Scholarships could fatten UNLV’s win column

By Brian Hilderbrand

Friday, Nov. 16, 2007 | 7:24 a.m.

To those who don't follow college football that closely, and even to some who do, it might have sounded like a hollow excuse from a beleaguered football coach who was desperate to save his job.

But when UNLV head coach Mike Sanford this week cited low scholarship numbers as one of the reasons the Rebels have played so poorly (2-8) this season, he was prepared to back up his point with anecdotal evidence and hard figures.

His most pointed evidence, however, came in the form of the weekly injury update he shares with the media: Redshirt freshman defensive end Anthony White will have surgery to repair a knee injury he suffered last weekend in the San Diego State game and will miss the remainder of the season.

"I love Anthony White, but the fact that we had to play Anthony White, a freshman walk-on, at defensive end shows there's an issue of numbers, of depth," Sanford said.

The Rebels' lack of depth, he said, is tied directly to UNLV's having only 71 (of a maximum 85) scholarship players this season. So how did that happen? The explanation can be confusing; the solution comes only with time.

Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) programs can offer 25 scholarships a year, to a maximum of 85. When scholarship players leave the program for one reason or another it counts against the 85 scholarship total for a year. If a program has a large number of fourth- and fifth-year players in any given year, that reduces the number of additional scholarships a university can award during recruiting and can keep total numbers down.

In UNLV's case, attrition has been the primary reason the Rebels are playing this season with 14 fewer scholarship players. Several players have left the program either of their own accord or because of disciplinary issues since Sanford took over before the 2005 season.

UNLV's inconsistency in all aspects of the game has resulted in another miserable season and can be attributed, in part, to low scholarship numbers, Sanford said.

"One of the things I think affects your ability to play consistently through the year is your depth on offense and defense and your ability to have quality players on special teams," he said. "If you have more total scholarship numbers, you have more depth on your overall roster so your (second-string players) are better - and you have more of them - and then your special teams are better because you have more quality players in the program to (play) on special teams."

Sanford said he expects to increase his number of scholarship players to 80 or 81 for next season. He pointed to Kentucky as an example of what can happen once a program is operating with a full complement of scholarship players.

Sanford said University of Kentucky head coach Rich Brooks struggled to a 9-25 record during his first three years in Lexington with scholarship players who numbered in the low 70s. Brooks got that number up last year and went 8-5, including a Music City Bowl victory over Clemson. This year, the Wildcats are at the maximum 85 scholarship players and are 7-3 and ranked 22nd in the AP poll.