We're always talking about Syracuse Orange basketball scholarships around here, but rarely dive into football. SU football gets 85 scholarships to hand out each season, and recently, they've fallen short of that number more often than not due to attrition, under-recruiting, etc.
They'll do so again in 2016, it seems.
At current, Syracuse has 82 scholarships committed, if you include the incoming 2016 kids, plus grad transfers Amba Etta-Tawo (already signed) and Gabe Sherrod (will sign for July). That's four under the limit. Of those 82, 14 are expected to run out of eligibility this fall. That leaves just 17 slots open for the recruiting class of 2017.
Attrition, of course, always plays a part. And since we've already seen plenty of it since Dino Babers arrived, we'll probably see more still between now and National Signing Day next February. But as of right now, the Orange simply don't have a ton of roster spots to deal with if they want to address the burning depth issues on the defensive line and in the secondary. The program's also short-handed at QB. All of these positions need to be dealt with, but perhaps at the cost of another position given the low number of spots.
And that figure could still potentially get lower, too.
It's an inexact science to figure out which walk-ons will end up on scholarship, but when you look at the full roster, there's obviously a a growing number of walk-ons (and especially "preferred" walk-ons) that contribute regularly. The first and obvious candidate for a spot is QB Zack Mahoney, though he still has a couple years of eligibility remaining. Nathan Hines and Hernz Laguerre are both sitting out there too -- though at least the latter is out of eligibility following this coming season.
For reference, I've included the full grid of every scholarship player and his expected graduation date, respectively. There's clearly a large collection of 2019 guys, but that will change with redshirts. Non-scholarship players are not included here, but you can find them at the roster link in the previous paragraph.
PLAYER | POS. | GRAD YEAR |
Wayne Morgan | DB | 2016 |
Brisly Estime | WR | 2016 |
George Morris II | RB | 2016 |
Marqez Hodge | LB | 2016 |
Ted Taylor | LB | 2016 |
Omari Palmer | OL | 2016 |
Michael Lasker | OL | 2016 |
Jason Emerich | OL | 2016 |
Alvin Cornelius | WR | 2016 |
Kendall Moore | TE | 2016 |
Josh Parris | TE | 2016 |
Cam MacPherson | TE | 2016 |
Amba Etta-Tawo | WR | 2016 |
Gabe Sherrod | DL | 2016 |
Ervin Philips | WR | 2017 |
Zaire Franklin | LB | 2017 |
Austin Wilson | QB | 2017 |
Antwan Cordy | DB | 2017 |
Steve Ishmael | WR | 2017 |
Trey Dunkelberger | DL | 2017 |
Corey Winfield | DB | 2017 |
Jamal Custis | WR | 2017 |
Chauncey Scissum | DB | 2017 |
Jonathan Thomas | LB | 2017 |
Parris Bennett | LB | 2017 |
PJ Batten | TE | 2017 |
Cole Murphy | K | 2017 |
Alryk Perry | LB | 2017 |
Jamar McGloster | OL | 2017 |
Tyler Provo | TE | 2017 |
Sean Avant | WR | 2017 |
Eric Dungey | QB | 2018 |
Rodney Williams | DB | 2018 |
Kenterius Womack | WR | 2018 |
Juwan Dowels | DB | 2018 |
Dontae Strickland | RB | 2018 |
Daivon Ellison | DB | 2018 |
Cordell Hudson | DB | 2018 |
Jordan Fredericks | RB | 2018 |
Kielan Whitner | DB | 2018 |
Tyrone Perkins | WR | 2018 |
Matt Keller | LS | 2018 |
Kayton Samuels | DL | 2018 |
Donnie Foster | OL | 2018 |
Aaron Roberts | OL | 2018 |
Cody Conway | OL | 2018 |
Steven Clark | DL | 2018 |
Anthony Giudice | DL | 2018 |
Adly Enoicy | WR | 2018 |
Chris Slayton | DL | 2018 |
Michael Moore | DB | 2018 |
Sterling Hofrichter | P | 2019 |
Rex Culpepper | QB | 2019 |
Moe Neal | RB | 2019 |
Shyheim Cullen | LB | 2019 |
Christopher Fredrick | DB | 2019 |
Troy Henderson | LB | 2019 |
Kenneth Ruff | DL | 2019 |
Tyler Cross | DL | 2019 |
Samuel Clausman | OL | 2019 |
AJ Deurig | OL | 2019 |
Evan Adams | OL | 2019 |
Colin Byrne | OL | 2019 |
Jake Pickard | DL | 2019 |
Andrew Armstrong | LB | 2019 |
Josh Black | DL | 2019 |
Scoop Bradshaw | DB | 2019 |
Devin Butler | WR | 2019 |
Michael Clark | OL | 2019 |
Devon Clarke | DB | 2019 |
Kendall Coleman | DL | 2019 |
Evan Foster | DB | 2019 |
Sam Heckel | OL | 2019 |
Carl Jones | DB | 2019 |
Jaquwon Nelson | DL | 2019 |
Liam O'Sullivan | OL | 2019 |
Sean Riley | WR | 2019 |
Aaron Servais | OL | 2019 |
Jor-El Shaw | RB | 2019 |
Tim Walton | LB | 2019 |
McKinley Williams | DL | 2019 |
James Pierre | DB | 2019 |