numbers
With the 2013 signing class complete and spring practice still a month away, now is as good a time as any to take stock of Virginia Tech’s roster.
Including the recent signing class, the Hokies are set to have 89 players on the roster who have scholarships. NCAA rules say schools can only have 85 scholarship players.
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Now, there’s always jostling that goes on between now and when the members of the most-recent signing class enroll in school to get to the 85 number. That can be through roster attrition (though, to this point, none has been announced), players not qualifying or a few delaying their enrollment.
It’s something a lot of schools go through. According to CBS Sports, Alabama has 95 players on scholarship right now. So Nick Saban will have to have some major cutdowns to get to 85.
The list I’ve made below is just for scholarship players who are currently on the roster or who have signed letters of intent. That excludes a couple of potential scholarship players.
Running back Drew Harris‘ status remains up in the air because of the NCAA Clearinghouse. Whip linebacker Dahman McKinnon is on an indefinite suspension for his hit-and-run arrest in December, although a reduced charge would allow him to get back on the roster.
The Hokies’ current scholarship breakdown is as follows: 14 seniors, 19 juniors, 16 sophomores, 19 redshirt freshmen (I put Josh Stanford and Deon Clarke in this category for now) and 21 incoming freshmen.
Here’s a breakdown by position, provided everybody sticks around/gets into school. Incoming freshmen are italicized. January enrollees this year have an asterisk. Naturally, positions are subject to change, particularly for freshmen:
QUARTERBACKS (6)
Logan Thomas, Sr.; Mark Leal, Jr.; Trey Gresh, Jr.; Brenden Motley, rFr.; Bucky Hodges, Fr.; Carlis Parker, Fr.*
RUNNING BACKS (7)
Tony Gregory, Sr.; Michael Holmes, So.; J.C. Coleman, So.; Trey Edmunds, rFr.; Chris Mangus, rFr.; D.J. Reid, Fr.; Jerome Wright, Fr.*
WIDE RECEIVERS (10)
D.J. Coles, Sr.; E.L. Smiling, Jr.; Demitri Knowles, So.; Kevin Asante, So.; Christian Reeves, So.; Joel Caleb, rFr.; Josh Stanford, rFr.; Mark Irick, rFr.; Deon Newsome, Fr.; David Prince, Fr.
TIGHT ENDS (5)
Ryan Malleck, Jr., Zack McCray, Jr.; Duan Perez-Means, Jr.; Darius Redman, So.; Dakota Jackson, rFr.
OFFENSIVE LINEMEN (16)
Andrew Miller, Sr.; David Wang, Sr.; Nick Acree, Jr.; Caleb Farris, Jr.; Matt Arkema, Jr.; Brent Benedict, Jr.; Laurence Gibson, Jr.; Mark Shuman, Jr.; Jake Goins, So.; Augie Conte, rFr.; Adam Taraschke, rFr.; Jack Willenbrock, rFr. Braxton Pfaff, Fr.; Kyle Chung, Fr.; Jonathan McLaughlin, Fr.*; Parker Osterloh, Fr.*
DEFENSIVE ENDS (12)
James Gayle, Sr.; J.R. Collins, Sr.; Tyrel Wilson, Sr.; Corey Marshall, Jr.; Dadi Nicolas, So.; Matt Roth, So.; Dewayne Alford, rFr.; Ken Ekanem, rFr.; Jarontay Jones, rFr.; Wyatt Teller, Fr.; Seth Dooley, Fr.*; Woody Baron, Fr.*
DEFENSIVE TACKLES (6)
Derrick Hopkins, Sr.; Luther Maddy, Jr.; Kris Harley, So.; Justin Taylor, So.; Alston Smith, rFr.; Nigel Williams, rFr.
INSIDE LINEBACKERS (6)
Jack Tyler, Sr.; Tariq Edwards, Sr.; Chase Williams, Jr.; Deon Clarke, rFr.; Devin Vandyke, rFr.; Andrew Motuapuaka, Fr.
WHIP LINEBACKERS (2)
Ronny Vandyke, So.; Jamieon Moss, Fr.
CORNERBACKS (9)
Antone Exum, Sr.; Kyle Fuller, Sr.; Donaldven Manning, So.; Donovan Riley, So.; Der’Woune Greene, rFr.; Davion Tookes, rFr.; Cequan Jefferson, Fr. Kendall Fuller, Fr.; Brandon Facyson, Fr.*
FREE SAFETIES/ROVERS (6)
Detrick Bonner, Jr.; Kyshoen Jarrett, Jr.; Desmond Frye, So.; Charles Clark, Fr.; Holland Fisher, Fr.; Anthony Shegog, Fr.
SPECIALISTS (4)
Cody Journell, K, Sr.; Michael Branthover, P, Jr.; Joe St. Germain, LS, Jr.; A.J. Hughes, P, So.
February 21, 2013 - 11:04 AM
Does the 95 scholarship players Nick Saban has to deal with include the four banned from campus? Now that’s a mean way to start a conversation.
Andy, when did Zach McCray move to offense? Must have missed that somewhere.
What actually happens if a team ends up with more than 85? Can we get Alabama’s discards?
Another great blog post, Andy. Don’t know if I need this information, but it’s fun to have. A reasonable subject for several future posts is to discuss what the team is doing with the big surpluses they have at a few positions. At lot of these guys will never play a down at the positions listed. Are some of them on special teams? High school quarterbacks are often the best players/athletes on their teams. Will some of those 6 QBs end up as receivers or DBs?
McCray switched to TE late in the season. I want to say right around the BC game. Kind of got lost in the shuffle.
Teams can’t end up with more than 85. Have to get tot hat number or face some sort of punishment. Although I’m not sure what that would be.
where is Brooks Abbott on this list? met him on a flight to Atlanta after the FSU game and seems to be a good kid.
Thanks, Andy. But a few errors, I think:
1) Journell’s scholarship was taken away with his arrest and has not been reinstated to my knowledge.
2) Branthover arrived as a walk-on, and was not one of the guys granted a scholarship this spring unless that went unreported.
3) You’re missing Thomas Smith, who should enroll this summer.
As far as I know, Journell has remained on scholarship the whole time. He was suspended, yes, but I believe he remained on scholarship and was in school the entire time.
Branthover was put on scholarship last winter, I believe. I’ll have to check on that.
When Smith enrolls, I’ll list him. Until then, he’s kind of in the same boat as Harris. I thought it was odd that he didn’t sign a LOI again this February, though.
Abbott was a preferred walk-on last winter. I don’t think he’s been put on scholarship yet. St. Germain and Hughes were the two specialists who were put on scholarship in January.
Andy b ,
Can you get VT to paint the end zones orange with the big VT in it again? They stopped like around 2004 or something like that. I know you have big pull now thought you could get this done. Thanks….
I think you overestimate my pull.
On you huskies! Go Andy!
Hope current leaders can count little better than Coach Bill Dooley. He had a problem with counting scholarships.
Andy – how do partial scholarships factor into this?
Careful, shortpump, you’ll have Jim Weaver putting out more public statements how VT, an agricultural school, can’t find any way to paint our end zone grass like the rest of the nation learned to do decades ago. Then he’ll segue into another rant about sugar cookies being contraban inside Lane Stadium. That’s vision for you, folks.
If Exum remains hurt all season and doesn’t play, does he count against the scholarship limit? I don’t remember him taking a redshirt–any chance he gets a medical redshirt and plays again when he’s fully healthy?
Exum redshirted in 2009. And yes, he counts against the scholarship numbers. Only career-ending injuries are excluded, like Michael Cole.
As for hardship waivers that would give Exum a sixth year, you need to miss two seasons because of injury to get that. He wouldn’t qualify for it.
Virginia Tech is seriously lacking depth at the linebacker positions. I don’t know how the coaches could have let this happen. I hope they are just keeping secret some positional changes that some players may be making. It’s hard to believe that after this year, we will be very young and very thin at the inside LB positions. My advice(not that it matters) would be to try out a bunch of the defensive ends at linebacker position this spring, and see which players excel at LB. Tech cannot afford this many DE’s if they expect to sign players like D. Hand. Andy do you have any insight into who may be switching to that position. I know VT has a tradition of decent walk-ons, but they cannot rely on this tactic if they ever expect to win a national championship.