The Buckeyes' 2017 recruiting class is still holding strong atop the national recruiting rankings, but a limited number of available scholarships appears to be presenting some issues within the class.
Last week, the first real discussion about "grayshirting" began when news broke that 2017 running back commit Todd Sibley was asked to delay his enrollment to a later date. The act of taking a grayshirt is pretty much just that. The player isn't on scholarship, isn't a part of the team and obviously is unable to practice or workout with the team. Oftentimes the individual's enrollment – on scholarship – begins during the second semester, typically right after the football season ends.
The process has taken on a negative connotation over the years as it's often been linked to schools that are notorious for oversigning. Sometimes, though, it really just makes sense. Back in 2003, Buckeye quarterback signee Todd Boeckman agreed to take a grayshirt in order to put an additional year between himself and a pair of fellow signal-callers, 2002 signees Troy Smith and Justin Zwick.
Todd Boeckman grayshirted in 2003. Via
With Wednesday's news of Donovan Munger leaving the program, the Buckeyes are now sitting at 86 scholarships. They'll need that number to go down by one before the fall in order to reach the NCAA-mandated scholarship limit of 85; which is something Eric touched on a few months back.
Looking ahead to the 2017 class, things are shaping up to be much trickier than usual. The amount of space available for a given recruiting class has been a concern for several recent classes, but the majority of the time things have worked themselves out. Very rarely have we seen a kid coveted by the staff who was forced to go elsewhere due to a numbers crunch. Some would argue that Sam Bruce fell into that category for 2016, but there were so many other factors at play in that case.
The 2016 roster is slated to see just six scholarship seniors. The numbers for this past signing day haul were helped out immensely by early entries to the Draft, but things aren't shaping up to be the same this time around. Raekwon McMillan and Gareon Conley are the names that are being tossed around the most, but even if there were to end up being five or six early entries, that still would only bring that magic number up to 11 or 12 available scholarships. We are more than nine months away from signing day and the Buckeyes' 2017 class is already sitting at 13 commitments.
Now obviously early entries to the NFL Draft aren't the only way to free up some space. There will be the inevitable medical issues and players who don't get their scholarships renewed, but with the recent grayshirt proposal to Todd Sibley and rumors that more could be on the way, it's looking like the staff is feeling the pinch of the scholarships limitations.
So, other than the grayshirt possibilities, what does it mean for the 2017 class? The Buckeyes' top remaining defensive back target — Clairton, Pennsylvania's Lamont Wade — has already had to sit down with the staff to discuss whether or not there's going to be an early-enrollee spot available for him. Just a few short weeks ago, Wade was in Columbus for the Rivals Camp Series. In watching the interview, it was obvious that something was a bit off.
Wade did go on to speak with the staff and it appears as though things were ironed out. It's difficult (nearly impossible?) to think that Ohio State would be unable to work something out to allow their top defensive back target to enroll early, but that's the world we are living in right now.
Danny Clark's recent visit to Alabama has also been well documented, though the reason behind his decision to skip the Buckeyes' spring game has yet to be unveiled. For a while, we were discussing the possibility of Ohio State taking two quarterbacks in the 2017 class, but right now that appears to be unlikely considering the scholarship situation.
With players like Trevon Grimes, Jeffrey Okudah, Chase Young and Cam Akers all seriously considering making Columbus their future home, the staff is going to have to make some tough decisions. It's difficult enough when other schools are using your depth against you, but the NCAA scholarship limitation is a whole different ballgame.
Whether it be more grayshirt proposals or some other tactics, it feels like something will have to be done to get the numbers to where they need to be. Given the amount of 2017 talent the Buckeyes are in on — currently the presumed leader for anywhere from 3 to 5 uncommitted five-star prospects and a handful of four-stars — it's not an ideal time to be struggling with scholarship numbers.
We have been using "20-22" as the guesstimated number of signees for 2017, but it may be time to reevaluate things.
