Scholarship count/limits...

If anyone knows what the scholarship counts limits and when we might be at full strength, I would love to see it. I just read that 8 of our commits for this year are getting an early start and are on campus now. That is a good thing. A lot of QBs in the mix. I am hoping we convert some of the former QBs to receiver or some such thing or we are going to have wasted bodies on the sidelines for a bit.

I have not been keeping track of who is and isn't on scholarship the last two years, and historically the program doesn't note who is S and who is W on the roster. And I have not found on Rivals or any other site what the exact S numbers are for this year and next. The closest estimate I can get (from Jon Kirby at Rivals/JayhawkSlant) is that KU has only ~18-19 (out of 25 annual new starts possible) new scholarships available for next year because of blue shirting. And I have not found anywhere how close KU is to getting back to the 85 total scholarship players allowed each year. The last time I had worked the numbers back then I did not think we would be back to full strength (because of the 25 new start annual limit) until at least 2020.

See the recruiting thread for an update on what's happening. KU currently has 17 commitments listed for next fall's class.

I remember something about that in the past and knew it was dismal, but did't think it was all the way out to 2020. I figured we might be closer by now. if we only have 17 out of the 25 available, we aren't catching up any time soon.

Not good. I really think Beaty is the right guy, but if he can't get better and more people into the program, he may not have any chance at all.

Addressing your comments re: the recruiting performance of Beaty & Co.

First my comments --

1. No one outside the program seems to have a number for total scholarship players. The program keeps a tight grip on that info, and the differences between FB and hoops make it very labor intensive to track FB in comparison. So my estimate of Fall 2020 getting back to 85 may be way off by now

2. Weis really shredded the program with his over reliance on JUCOs and his bad picks on top of that. My notes record and I recall that Weis got rid of a total of 29 players in his first year at KU. I do not have the S v W breakout for that 29. But looking back at my last worksheet (for Fall 2015), by the time Beaty took over, he inherited just 58 scholarship players from the Weis (54)/Gill(4) eras. That number should have been closer to 65.

And remember that this is the third year that Beaty & Co will be looking to blue shirt players if they can (add players now that will actually count against 2018). Past blue shirting is the reason they have under 20 new scholarships available this year. All in all, I get the impression that most of the CFB "Pros from Dover" who follow recruiting think Beaty is doing a good job in light of the hand he was dealt.

The excerpt below is from this post: Some news and notes on New Year's Day (membership required to read)

"How the numbers work out

This year a big topic has been how does the staff have room for all of the players who are committed or the ones who are still on the board.

I think we have seen all along how creative Beaty and the staff has been. There are multiple ways from traditional full rides, to counting a recruit forward (blue shirt), to a Two-by-three, a grayshirt, or walk on.

I believe the staff is doing what they can to get players they feel on campus in the best way available. I believe some players will not be full ride prospects but that really doesn't matter. What matters is finding a way to get recruits. I know some recruits don't want to say publicly what kind of offer they received so I want to make it clear I won't push a prospect for that info if they don't want to say.

And I understand their position. Some may not have standard scholarship offers but want to go through signing day ceremonies as a normal signee. So I'm not going to get into those things if a recruit doesn't want to address it. There may be times I know what it is and ask but they might not want to answer. It is the right process if a recruit wants it to look publicly they are getting a normal scholarship I have no problem with that. What matters is they show up in August when it counts."
-- Jon Kirby, JayhawkSlant, 2017-01-01

Re: "pros from Dover" quote -- I was Army Medical Department for 25 years (pharmacy tech enlisted, healthcare finance/comptroller/management as an officer), with my enlisted time before KU and my commissioned time after. As a movie buff and an AMEDD soldier, it is only natural that I should recall things that relate to that experience, especially after having 32 months in country stationed in Seoul. It was 40 years after the setting of M*A*S*H and within 15 miles of Uijongbu, nearest town to the area of operations for the 8055th MASH*.

*Author H. Richard Hornberger, Jr. MD, pen name Richard Hooker, was a surgeon at the 8055th, the actual unit that was the inspiration for the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

Here he is outside his quarters, the infamous Swamp.
And yes, he modeled Hawkeye Pierce after himself (talk about type casting with both Sutherland and Alda, eh?)
For more on the real MASH units in Korea, see here. .