In the last couple of years the NCAA has made some decisions that have changed the landscape of college football. Setting up a transfer portal in which a student athlete can declare an intent to transfer and allowing other schools to contact (essentially recruit) him has given students a broad opportunity to assess their best options. The decision to allow graduates to transfer to another university without sitting out a year is another big deal. Because football players attend summer school each year, it is clearly possible to graduate in less than four years and even, like in the cases of Justin McMillan and Ben Knudsen, move onto a “new” school with two years of remaining eligibility. Combined with the decision to allow a student athlete to “redshirt” in football if they don’t play more than 4 games has probably resulted in some unintended consequences. Jalen McCleskey’s decision to redshirt after playing four games at Oklahoma State and, using the graduate transfer opportunity, moving on to Tulane, was the first such case of which I am aware. But, since then, two Houston starters (possibly recognizing the McCleskey case) have chosen to sit out the rest of this season and taking a redshirt because they didn’t like how their season was progressing. Others across the nation have taken the same route. Personally I see some ethics issues with such decisions whether initiated by the student athlete or the coach (as might be the case in Houston) but it is what it is.
For me, I still haven’t figured out if graduate transfers count towards the annual signing limit of 25. I’ve seen various opinions but no “conclusive” NCAA-adopted decision. In Tulane’s case, we brought in five graduate transfers, one JC, and 20 freshmen this season, 26 total. How does that compute? I didn’t think we had any slots to count against the previous year. Anyway, they clearly count towards the total 85 scholarship limit.
So that brings us to our favorite team, the Olive and Blue of Tulane. We’ve clearly been advantaged by the graduate transfer rule. This season, we have six graduate transfers making significant contributions to our success (Christian Montano, Ben Knutsen, Jalen McCleskey, Justin McMillan, Mike Hinton, and Malik Lawal). That’s a lot of help from kids who spent three or more years in another program.
But the 4-game redshirt rule looks to be coming into play this season in a big way. We have several lettermen who, primarily due to injury, could play 4 games this season and still redshirt, giving them an extra year of eligibility. These include Tyler Johnson, an OL, who has only appeared in one game; Keitha Jones, a LB currently working out at TE, who has only played in two games; Alfred Thomas, a DT, who was one of our more prized recruits two year ago, has, due to injuries, only played three games. and Carlos Hatcher, a DE, who played a great deal last year with some success, and has also only played in three games. Depending on their health and needs during the remainder of the season, all or none of these guys could redshirt. And, as Guerry explained last week, Chris Joyce, a sophomore DB who has played in 4 games, will also redshirt.
And for the first time in memory (and mine goes back 57+ years) we are likely to redshirt almost all of our incoming freshmen. Of course, with at least six, likely seven, and potentially eight games remaining, a lot could change. Still, to this point, only one of our true freshmen has appeared in at least five games—the LB, Dorian Williams. Sincere Haynesworth , OL, has appeared in four games and RB Tyjae Spears has appeared in three. Both look to have long-term potential and, if possible, an extra year of eligibility would be great. Fifteen other freshmen have gotten limited experience in “garbage time” over 1-2 games and are not likely to see action in five. Regardless, we’re likely to redshirt 15+ of our 20 freshmen recruits and the number could be as high as 19.
As an aside, we’ve also had 16 walk-ons get playing time this year which has to be a record for Tulane. This does not include Merek Glover who is now on scholarship. One of them, Timothy Shafter, has appeared in five games in the offensive line, more than any of our three scholarship redshirt freshmen linemen. I’m not sure if that says more about him or about them; hopefully, him.
I don’t know how the back half of this season will play out, but I like the way our coach is building a program, taking advantage of the changing rules as well as anyone.
Roll Wave!!!
For me, I still haven’t figured out if graduate transfers count towards the annual signing limit of 25. I’ve seen various opinions but no “conclusive” NCAA-adopted decision. In Tulane’s case, we brought in five graduate transfers, one JC, and 20 freshmen this season, 26 total. How does that compute? I didn’t think we had any slots to count against the previous year. Anyway, they clearly count towards the total 85 scholarship limit.
So that brings us to our favorite team, the Olive and Blue of Tulane. We’ve clearly been advantaged by the graduate transfer rule. This season, we have six graduate transfers making significant contributions to our success (Christian Montano, Ben Knutsen, Jalen McCleskey, Justin McMillan, Mike Hinton, and Malik Lawal). That’s a lot of help from kids who spent three or more years in another program.
But the 4-game redshirt rule looks to be coming into play this season in a big way. We have several lettermen who, primarily due to injury, could play 4 games this season and still redshirt, giving them an extra year of eligibility. These include Tyler Johnson, an OL, who has only appeared in one game; Keitha Jones, a LB currently working out at TE, who has only played in two games; Alfred Thomas, a DT, who was one of our more prized recruits two year ago, has, due to injuries, only played three games. and Carlos Hatcher, a DE, who played a great deal last year with some success, and has also only played in three games. Depending on their health and needs during the remainder of the season, all or none of these guys could redshirt. And, as Guerry explained last week, Chris Joyce, a sophomore DB who has played in 4 games, will also redshirt.
And for the first time in memory (and mine goes back 57+ years) we are likely to redshirt almost all of our incoming freshmen. Of course, with at least six, likely seven, and potentially eight games remaining, a lot could change. Still, to this point, only one of our true freshmen has appeared in at least five games—the LB, Dorian Williams. Sincere Haynesworth , OL, has appeared in four games and RB Tyjae Spears has appeared in three. Both look to have long-term potential and, if possible, an extra year of eligibility would be great. Fifteen other freshmen have gotten limited experience in “garbage time” over 1-2 games and are not likely to see action in five. Regardless, we’re likely to redshirt 15+ of our 20 freshmen recruits and the number could be as high as 19.
As an aside, we’ve also had 16 walk-ons get playing time this year which has to be a record for Tulane. This does not include Merek Glover who is now on scholarship. One of them, Timothy Shafter, has appeared in five games in the offensive line, more than any of our three scholarship redshirt freshmen linemen. I’m not sure if that says more about him or about them; hopefully, him.
I don’t know how the back half of this season will play out, but I like the way our coach is building a program, taking advantage of the changing rules as well as anyone.
Roll Wave!!!