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National Signing Day 2015: Virginia Cavaliers Scholarship Breakdown

The Cavaliers have added 23 true freshmen for the 2015 season. What does that mean for the program's scholarship picture?

Demetrious Nicholson was a signing day prize for Virginia in 2011
Demetrious Nicholson was a signing day prize for Virginia in 2011
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

With National Signing Day upon us, all eyes and thoughts are on the #NewHoos. Here at STL, we decided to take the opportunity to look at Virginia's scholarship count for the coming years and to break down the roster by year and position.

As we explained last year, each FBS football program has a scholarship allotment of 85. FBS football is also a head-count sport, so 85 scholarships means 85 players on scholarship; other sports can split partial scholarships among multiple players to end up at the equivalent of their allotted number.

The table below breaks down UVa's scholarship allotment by year and position group. More notes after.

2015 2016 2017 2018 Total On Scholarship Incoming

DB

3
CB Demetrious Nicholson

CB Maurice Canady
FS Mason Thomas

4
CB Tim Harris
CB Divante Walker
CB Wilfred Wahee
SS Kelvin Rainey

3
CB Kirk Garner
SS Malcolm Cook
S Quin Blanding
1
CB Darious Latimore
11
3
S Juan Thornhill
CB Kareem Gibson
CB TJ Griffin
DL
4
DE Mike Moore
DE Trent Corney
DE Kwontie Moore
DT David Dean
2
DT Andre Miles-Redmond
DT Donta Wilkins
1
DT Andrew Brown

3
DE Michael Biesemier

DE Darrious Carter
DE JJ Jackson
10
4
DE Naji Abdullah
DE Steven Wright
DT James Trucilla
DT Eli Hanback
LB
1
OLB Darius Lee
2
OLB Zach Bradshaw
OLB Mark Hall

1
MLB Micah Kiser

3
OLB Caanan Brown
OLB Chris Peace
OLB Cory Jones
7
5
ILB CJ Stalker
ILB Jahvonni Simmons
OLB Eric Gallon

ILB Dominic Sheppard

OLB Gladimir Paul
QB
0
2
Greyson Lambert
Matt Johns
1
Brendan Marshall

1
Corwin Cutler

4
1
Nick Johns
RB/FB
1
FB Vincent Croce

3
FB Connor Wingo-Reeves
RB Taquan Mizzell
RB LaChaston Smith
1
RB Daniel Hamm
1
RB Jordan Ellis
6
2
RB Olamide Zaccheaus
RB Christopher Sharp
WR
3
Dominique Terrell
Canaan Severin
T.J Thorpe (transfer)
3
Kyle Dockins
Jamall Brown
Keeon Johnson
3
Andre Levrone
Jamil Kamara
Doni Dowling
0
9 
3
David Eldredge
Warren Craft

Myles Robinson

TE
1
Rob Burns
0 
0
1

Evan Butts
2
2

Tanner Cowley

Richard Burney
OL
2
G/C Ross Burbank
T Jay Whitmire
7
C Jackson Matteo
C Eric Tetlow
G Ryan Doull
G Sean Karl
T Eric Smith
T Sadiq Olanrewaju
T Michael Mooney
2

G Jack McDonald
T Jack English

2
G Steven Moss
OL Jake Fieler
13
3
OG Ryan Bischoff
OT Grant Polk
OT RJ Proctor
ST
1
K Ian Frye


1
TOTALS 16 23 12 12 63 23

By our count, the Hoos will be at 86 scholarships for the 2015 season. Let's take a quick look at how we got to that number:

Virginia finished the 2014 season with 83 scholarship players. The program lost 16 scholarship seniors to graduation. In addition, Virginia lost five other scholarship players: David Watford transferred to Hampton, Eli Harold and Max Valles declared early for the NFL draft, and Mario Nixon and George Adeosun lost "counting status" after career-ending injuries determined they wouldn't suit up for the Cavaliers in the future.

On the plus side, Virginia added 23 true freshman and senior wide receiver transfer TJ Thorpe.

So for you math majors out there:  63 - 16 - 5 + 23 +1 = 86

Now, even a UNC athlete can tell you 86 is more than 85, but don't fret. It's generally a positive thing for a program like Virginia to over-recruit a bit. The Cavaliers usually experience attrition during the off-season as spring and summer grades come in. Additionally, there's the possibility that an incoming freshman or two may need to attend prep school for a year. Somehow, the roster will get down to 85 scholarship players in time for the season opener.

How the Wahoos will perform in that opener...well, that's a problem for another day.