Daily Blog •July 2, 2012

I have developed several pet peeves after covering college football for nearly three decades. Three of them concern coach speak. The first is when a new HC or a new OC or new DC is hired you always hear them say in the press conference that they are going to have a more attacking style on both sides of the ball. You never hear a HC say that the team is going to be more laid back, play more soft coverage, ease up on offense.

The 2nd coach speak comes on Signing Day. I don’t think I have ever heard a coach say that “this year we really missed the boat on several recruits and we have a disappointing class coming in.” I always hear “I really like my class” and “we addressed a lot of needs.”

My final coach speak is when I hear a coach say that we are young and inexperienced and have more underclassmen than upperclassmen. This bothers me for a couple of reasons. First, when you consider that most freshman end up red-shirting their freshman seasons, it is almost like having another class when you add them to the true incoming freshman class. This means you basically have five classes on a football roster (true frosh, rFr, Soph, Jr, Sr) and that means roughly 60% of your roster should be filled with underclassmen. Second, usually on signing day teams sign anywhere between 20-25 recruits on avg but after three years of injuries, transfers, early entries to the NFL draft, that class is usually down at least 5-10 players which means your senior class is smaller than your freshman class.

Today’s blog I decided to take the official rosters on all 124 teams and add up the total number of Seniors (incl 5th yr), Juniors, Sophomores and Freshman (including true and redshirts) to see if indeed there are far more underclassmen on a roster than upperclassmen.

Below is a chart of every team and naturally those numbers could be in flux due to transfers, suspensions, etc but I do think you get a reasonably accurate look at the number for each class and each team.

As you can see nearly 60% of the rosters like I originally thought are filled with underclassmen. 43 teams were above the 60% underclassmen barrier while only nine teams (7.3%) have more upperclassmen than underclassmen on their roster. Not surprising UTSA leads the way with 77% of their roster being made up of underclassmen.

# of Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores,
Freshman Per Roster

 

School SR JR SO FR Total Upper Lower Upper % Lower %
UTSA 7 17 52 30 106 24 82 22.64% 77.36%
Marshall 16 8 27 47 98 24 74 24.49% 75.51%
Virginia Tech 18 14 32 59 123 32 91 26.02% 73.98%
Stanford 15 14 29 52 110 29 81 26.36% 73.64%
Virginia 16 12 39 26 93 28 65 30.11% 69.89%
Clemson 20 14 22 54 110 34 76 30.91% 69.09%
Indiana 8 22 41 25 96 30 66 31.25% 68.75%
Georgia Tech 13 26 30 54 123 39 84 31.71% 68.29%
Colorado 8 20 30 29 87 28 59 32.18% 67.82%
Bowling Green 10 25 29 44 108 35 73 32.41% 67.59%
ULM 13 17 20 41 91 30 61 32.97% 67.03%
North Carolina 20 17 37 37 111 37 74 33.33% 66.67%
Colorado St 15 23 32 44 114 38 76 33.33% 66.67%
Wisconsin 9 29 31 44 113 38 75 33.63% 66.37%
Illinois 18 19 23 47 107 37 70 34.58% 65.42%
Northwestern 16 22 20 51 109 38 71 34.86% 65.14%
Rice 8 26 19 44 97 34 63 35.05% 64.95%
TCU 16 21 26 40 103 37 66 35.92% 64.08%
LSU 11 33 30 48 122 44 78 36.07% 63.93%
Duke 16 22 31 36 105 38 67 36.19% 63.81%
UTEP 20 14 21 38 93 34 59 36.56% 63.44%
Central Michigan 18 19 24 40 101 37 64 36.63% 63.37%
Notre Dame 13 18 19 34 84 31 53 36.90% 63.10%
Washington 12 19 27 26 84 31 53 36.90% 63.10%
Mississippi St 17 22 16 50 105 39 66 37.14% 62.86%
Auburn 13 19 32 22 86 32 54 37.21% 62.79%
Northern Illinois 16 22 32 32 102 38 64 37.25% 62.75%
Arizona 22 20 26 43 111 42 69 37.84% 62.16%
Cincinnati 25 16 22 44 107 41 66 38.32% 61.68%
Minnesota 16 27 30 39 112 43 69 38.39% 61.61%
Wyoming 15 22 28 31 96 37 59 38.54% 61.46%
Texas 14 25 34 28 101 39 62 38.61% 61.39%
San Diego St 16 23 22 40 101 39 62 38.61% 61.39%
UCF 21 12 31 21 85 33 52 38.82% 61.18%
Nevada 17 11 21 23 72 28 44 38.89% 61.11%
Navy 29 36 48 54 167 65 102 38.92% 61.08%
Nebraska 30 25 28 58 141 55 86 39.01% 60.99%
Toledo 18 22 31 31 102 40 62 39.22% 60.78%
Kentucky 16 16 14 35 81 32 49 39.51% 60.49%
Boston College 16 16 32 17 81 32 49 39.51% 60.49%
South Carolina 23 15 28 30 96 38 58 39.58% 60.42%
Texas St 16 34 36 40 126 50 76 39.68% 60.32%
North Texas 14 23 20 36 93 37 56 39.78% 60.22%
Tulsa 22 25 46 24 117 47 70 40.17% 59.83%
Florida Atlantic 20 31 29 46 126 51 75 40.48% 59.52%
Louisville 12 25 32 22 91 37 54 40.66% 59.34%
Middle Tennessee 20 24 23 41 108 44 64 40.74% 59.26%
Iowa St 27 24 25 49 125 51 74 40.80% 59.20%
Tulane 16 22 26 29 93 38 55 40.86% 59.14%
UNLV 15 21 17 35 88 36 52 40.91% 59.09%
Army 26 38 51 41 156 64 92 41.03% 58.97%
Tennessee 13 29 39 21 102 42 60 41.18% 58.82%
Oregon St 18 20 28 26 92 38 54 41.30% 58.70%
Louisiana 17 19 26 25 87 36 51 41.38% 58.62%
SMU 18 21 23 32 94 39 55 41.49% 58.51%
Eastern Michigan 20 17 28 24 89 37 52 41.57% 58.43%
Oklahoma St 22 28 25 45 120 50 70 41.67% 58.33%
Rutgers 17 21 25 28 91 38 53 41.76% 58.24%
Southern Miss 19 22 16 41 98 41 57 41.84% 58.16%
Western Michigan 14 27 14 43 98 41 57 41.84% 58.16%
Boise St 25 16 16 41 98 41 57 41.84% 58.16%
Pittsburgh 18 20 22 30 90 38 52 42.22% 57.78%
USC 20 22 29 28 99 42 57 42.42% 57.58%
Washington St 20 22 27 30 99 42 57 42.42% 57.58%
Alabama 17 28 35 26 106 45 61 42.45% 57.55%
East Carolina 19 26 26 35 106 45 61 42.45% 57.55%
South Alabama 18 36 31 42 127 54 73 42.52% 57.48%
Houston 25 21 24 38 108 46 62 42.59% 57.41%
Maryland 18 17 22 25 82 35 47 42.68% 57.32%
Kent St 19 18 24 24 85 37 48 43.53% 56.47%
Ohio St 22 17 25 25 89 39 50 43.82% 56.18%
Georgia 17 26 33 22 98 43 55 43.88% 56.12%
Arkansas St 23 20 21 34 98 43 55 43.88% 56.12%
Connecticut 19 17 24 22 82 36 46 43.90% 56.10%
Oregon 16 25 29 23 93 41 52 44.09% 55.91%
Buffalo 13 21 25 18 77 34 43 44.16% 55.84%
West Virginia 24 15 19 29 87 39 48 44.83% 55.17%
Miami, Fl 15 29 22 32 98 44 54 44.90% 55.10%
Texas Tech 17 23 23 26 89 40 49 44.94% 55.06%
Iowa 18 23 26 24 91 41 50 45.05% 54.95%
California 19 22 30 20 91 41 50 45.05% 54.95%
Texas A&M 20 34 22 43 119 54 65 45.38% 54.62%
Wake Forest 12 23 21 21 77 35 42 45.45% 54.55%
Ball St 18 22 20 28 88 40 48 45.45% 54.55%
Missouri 19 27 29 26 101 46 55 45.54% 54.46%
Memphis 13 25 23 22 83 38 45 45.78% 54.22%
Syracuse 19 26 30 23 98 45 53 45.92% 54.08%
Kansas 16 23 21 24 84 39 45 46.43% 53.57%
Utah 26 31 24 41 122 57 65 46.72% 53.28%
Michigan St 18 25 22 27 92 43 49 46.74% 53.26%
Massachusetts 15 22 17 25 79 37 42 46.84% 53.16%
NC State 26 27 22 38 113 53 60 46.90% 53.10%
UAB 17 21 20 23 81 38 43 46.91% 53.09%
FIU 33 21 17 44 115 54 61 46.96% 53.04%
Ohio 21 26 19 34 100 47 53 47.00% 53.00%
New Mexico 26 18 21 28 93 44 49 47.31% 52.69%
UCLA 20 25 20 30 95 45 50 47.37% 52.63%
Utah St 19 28 24 28 99 47 52 47.47% 52.53%
Florida 13 29 23 23 88 42 46 47.73% 52.27%
Temple 14 25 13 29 81 39 42 48.15% 51.85%
Miami, Oh 16 27 21 25 89 43 46 48.31% 51.69%
Kansas St 30 22 29 26 107 52 55 48.60% 51.40%
Vanderbilt 15 22 17 22 76 37 39 48.68% 51.32%
Oklahoma 20 20 18 24 82 40 42 48.78% 51.22%
Akron 18 25 21 24 88 43 45 48.86% 51.14%
San Jose St 18 27 20 27 92 45 47 48.91% 51.09%
Hawaii 12 26 23 16 77 38 39 49.35% 50.65%
Idaho 22 28 15 36 101 50 51 49.50% 50.50%
Arizona St 18 33 22 30 103 51 52 49.51% 50.49%
Arkansas 24 28 22 31 105 52 53 49.52% 50.48%
Air Force 28 25 18 36 107 53 54 49.53% 50.47%
Florida St 23 35 33 26 117 58 59 49.57% 50.43%
Michigan 18 27 20 25 90 45 45 50.00% 50.00%
BYU 29 26 23 32 110 55 55 50.00% 50.00%
Troy 27 34 26 35 122 61 61 50.00% 50.00%
Baylor 19 30 24 24 97 49 48 50.52% 49.48%
South Florida 23 26 22 24 95 49 46 51.58% 48.42%
Louisiana Tech 32 23 23 28 106 55 51 51.89% 48.11%
Purdue 24 23 17 26 90 47 43 52.22% 47.78%
Penn St 25 29 23 21 98 54 44 55.10% 44.90%
New Mexico St 16 26 15 19 76 42 34 55.26% 44.74%
Mississippi 25 36 27 21 109 61 48 55.96% 44.04%
Western Kentucky 22 27 21 17 87 49 38 56.32% 43.68%
Fresno St 26 22 17 15 80 48 32 60.00% 40.00%
Totals 2303 2880 3153 3997 12333 5183 7150 42.03% 57.97%

ONLY 59 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE FIRST COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME!!!