How does one "open up" all those extra scholarships when 20 this year puts us at the 85 limit?
Guys leave every year. Kids can take their diploma and go home with eligibility remaining if they're not part of the staffs plans. Some kid 'retires' due to injury. Someone violates a team rule and is asked to go. Someone else has academic challenges and transfers. Someone transfers for PT. Maybe someone transfers because it's just not the right environment for them. Often (not this year), someone goes pro. There are a bunch of kids on our team who *could* wind up in this situation.
The thing people mistake when discussing it is they act like it's some black/white issue -- AG knows which kids are in danger of failing out, which kids can't heal from their injuries, which kids will never play and might want to transfer to a better place for them. He knows which kids will be additive on the practice squad and which won't. Which kids smoke too much pot. He's doubtlessly talked to the kids involved more than once. When spring practice is done, some kids will just up and leave. You can bank on it.
The list *might* include one or more of the following:
--Seniors: Cornileus, Cain
--Kids buried on the depth chart: R. Williams, King, Wells, Perry, D. Jones
--Kid with injury who may want to concentrate on BB: D. Thompson