The Lions' Pride

Lefty, if your concern is getting back to 85 in one year, that is probably on the low end of the staffs priorities. Plus it creates a major in-balance in the distribution of schollies, 30 freshmen?

I don't have a scholarship matrix on me but I can bet we have a low number of sophomore /junior eligible linemen. We have like 4/5 seniors this year right? I think this move (getting a JUCO) overall creates a nice balance in the attrition rate of our o-line, ie so in 2 years his scholly opens up for another OL. That way two or three years down the road from there that OL will be in playing condition. Getting a bunch of freshmen OL four years from now won't make the team five years from now competitive, since they need at least 2 years to develop.

If our allotment is 12 (for 65) and we desire to RS all the OL then that is 2.4 or 2/3 linemen every year we need to take. So two years from now we need 2 linemen to be graduated to keep the balance intact. If we have 1 OL graduating then it throws our numbers off and can result in a low number of upperclassmen OL which is bad.

Other positions: DB, WR, TE have shown that underclassmen can play relatively faster so it's not imperative to keep the balance since you could recruit a player and expect him to start a year later. DL/OL not the case and I think that will show by us getting some JUCO's to fill the gaps to keep the in numbers equaling the out numbers.