The Scholarship Picture

So where do we stand with scholarships?

Here's the breakdown by recruiting class... for those who don't know, Football Bowl Series Schools get 85 scholarships...

	2007 Roster	2008 Roster	Leaving	Seniors in 08	09 Roster	2008 Walkons
2003 Recruiting Class	7	0	7	---	---	0
2004 Recruiting Class	13	8	5	8	0	0
2005 Recruiting Class	15	12	3	10	2	6
2006 Recruiting Class	27	24	3	0	24	6
2007 Recruiting Class	18	18	0	0*	18	8
2008 Recruiting Class	---	8	---	0	8	---
Verbally Committed for 08^	---	17	---	---	19	---
Scholarships:	80	87	18		71	20
^ committed players taken from Scout.com, 1-21-08 * not sure if Daniel Dufrene will be a Junior or a Senior

I might be missing a couple players from the class of 03, but it really doesn't matter, as they are all done with football. RB recruit Deries Hodge is not included in that list, as people seem pretty certain he will not be on campus this fall (or ever for that matter).

Illinois can use deficit scholarships not used this season on players who enroll a semester early... those players are:

Jeff Allen (OL)

Reggie Ellis (DT)

Jarred Fayson (WR, transfer from Florida, will sit out 08)

Mikel LeShoure (HB)

Whitney Mercilus (DE)

Graham Pocic (OT)

Fred Sykes (WR)

Ashante Williams (CB)

you might notice with players committed and with players projected to commit we currently have 2 too many scholarships spoken for.... which means that one way or another 2 current players or recruits need to find a way to not show up on campus this fall... there are bound to be a couple of transfers or non-qualifiers, so it will work itself out in the end.

A couple notes:

- Rumors floating around are that Kyle Hudson might forgo his senior year of Football to concentrate on baseball, the way I understand it is not true... and he will play this fall.
- Joe Morgan left the team in December, and alot of people thought he was gone... but I understand that he is back with the team now... so we will see.
- It is possible Billy Garza (RS Senior QB) might not be back this fall, according to Lindsey Willhite's Blog (good rundown of the current roster situation can be found there as well)
- Same with Dan Motuliak (Senior OL)

Neither Garza or Motuliak figure to see much (if any at all) playing time next fall... Morgan and Hudson might be moving down the depth chart this fall depending how things go this spring, but they both could very well be contributors next year if they stay with the program.


Along those lines, here are how the scholarships break down by what class players will be in 08:

	Redshirted	Non-Redshirt	Total
Freshman	11	23	34
Sophomore	13	6	19
Junior	14	3	17
Senior	8	9	17
TOTAL:	58	29	87

so going into next season, the average scholarship athlete on the team will have 1.86 years of college experience... so we are still a young team.

Academic Class:
Freshman		23
Sophomore		17
Junior		16
Senior		23
Super-Senior		8
Total:		87