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At the moment, our list looks like this:

QB: 1 (Eric Johnson)
DT: 2 (Chase Smith, Brad Lankford)
LB: 1 (Todd Alexander)
OL: 3 (Mitch Enright, Josh Hickman, David Allison)
Athlete: 1 (Jeff Brock)
TOTAL: 8

Most folks on this board have guessed we'll have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to offer this year. With that as a target total, where should the remaining scholarships go?

My vote:

DB: 3 (with 2 going to safeties, if Nnabuife stays at OLB)
DE: 2
LB: 2
DT: 2
OL: 2
WR: 1

I can agree to that. That would mean 11 linemen in the class. I could also agree to taking two DB's and one LB with those two ships going to one additional DT and OL.

Bring In the HERD!

If Brock can play DE, that helps.

At LEAST 2 LBs. Getting Carrington and Lee back will completely re-shape the LB core, but Harris is graduating this year, Lee will graduate next year and if Don Ieremia-Stansbury really is moving back to DE, that means we need to greatly bolster the LB crew.

Shouldn't we have one more QB come in? Three seniors next year (unless one of the JUCOs redshirts) ....

Two more CBs with great speed, please. And taller than 3'7" would be nice.

The rest: big, strong linemen. JUCO guys, HS guys .... don't care. But big and strong. Real strong. For both sides of the ball.

24 scholarships maybe 25 to offer. I think.

Nnabuife is a saftey. If we had decent LBs, neither he nor Rico would have been moved to LB.

Right now, we have 10 commitments. QB, TE, OG (2), OT, DT (2), OLB, MLB, S. We have at least 10 scholarships remaining.

I think it is a lock that 8 of the remainder will be targeted at:
1 WR
1 OG
1 C
2 DE
1 OLB
1 MLB
1 SS.

The remaining 2-6 scholarships (depending on how many we offer) will simply go to the best players available, regardless of position. I could see us use one on a punter if a good punter becomes available.

I don't see a ton of additional linemen, because we already have quite a handful and they are all young. That said, the list I just gave has 9 linemen in it.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the remaining 2-6 scholarships be spent on:

QB (if Willis takes it)
RB (we are loaded, but we should take one in every class)
FB/TE
OLB (Cleveland and Hall not seeing the field tells me we are desparate here)

We could potentially pick up another Center as well.

I think the 24-25 estimate is a little generous. 21-22 seems more likely to me. Therefore:

JasonB wrote:Right now, we have 10 commitments. QB, TE, OG (2), OT, DT (2), OLB, MLB, S. We have at least 10 scholarships remaining.

I think it is a lock that 8 of the remainder will be targeted at:
1 WR
1 OG
1 C
2 DE
1 OLB
1 MLB
1 SS ....

Not so fast, my friend! I would think the other scholarships will shake out a little differently:
1 QB
1 RB
1 OT
2 DE
2 DT
1 Athlete
2 LB
1 WR

JasonB wrote: .... The remaining 2-6 scholarships (depending on how many we offer) will simply go to the best players available, regardless of position. I could see us use one on a punter if a good punter becomes available.

Hmmmm .... don't see it unless Ray Guy or Shane Lechler decides to come to SMU for a master's degree and somehow regains eligibility.

JasonB wrote:I don't see a ton of additional linemen, because we already have quite a handful and they are all young. That said, the list I just gave has 9 linemen in it.

Can't have enough linemen. Just ask BUS. We do have more than in the past, but not enough. Say two OLs get hurt .... are you comfortable with the depth there? I'm not. What about DTs? Desmond Jones just had surgery -- can't tell how he'll be when he gets back. Lucky DeLay still doesn't look like he's 100 percent after that Achilles injury LAST year, and he broke his hand at the end of this season. That leaves .... Denman, Mouton and Bonds at DT? That's not enough for me. Got to keep adding big guys.

JasonB wrote:I wouldn't be surprised to see the remaining 2-6 scholarships be spent on:

QB (if Willis takes it)
RB (we are loaded, but we should take one in every class)
FB/TE
OLB (Cleveland and Hall not seeing the field tells me we are desparate here)

We could potentially pick up another Center as well.

I hope we do end up with Willis, who got more and more accolades as the season wore on. Early in the season, I wasn't sold on him, but I saw a Ryan game this year, and he has a much better arm than I thought. He's not going to make you forget John Elway or Brett Favre, but he can make a lot of throws. Beyond that, I'm not sure another FB or TE is on the wish list. How much does Coach Burns use a FB? Not much. And we have two more years of Ryan Kennedy, four more years of Vincent Chase, four/five more years of Jeff Brock (if he plays TE) and possibly Andrew McKinney could play TE - he certainly has the build and speed for it.

I'm with you on the OLB thing -- I'd like to see another one or two there. They're like linemen -- can't have too many.

I don't se the need for another QB since we already have one in this class, unless if it is a really good one that we can't pass up. As far as the OL is concerned, at some point you live with what you've got. We have a ton of young tackles and guards on scholarship, I don't think you want to go searching there. Same thing at DT. DE we need some more playmakers. OLB, MLB, TE and Saftey are our biggest need positions. We don't have any young safteys in line when the current crop graduates. Brock may end up being a Bobby Chase-type player at WR, I don't think you should pencil him in at TE just yet. Kennedy and V Chase are quality players and I think you will see us work a lot of two tight end sets into the game plan next year. For that reason, you need to pick up a couple more TEs. Center is a big need right now, I wouldn't mind seeing two of those come on board.

Are you saying we do not need any more DT's?????????????

I would think that Mitch Enright at 6-1 will at least be a consideration at Center. Plenty of All-Americans were 6-1 at Center-very few at Guard. Rivals suggests also that is his likely collegiate position for the same reasons. He could help at both Center and guard though.

In reference to the DT situation....from what I've heard, Lucky DeLay is 99% back from his ankle problem, and the broken hand will be fully healed by January. As of now, he is number one on the depth chart. I think he is a great pick for next season, he did lead D-line in tackles the first 3 games. I sure hope D. Jones will be ready for next season. I think the rotation of Jones, Bonds, and DeLay will be hard to break.

That's a decent rotation, but DeLay's what .... 260 pounds? 265?
I'd like to see another 25-30 pounds on him, but I don't know if he can carry that much weight.

I think that would help, and I think he is trying his hardest...I predict he'll be about 275-280 starting next season, which would be nothing but help!

At 275 to 280 for Lucky... Great. My concern would be IF he could hold that weight past thefirst four to five games. Given that he has really bulked up, now can he hold it during a time of high volume/stress activity.

I wonder if that would be like Adami in his junior (or maybe it was his sophomore) year, when he started two-a-days at 260 or 270 .... and then sweated his way down into the 240s. DeLay seems like a guy who works his tail off (how much is that busted hand limiting his weightroom work?), but I just hope he can hang on to whatever weight he's able to add.

JasonB wrote:I don't se the need for another QB ....

That can be looked at a number of ways.
(A) We have four scholarship QBs (Eckert, Nixon, Phillips, Romo) coming back next year - that's enough to get through the year.
(B) If neither Eckert or Romo redshirts next year, then three (those two plus Nixon) come off the books after next season, leaving us in 2005 with Phillips and Johnson.
(C) Steve Spurrier, who's had a little success building college offenses, said he always wanted 5 or 6 scholarship QBs on his roster, and that barring extreme circumstances, he wanted to sign at least one every year. That way, even if every QB-in-waiting is extremely talented, you don't run the risk of playing a youngster who's just out of high school.
(D) Many times, a high school QB is the best athlete on his team, so they can get the ball in his hands on every play. Whether he runs a lot or passes a lot varies, of course, from one school to the next. But QBs often can be recruited to play other positions (David Haynes was a QB in high school).

If they're the best athletes available, I support the idea of signing additional QBs, then finding positions for them later.