With the second National Signing Day coming up, we’re about to see if there has been a major change in policy in the way the Florida football program is managed.
The Gator football team that played in the Peach Bowl had 80 scholarship players, including two former walk-ons who’ve since graduated. In total, 11 seniors left that team, bringing the total down to 69 scholarships committed for the 2019 season.
Five players — Chauncey Garnder-Johnson, Vosean Joseph, Jachai Polite, Jawaan Taylor, and Jordan Scarlett — declared for the NFL Draft early. That brought the count down to 64.
Two players transferred, WR Daquon Green to the FCS level and C TJ McCoy to Louisville. Florida also added a graduate transfer, edge rusher Jonathan Greenard from Louisville. That makes a net loss of one from transfers, bringing the total down to 63.
There was one more drop in scholarship count: hard luck linebacker Nick Smith accepted a medical disqualification. He can continue to pursue his degree on the UAA’s dime, but he cannot participate in football anymore and will not count towards the NCAA’s 85-scholarship cap. That brings the total down to 62.
With 62 scholarships committed to next year, that means UF has room to bring in 23 recruits. Dan Mullen and his staff signed 21 of them at the early signing day. That brings us back up to 83 scholarships committed.
The Gators have two more recruits committed, linebacker Diwun Black and wide receiver Arjei Henderson. If Florida signs both of them — Black is a strong commit who’ll likely sign despite some concerns about grades, while Henderson has been a serial changer of his mind — then that makes the full 85 scholarships for the 2019 season.
Yet, Florida is continuing to pursue recruits. Despite this math having not changed in a while, Mullen and crew have been hosting 2019 recruits on campus and going hard after some of them. If both Black and Henderson sign and then anyone else does, Florida will have oversigned for the first time ever.
Oversigning, if you’re not familiar, is the term for when a team takes on enough recruits to have more than 85 scholarships committed for a season. Teams have until the start of the fall practice to get themselves under that 85-man cap.
Oversigning blew up as an issue almost a decade ago as the SEC’s dominance of the sport was really setting in. Several SEC programs, mostly in the West division, oversigned nearly every year. Big Ten fans were the ones really upset about it because no one in that league was allowed to oversign.
They framed their objections in terms of player welfare — that it’s unfair to the older players forced off the roster in the offseason potentially against their will — though it was mostly about competitive concerns. Oversigning can be a method of keeping the quality of a roster higher than it otherwise would be: sign as many as you reasonably can, and weed out the guys who don’t pan out early because you’re over the 85 limit instead of having them take up a scholarship for four or five years.
Rules have been put in place since then to combat the worst excesses of oversigning, all of them aimed at the time when a team signs players. There is no rule anywhere except inside athletic departments that prevent teams from oversigning.
One such rule existed under Jeremy Foley’s watch at Florida. He did not allow his coaches to oversign even though, for instance, Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain knew the ins and outs of the practice from their time spent in the SEC West. Gator coaches could only sign up to the 85 limit, regardless of where they were in relation to the annual limit. The end.
The issue hasn’t come up under Scott Stricklin yet. McElwain didn’t oversign in his final class, and Mullen didn’t attempt to even sign enough to get to the 85 cap last year because he didn’t want to take players just to take players in his transitional class.
Right now, it has potentially become an issue. Florida has commits going right up to the cap but is still pursuing other players.
There may be a very benign explanation for it if Mullen does oversign. It’s possible that a veteran or two have told him that they intend to transfer after graduating this spring. That is the timing, for instance, for what offensive lineman Andrew Mike did last year. I don’t know whether he told Mullen about that plan before signing day (or whether he even had the plan before signing day), but it was a moot point because Mullen wasn’t close to oversigning last year. It is pertinent this year, though, and in that case, Mullen has some number of scholarships he can use that puts Florida above the cap now yet at or below it later without needing to push someone out.
Even in that case, though, it still would make a change over the Foley era. Back then coaches couldn’t oversign, period. It’s possible that things have loosened under Stricklin. The new Gator boss has spoken out in favor of protecting players against the scummy side of oversigning in the past, so for now I tend to believe that Mullen can’t oversign without some kind of foreknowledge of something like a veteran planning to transfer after graduation in May.
For now, Florida hasn’t taken a commit at any point in this cycle that would mathematically put the program over the 85 cap, even back before players began declaring for the draft or transferring. To date, it still hasn’t. I’ll be watching with interest to see if the oversigning policy has changed and, if so, did Mullen already know of players planning to leave or if he was crossing his fingers that some number would and not make him have to force someone out against his will. I really hope that Florida hasn’t become a place where that latter scenario is permitted.