Wake Forest Football Scholarship Chart

Wake Forest has already secured 10 verbal commitments for the 2016 recruiting class. Head coach Dave Clawson has stated that his target for this class is somewhere in the "mid teens." With those figures in mind, I figured it would be appropriate to look at the roster Dave Clawson and his staff have assembled over the past two recruiting classes. What do the scholarship numbers look like, and what are positions of need moving forward?

*Please note that all players in italics have already used a redshirt. Some players will appear to be in bold and that's simply because they were "tagged" by SB Nation, and Wake's standard color is black. It is also my understanding that long-snapper Garrett Wilson will walk-on this season and then be a scholarship player beginning in 2016.

By my count, Wake Forest still has room to add one graduate transfer if they choose.

Based on the numbers below, you can tell that Wake Forest is a very young team, as made evident by the fact that there is very little drop off in number at any of the positions listed below. While verbal commitments are not binding, Wake already has more committed 2016 prospects than graduating seniors. I'm using Clawson's words and making an assumption that Wake will take approximately 6 more recruits in the 2016 class, to finish with 16 total. If that's the case, then Wake Forest will be 8 scholarships over the 85-scholarship limit.

Where will that attrition come from? Some may come naturally, as underclassmen may transfer. The most likely scenario will be this year's redshirt juniors.  Given how young this team is, those upperclassmen who do not play this season are less likely to return next season. That's simply part of the cycle. The kids will have had 4 years on campus, and therefore should graduate. They will then have a year of eligibility to play at another school of their choosing, where they will most likely receive more playing time. All parties benefit from that scenario.

I hope you all found this piece helpful and informative. It will be tacked on the "Wake Forest Football" page. I will provide subsequent articles throughout the summer that look at the potential depth chart of each position, and when new players will needed to be added.

Which positions do you all believe Wake should be targeting?