By my count, there are 78 scholarship players right now. But I added Burtch to my list when Pelini said he would be on scholarship this spring so 77 could be correct as well.
Off the top of my head, Avery Moss, Aaron Curry and DeAndre Wills all left the team somewhat unexpectedly since (basically) the end or the last recruiting cycle, meaning there hasn't been a chance to replace them through recruiting. Also, Jay Guy, Toby Okeyemi and Tyler Evans didn't return for their fifth seasons. Those weren't necessarily unexpected but I don't know how far ahead the coaches knew that for sure to be able to recruit a replacement.
There is another thread with speculation about which walk-ons will be getting scholarships. I think it's fair to count Burtch as a scholarship player as he was a regular contributor last year and the coaches had obviously decided well ahead of time that he would get a scholarship. Burtch plus the three unexpected departures is 81. The other three would make 84. So it's fair to say we were a little short. The degree is up for debate.
There are always unexpected departures. Going into the season with 82-83 leaving room for a couple walkons is perfect IMO. Every once in a while we'll hit that 80ish mark. Anything below that is pretty concerning to me, and it's happened a few times under Bo. USC, and all their sanctions...still is only capped at 75. So we've essentially self imposed almost an equal reduction as the NCAA placed on USC.
How Bo wouldn't know about Guy, Okeyemi, and Evans before the end of last years recruiting is a little beyond me. He likely has that conversation with every senior on the team, and probably again after the regular season giving him a couple months to recruit the position. They would communicate that too him, I'm 100% confident. It only hurts the team not to. So why those spots weren't filled is bizarre.
I don't think we can continue to brush this off as though it doesn't have an impact because we fill them with walkons that weren't going anywhere anyway. Being 6-8 short every year, when our competition is 2-3 over is too big of a gap. It's the difference between having a guy like Mike Shoff on the roster providing depth at OL, or another DT or two (Bazata), or a DE (Ott). It's in the trenches where we lack numbers, and it's there where we most often miss on recruiting. The numbers are the only way to solve that, and we aren't using them. It's my biggest issue with Pelini's recruiting. It's not so much the lack of talent in the individual, it's the lack of talent on the team because we lack the #s.
