The Journal Gazette out of Fort Wayne, Ind. is reporting that Notre Dame WR John Goodman has been granted a fifth year of eligibility and supposedly will be back in 2012.
On the other hand, The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Sean Cwynar does not want to come back for a fifth year. So how does this whole thing work anyway?
Commonly known as redshirting, a player who does not play a down in any given year of his first four years in college is eligible to play a fifth year as a senior (eligibility-wise). In most cases, redshirting will occur in a player’s freshman season, but sometimes, as in the case of Armond Armstead, it can happen after their freshman seasons.
Regardless of what year the redshirting occurs, after a player’s academic senior year, they can apply to the university for a fifth year of football eligibility. However, they must take at least one course at the university in order to be approved for the fifth year.
Notre Dame has the following 12 players eligible for a fifth year (Cwynar is not on the list because he’s decided not to apply):
- John Goodman
- Deion Walker
- Braxston Cave
- Mike Golic Jr.
- Lane Clelland
- Kapron Lewis-Moore
- Hafis Williams
- Brandon Newman
- David Posluszny
- Anthony McDonald
- Dan McCarthy
- Jamoris Slaughter
All of the above players may put in an application to Notre Dame to become eligible for a fifth year. Once a player submits his application, it must be approved by the university.
Once the university has approved the fifth year of eligibility, Coach Kelly will have final say on which players actually are asked back for 2012.
Heading into the 2011 season, Notre Dame had 10 players apply for and be approved by the university for a fifth year of eligibility. However, Coach Kelly only took six on the team.
So just because a player applies for and is approved for a fifth year of eligibility does not mean Coach Kelly will ask him back for the 2012 season. That’s because a Division I football team may have no more than 85 scholarship players on the team in any given year.
Currently, the Irish 2012 roster has 77 scholarship players. That number includes the current 17 incoming recruits.
But that number also excludes any players that will be granted a fifth-year senior roster spot by Coach Kelly.
That leaves eight remaining scholarship spots for the 12 players above (assuming they all apply and are approved by the university), and the following 10 recruits for 2012 that still have Notre Dame offers and may sign with the Irish (this list does not include players interested in ND that don’t have offers, like Raph Andrades and Demetrious Cox):
- Arik Armstead
- Armont Armstead
- Ronald Darby
- Yuri Wright
- Nelson Agholor
- Bryce Treggs
- Josh Garnett
- Ken Ekanem
- Anthony Standifer
- Davonte Neal
As you can see, the puzzle now becomes which 22 players are going to fit into the last eight scholarship spots.
Yesterday, The Journal Gazette article on Goodman stated that he may be one of the fifth-year seniors coming back in 2012. The Journal Gazette talked to Goodman’s high school coach, Chris Svarckopf, and he said that Goodman had been granted a fifth year of eligibility by Notre Dame.
Svarckopf said that he received a text message from Goodman informing him that he would be a member of the Notre Dame football team next season (2012).
With Cwynar not coming back, Goodman could be one of the fifth-year seniors in the mix. However, according to the Chicago Tribune article , Notre Dame has not officially announced which players would be asked back for a fifth year.
In my opinion, no fifth-year seniors will be asked back until after National Signing Day. With Cwynar taking himself out of the equation, if I were choosing whom to ask back as a fifth-year senior, my list would start with Cave, Slaughter and Lewis-Moore, in that order, and fill in the rest should I get less than five more recruits.
In regards to Goodman coming back, I really don’t see that happening unless Notre Dame does sign less than five more recruits. And even then, I’d have to take a long look at areas of need like offensive line (Golic Jr.) before I look at Goodman.
In his three-year Notre Dame career to date, Goodman has caught 28 passes for 315 yards and one touchdown. Last year, when the Irish desperately needed a receiver to step up and help Michael Floyd, Goodman caught seven balls for 65 yards.
Goodman has also returned 26 punts for 78 yards, which translates into 3.0 yards per return. Call me skeptical, but with stats like those and scholarships at a minimum, there’s no real value in my opinion to having Goodman back.
I’d rather have another recruit from the list who will be in the program for at least another four years developing. But at the end of the day, the game as of today is filling eight more spots, and the final decision lies with Coach Kelly.
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