Five walk-ons awarded financial aid

[PonyPride]

Five walk-on players received a financial aid package for the fall semester at the end of Wednesday's practice:

CB Chase Courtney
P/H Andrew Galloway
LB Jason Jackson
LB Chase Kennemer
LB John Nwisienyi

[FWMustangGirl]

Congrats to them!

[SMU 86]

That is truly good to hear.

[Mexmustang]

Well, there goes Stallion's conspiracy theory about running off players to make room for JJ's upcoming recruiting class!
That is class!

[ozfan]

Well, there goes Stallion's conspiracy theory about running off players to make room for JJ's upcoming recruiting class!
That is class!

They are walkons and do not count as sc players

[SMU 86]

PonyPride,

Just a point of clarification needed for me. Am I correct in thinking that the packages will not count as scholarships?

[Mexmustang]

Obviously I thought that they would, are you sure that they are not counted? What would stop LSU having an additional 20 walk-ons then sign them up to scholarships (financial aid as was indicated)? Maybe this is a "partial"?
Also, what is a P/H? Punter/Holder?

[PonyPride]

PonyPride,

Just a point of clarification needed for me. Am I correct in thinking that the packages will not count as scholarships?

I'm not sure about the verbage in the agreements, but my understanding is that their tuition was picked up for this semester. Whether they return to walk-on status in the spring, I don't know. This was described as a semester's worth of financial aid.

[FWMustangGirl]

Unless the rules have significantly changed recently, any scholarships count against the team's total. When hubby received an academic scholarship and walked on to play baseball elsewhere for his freshman year, the coach was peeved because it counted against his total.

[Mexmustang]

Well maybe everyone is right. The financial aid counts against our scholarship limitations--but only in the semester it is provided. Perhaps this is strictly a semester by semester arrangement, where any open scholarships will be used, but not promised in the following semester to these walkons. Anyway I am glad the school was able to help these young players, even if only for one or two semesters.

[smupony]

Well, there goes Stallion's conspiracy theory about running off players to make room for JJ's upcoming recruiting class!
That is class!

I think it also proves to Stallion that a Bennett walk-on can come in, get a starting job, and be rewarded...Jason Jackson...

Although, I partially agree that we will see a lot of fallout when true freshman are all over the field over upper classmen...

[Mexmustang]

Based upon Stallion's yearly assessment, that all our previous recruiting classes, including this year's were mediocre, this is what we should all want, better recruits pressing the upper classmen for their positions?

I say this somewhat "tongue in cheek", I don't want any coach to giveup on a senior that is performing in favor of a promissing recruit. That senior is one of the players that helped turn the program around, we were lucky to have him and should be loyal to him.

[Get_Some_Ponies]

They can split up any unused scholarhips to give walk-ons financial aid provided that the total scholarships stay under the limit. Who knows how this worked out, but I bet they took three unused scholarships, split them up for the players and are either paying for the full tuition this semester or half and half for the year.

[Mexmustang]

Regardless, it does count against our scholarship limits, in the semester that they are allocated.

[Get_Some_Ponies]

Regardless, it does count against our scholarship limits, in the semester that they are allocated.

My understanding is that the limit is 85 full scholarships. In theory could they carry 170 guys with half rides? Interesting that these guys got partials for the year. Sounds like he wants some flexibility to bring in some transfers in the Spring.