Roster Management Looking Ahead Could Be An Issue

CHAPEL HILL – The effects on college athletics rendered by Covid 19 won’t dissipate when norm is restored. There’s no telling how long schools will take to recover financially, and what does normal even mean anymore?

In football, roster management is already an issue looking ahead, and in time it could become an enormous challenge for coaching staffs with a direct implication on recruiting. And at North Carolina, the pinch will be felt more with the class of 2022 than the current one.

Every college football player in the nation will get this season back regardless, the NCAA announced in August. So, a true freshman can start every game and play 1,000 snaps and still be considered a true freshman next season. Seniors can also return. Hence, the challenge managing rosters moving forward.

“It's very interesting,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “We're all sitting here looking at roster management now and what does that mean? Because we've never had COVID before, so that changes a lot of things that you're doing. We've never had the NCAA come out and say this year doesn't count, so all your guys are eligible four years after this.”

The layers of questions begin with the seniors. UNC currently has 12 on scholarship with a few having legitimate chances at landing in the NFL next year. Chazz Surratt is a likely first-round pick, so there’s no reason to believe he will be back in Chapel Hill. Dazz Newsome, Michael Carter and Tomon Fox will get serious looks, and so might Beau Corrales.

But someone like Tyrone Hopper, who has missed a lot of game and practice reps during his UNC career, and who has stated his goal is to play in the NFL, might opt to come back to enhance his pro prospects. Plus, he’s already in graduate school, so at the very least Hopper can play some more college football, help the Tar Heels win games and leave school with his masters.

But those players still have to make decisions, and most will be difficult ones.

“Do your seniors go try to get a job when the job market is tough,” Brown asked. “Do your seniors go to the NFL if they're not really sure what round they're going to be drafted, but do they roll the dice? Because you have to determine by the second week in January.

“If you're a graduate, can you get into graduate school if you want to come back? Or do you have to be a grad transfer and go somewhere else?”

What about the rest of the roster?

“If you're not playing a lot, do you want to transfer? And all those things now are issues that weren't issues before,” Carolina’s coach said. “We've got 120 lockers in our locker room. Next year, we could have up to 97 guys on scholarship, and then what do you do? I don't have places to put them. So, there are a lot of different things that we're having to look at we've never had to look at before.”

And then there’s next season’s incoming freshmen. UNC currently has 17 players committed to the class of 2021 and likely will bring in two more concluding at 19. Tony Grimes was originally a member of this class, but he enrolled in August and is a freshman on the Tar Heels.

The NCAA limits each FBS school to 85 football scholarships, but seniors who return won’t count against that number, but after next season, the maximum will return to 85 without any exceptions. But, Brown has assured the current commitments their spots are secure even though bringing all of them in will further complicate the roster management process.

“We had a lot of parents say, ‘Are you still going to be able to recruit my son even though you have some seniors that may come back?’ And the answer is yes, you still get your initials this year that you had,” Brown said. “The big question will be, and not just your seniors, your seniors will be gone next year if they come back. The big question will be all of the other guys that did not count this year and their eligibility means that we could have like 52 freshmen on our team next year.

“And then that really affects the amount of numbers that you may have available for the 2022 class. That's where it's really going to affect recruiting on my standpoint."

UNC was planning on taking a full or nearly full class in 2022 before the pandemic threw everything out of whack. Now, it’s uncertain how many the Tar Heels will take. Carolina has extended approximately 60 offers to prospects in the ’22 class – a relatively low number compared to most Power 5 programs - with just five coming since mid-August.

“Billy High and I have talked hours about the effects of recruiting in two years,” Brown said, referring to his Director of Recruiting. “Not this year, but two years. Because, if everybody stays and the seniors that may not have an easy time finding a job right now if they're not in the NFL. If they want to stay, then you go.

“But if you go back to 85 in two years, that 2022 class could be a really small class. It’s a concern all of us are having to look at.”

And it will highlight the eventual fallout from a coronavirus pandemic in the world of college football.