BYU will have a 123-man roster in place by the time the season kicks off August 31 in Charlottesville, Virginia. However, we currently show 138 players on the BYU football roster. This number will be further augmented by walk-on players when classes begin in the Fall. Something has to give. Some players on the current roster will not be asked to participate with the team this season. So, who is on the bubble? To help answer this question, we put every player currently listed on the roster into one of three groups.
Group 1: Scholarship Players
These 82 players are on the roster for sure because they are on scholarship. The health of Houston Reynolds makes his continued participation questionable, but we’ve included him in this group until further information becomes available. Note that in our Scholarship Tracker, we show 83 scholarship players on the roster. Trenton Trammell will remain on scholarship but will sit out the season with a torn ACL. By NCAA rule, he will not count against the 85-man scholarship limit for the season. Thus, we have not included him in this group.
Group 2: Safe Bet Walk-ons
This group includes 23 non-scholarship players on the recently released 2-deep roster, players who contributed last year, or players who are in positions of high need. The total list in alphabetical order: P Scott Arellano, DT Justin Blackmore, RB Nate Carter, CB Cameron Comer, OLB Tanner Cox, DE Michael Doman, TE Michael Edmunds, WR Kurt Henderson, CB Adam Hogan, OG Kyle Johnson, OT Cole Jones, P Jordan Miller, S Blake Morgan, DS Kevin O’Mary, WR Colby Pearson, S Skye PoVey, WR Cody Raymond, WR Skyler Ridley, QB Christian Stewart, DE Logan Taele, WR Eric Thornton, S Michael Wadsworth, and CB Jake Ziolkowski,
Note: The total of the first two groups is 105. The players in these two groups will comprise the roster for Fall camp. The NCAA limits to 105 the number of participants in Fall Camp, which will begin August 2nd. The coaches will also choose a handful of alternates to replace any players who do not report to camp or who are injured during the course of practice.
Group 3: Bubble Watch
So who will be on 123-man roster once the season starts? Eighteen additional players will join the team when classes begin on September 3rd. This group will be comprised of players on our current BYU football roster as well as walk-ons who make the team via tryout on the first day of class. The best we can tell, the players who are currently on the roster bubble are listed below. We wish all the players good luck as they strive to earn a spot on the 2013 BYU Football roster! In addition to Trent Trammell, this group includes:
LB Nathan Bayles, RB Khalil Bell, DS Devin Brewer, DS Ben Chapple, DL Chris Copier, OL Andrew Crawford, WR Dallin Cutler, OL Parker Dawe, QB Blake Decker, DB DJ Doman, LB Jordan Egbert, WR Travis Frey, DB Levi Gifford, K Matt Gulbrandsen, QB Brad Heap, K Tyler Jackson, LB Milo Jenkins, DL Matthew Jensen, RB Garrett Juergens, WR Mitchell Juergens, DL David Laird, OL Quinn Lawlor, LB Blake Lord, DL Josh Marquardt, QB Dallin McEwen, RB Zane Mendenhall, WR Luke Nelson, LB Matthew Relei, OL Ryan Reynolds, LB Jared Richardson, DL Darin Tuttle, LB Robert Wood III.
As always, if any of our readers have information that conflicts with our groups (if you know of one of our bubble players that has been invited to participate in Fall Camp, etc.), please comment below or send us an email.
To kill some time during the offseason, we’ve updated the Basketball Roster HERE! Assuming rumors of Ian Harward’s departure are confirmed, the coaches still have 3 scholarships to hand out for the 2013-14 season. Note that BYU has outstanding offers to 6’7″ F Sai Tummala (SLCC) and 6’8″ PF Tanner Lancona (Tesoro HS, California) and has also shown interest in the following available players: 6’6″ F Jamal Aytes (JSerra Catholic HS, California), 6’0″ SG Mahlon Jones (Hesston College, Kansas), 6’2″ SG Trey Mason (Loyola HS, California), 6’1″ PG Trey Dickerson (God’s Academy, Texas), and 6’0″ PG Eris Winder (Palo Verde HS, Nevada).
Here is a list of returned missionaries on the basketball team:
| Player Name |
Mission |
| Nate Austin |
Texas McAllen |
| Kyle Collinsworth |
Russia Vladivostok |
| Skyler Halford |
Brazil Porto Alegre North |
| Tyler Haws |
Philippines Quezon City |
| Josh Sharp |
Texas Houston South |
Here is a list of the record NINE basketball players currently serving missions, including five who’ve recently received their calls:
| Player Name |
Mission |
MTC Date |
| Cooper Ainge |
Chile Concepcion |
22-May-13 |
| Cory Calvert |
Massachusetts Boston |
22-May-13 |
| Jordan Chatman |
Taiwan Taipei |
25-Apr-12 |
| Nick Emery |
Germany Frankfurt |
1-May-13 |
| Jakob Hartsock |
Nevada Las Vegas West |
19-Jun-13 |
| Isaac Neilson |
Alabama Birmingham |
11-Jan-12 |
| Austin Nelson |
Argentina Buenos Aires West |
16-May-12 |
| Braiden Shaw |
California Sacramento |
19-Jun-13 |
| Jaren Sweeney |
Argentina Buenos Aires North |
29-Apr-12 |
It will be interesting to see who Coach Rose brings onto the roster in the coming weeks. In the meantime, have a great offseason and keep checking the roster for updates as new players are added to the group. Go Cougars!
Updated 4/23/13
The ACC, B1G, B12, and P12 all have “Grant of Rights” in place which means that all teams currently in these conference are basically locked in for well over a decade. Notre Dame apparently agreed to the ACC grant of rights (excluding football) but they also recently extended their deal with NBC as a football independent for the long haul. What does all this mean?
1. It means that it is HIGHLY unlikely that any team in the ACC, B1G, B12 or P12 will leave for any other conference.
2. It means that Notre Dame will be long-term partner in Independence for BYU.
3. It means that the SEC is basically stuck at 14 teams because there are now virtually no viable expansion targets – maybe.
4. It does NOT mean however, that the conferences with Grant of Rights will stop trying to expand.
IF the B1G expands…
I believe their selection criteria will be 1) AAU universities that are 2) geographically close and that 3) bring the largest untapped media market.
Long shots: Vanderbilt and Missouri. True they both have sweet deals in the SEC, but they affiliate much better on paper with the B1G schools AND the SEC does not have a Grant of Rights which means they actually COULD leave. Vanderbilt does not have a great media market but lets not forget that bow tie wearing eggheads (I’m looking at you Gordon Gee) are making a lot of these decisions! Apparently the B1G has evaluated Vanderbilt as an option.
Longer shots: UCONN and Cincy. Neither is an AAU school, neither brings any new media markets but both they are close AND they are the last two viable “big-time” expansion candidates east of the Mississippi.
If the SEC expands (they most likely won’t now)
Selection criteria: Does expansion bring more money, power and TV viewers?
Best candidates: The only school that would add value to the SEC AND that could get out of a Grant of Rights is probably Texas. If they were able to legally sever the Grant of Rights, then OU would likely follow. Kansas, an AAU school, would then probably get snatched up by the B1G.
The American Athletic Conference. At the bottom end of this whole mess is “The American.” UConn and Cincy will bail at first chance. UConn has to hope for an invite from the B1G or a Football only invite from the ACC with another invite to join the Catholic 7 for non-Football sports. Cincy has to hope that the B12 will finally agree to a mate for WVU.
If either or both of these teams leave, the AAC will expand to compensate. They need the biggest available media markets and they probably need teams in the Southeast. Check out this map of the conference and note the giant donut-sized hole where there are no AAC teams.
Long shots: Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech. Decent programs in the Southeast.
Best candidates: Army, Arkansas State, and UAB. With all the conference bullies gone, Army might actually consider joining the conference. Arkansas State has new facilities and UAB is in a decent albeit smallish media market.
Remember, once spring football is over, “Conference Realignment” season will be the only game on TV! Cheers!
FOR THE ARCHIVES: Advantages of a 16 team conference.
While it is now not very likely to happen, the 16 team conference model makes tremendous sense because it allows for two 4-team pods aligned into two divisions. This solves problems created by a larger conference such as the inability to schedule conference rivals, re-matches in the CCG, season means something, playing everyone in conference etc. It could work like this:
- Pod North teams play each other = 3 games
- Pod North plays 2 games against Pod South (division rivals) = 2 games (play every division opponent every other year).
- Pod North plays 2 games against Pod West (even years) or Pod East (odd years) = 2 games (play every conference opponent every 4 years).
- The best part of this system is a football marathon on the last Saturday of November. Here is how this would work. In EVEN years, Pod North #1 v Pod East #1, #2 v #2, and so forth. Remember, North and East teams wouldn’t have played in even years so there would be no re-matches. In ODD years, Pod North #1 v Post West #1, etc. The last Saturday in November becomes the 8th conference game.
- Winners play in a true conference championship game the first Saturday in December.
Here is a look at the projected Depth Chart as we wrap up Spring football. A couple items to keep in mind:
1. The injury notes only reflect players whose participation in Fall Camp is in question. Current injuries (such as Ammon Olsen’s knee) which are not expected to hinder a player’s fall availability have been removed.
2. The depth chart is our estimate of how things will look on the opening day of Fall Camp. Players will still move up/down during camp before the Depth Chart is locked in for the Virginia game.
Please comment below if you have any corrections or email us here.
You can download the PDF version here.
Here is a look at the projected Depth Chart for tomorrow’s Blue-White Game. Please comment below if you have any corrections or email us here.
You can download the PDF version here.
With seven practices in the books and eight remaining until the completion of Spring camp, there has been a lot of movement on the Depth Chart and we wanted to post an update:
Here is a look at the Depth Chart halfway through Spring football. Please comment below if you have any corrections or email us here.
You can download the PDF version here.
When the Cougar football team opened Spring practice two weeks ago, the roster featured 106 players–61 on scholarship and 45 walk-ons–about what we’d expect for a Spring roster at BYU. The experience of the walk-ons ranges from a few who’ve participated with the team since 2007 (Dallin Cutler, Blake Morgan, and Skyler Ridley) to twelve who just earned a spot at January tryouts. At least one name was previously unknown to most BYU fans: 5’11″ 205-pound Linebacker Robert Wood III. And while fans may not recognize his face, the coaches have begun to recognize him as a fixture around the football offices. We’ve asked Robert to share with us how he ended up at BYU:
“Growing up, my family and I moved 12 times. When I was 9 years old and living in New York, I decided I was going to play football at the highest level and that I wanted to play for BYU. I tried to jump start my career, doing everything from not drinking soda to playing catch with my Dad at a nearby field. In 2007, I moved from Belmont High School (Boston, MA) to Olympus High School (Holladay, Utah), where I graduated in 2008. Recruiting was difficult with all our moving as I was on a different team every year.
“Because I wasn’t recruited out of High School and hadn’t been accepted to BYU, I ended up only sending film out to other local schools where I had been accepted: Utah, Idaho, and Snow College to name a few. I knew my dream was to play at BYU, but I just wanted to play somewhere. After everything, I decided I would save all my eligibility until after my mission and wait to enroll in school. I worked and spent nearly all my time continuing to train with my family.
“I served my mission in the Guatemala Guatemala City South Mission from April 2009 to April 2011. It was the best decision I’d ever made in my life (until I married my wife). I woke up 35 minutes early every morning of my mission to work out just a little bit longer. Although football was never a distraction, from 5:55am to 7:00am, I prepared for when I would get my chance to play. I never missed a day.
“When I got home, after two unsuccessful applications, I was finally accepted to BYU. I ended up attending Summer Term in 2011. I did my first full-time semester in the Winter of 2012. I tried out for the team three times. After not making it, I talked to the Running Backs Coach, and he told me I was next in line, but that there wasn’t a need right then and if someone went down they’d call me. I made every bookmark on my computer about BYU football, and I checked the bookmarks several times a day. Every time any type of injury was mentioned, I was in the office right then. Despite my constant visits, no spot was offered.
“During this time, I underwent a major knee surgery and after four months of recovery, I tried out again. It always seemed like I was right on the edge of the roster. It was a numbers game and continues to be one. One thing I’ve known is that no one is entitled to play football. It’s not a right I have just because of my speed or strength, but rather an opportunity that I can earn when the guys in charge see that I’m worth it and give me a shot. After failing to make the team yet again and after receiving the same feedback, I thought I’d try rugby in the meantime. I played rugby last fall until trying out for the football team again this January.
“There were about seven of us trying out at Running Back, and when it came to running one-on-one routes, time was only going to allow maybe three reps a guy. I ended up going up about ten times, because every time there was even the slightest hesitation by another player, I was already running the route. Unfortunately, I was again turned away. After having seen my face countless times, the Walk-on Coach asked me when he saw me in the weightlifting class why it was that I hadn’t made the team. I told him that it was because of numbers, but also that I was willing to play any position.
“When I found out any player had gone down with an injury, I was in the office every day until I found the coach I needed to talk to. One coach ended up talking to a different position coach and found me a potential spot on Defense. I met with the Outside Linebackers Coach the next day and he gave me a shot to come out to learn and compete at that position. I came out that Monday for the first practice of Spring ball. When I was pushed past 3-deep on the Depth Chart, they said that they couldn’t just have me waiting around during team stuff. My dream was short-lived when they cut me as a result of people coming off injury. They told me to come back out in the fall.
“So to be honest, I’m finding myself on the edge of the roster even still, but I’m close and I’m getting closer everyday. I’ll be back to try out at Running Back once again this Fall. I’ve faced a ton of disappointment along the way, but I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve had to prove my dedication to this dream. I’m loving it. It’s rewarding to not give up on my dreams. It was tough when I wasn’t recruited, it was tough when I couldn’t make it into BYU, it was tough when I got hurt, it was tough to try out three times (soon four), and it was tough to get there and be pushed back again, but it’s all made the story that much more enjoyable. As we continue to progress physically, spiritually, or however it may be, we have to enjoy the progress we experience as a result of overcoming disappointments.”
We admire Robert’s heart and determination, qualities prized by the BYU Coaching staff, and wish him the best in his future efforts to make the team. We’ll watch to see if he’ll earn one of the 38 walk-on spots on this year’s 123-man Roster when classes begin on September 3rd.
