In the past 4 seasons, beginning with the 2011-12 season, there have been a total of 18 players leaving the team. 9 of those 18 were walk-ons and were not given a scholarship. They are: Logan Foster, Jordan Rex, Christian McDonald, Aziz Leeks, Brady Borklund, Jake Bigler, Jordan Brown, JC Kennedy, and Grant Jones. Conclusion: These players were never seriously considered as players who could help the team win games, but were at Weber for practice purposes with the longshot chance that they might be good enough to be offered a scholarship after their walk-on status was exhausted. Kudos to the coaching staff for their work in this area.
An additional 9 of the 18 who left were scholarship players. Two of those 9, Mike Brown & Gelaun Wheelwright (debateable) left of their own volition and found homes elsewhere at a lower level. The other 7, Wayne Bradford, Duce Zaid, Royce Williams, Josh Fuller, Chris Golden, JJ Coston and Ryan Van Pelt were counseled out of the program. Some of these did not find, or have not found, homes in other programs. None have surfaced at other schools at an equivalent or higher level than Weber. Conclusion: At the back end of the roster Rahe has been taking a lot of chances on players. In the most recent season he missed badly on Chis Golden & Coston.
From the 2011-12 season a total of only one scholarship players left the team. Mike Brown left on his own.
From the 2012-13 season, three scholarship players left the team. Gelaun Wheelwright, a projected starter, left by mutual agreement while Duce Said and Wayne Bradford were counseled out.
From the 2013-14 season, two scholarship players left the team. Josh Fuller and Royce Williams were counseled out by the staff.
And finally from this past season three scholarship players left the team. Chris Golden, JJ Coston & Ryan Van Pelt were all counseled out.
What conclusions can be drawn from this info? First Rahe is missing on 2-3 players each season, maybe a bit much to miss on as much as 25% of your recruits. Second the missing seems to be escalating in the past 4 years, but maybe 4 years is not long enough to draw conclusions on. Third, I think that the upcoming season will tell us a lot about whether Rahe can hold on to recruits when they feel that they can play but don't get to play very much. The team will be stacked at most positions so the pressure will be on the coaching staff to keep everybody happy. This is an important year as far as gauging how good Randy really is at team building. It isn't difficult to keep your top 8 or 9 players when they all get decent playing time. But this year there could be as many as 10+ players who deserve playing time. Can the staff hold on to those who are good but not getting decent playing time? Time will tell...
I think Weber is primed for a big year if they get the right coaching! I believe that newcomers Cody John, Dusty Baker & Kiko Stavrev are advanced enough to help this team as first year players at Weber. Maybe even Juwan Williams and Jordan Dallas will be ready also. I predict that Ryan Cannon will redshirt and possibly Jordan Dallas also. Although I heard Rahe say that he didn't anticipate any redshirts this coming year there could be as many as three, but definitely one or two.
By the way, if Kiko Stavrev is quick enough to play defense against smaller guys I think he would be a helluva wing for us! Would love to have a 6'8" wing... Would love to hear others assessments.
