WSU scholarships, departures and roster breakdown following 2016 signing day

The dust has settled on Washington State's 2016 signing class and the Cougars' roster heading into spring football has mostly taken shape. There are some big additions, as well as few departures since last season, both in graduating players and those leaving the team early.

Because it is college football and rosters are almost always in flux, there will be more changes before the Cougars step on the field for the 2016 season opener. The core of the team this season and moving forward, however, is in place. WSU's roster is in an interesting place. The Cougars took a step forward on the field last season, but lost a relatively small senior class. They will return with a similarly small senior class this year and still have a ton of youth on the roster.

With so much change and the new recruiting class settled, it's time to take a closer look at WSU's projected scholarship situation. As always, the table below is simply the best projection we can make from an educated guess. There are walk-ons who could be on scholarship that are listed otherwise below. Also, don't focus too much on class designations. WSU recently updated its roster, but it does not list any redshirts from last season. We've sorted through the participation reports to try and get things accurate -- at least with the scholarship players -- but one or two could be out of place. We'll update again when we get WSU's spring roster.

(Key: Italics = Scholarship player | * = used redshirt season)

First, let's talk about departures. WSU suffered some attrition since the start of last season, but not massively. David Bucannon and Sam Flor appear to have left the team since the end of last season. Pat Porter and Jeff Farrar are no longer in the secondary either. From our scholarship math prior to the start of spring football last year to now, 11 scholarship players with eligibility have departed. In the grand scheme of college football, that is a normal, if not below average, number.

As a result, WSU's scholarship count continues to rise. The Cougars played last season with a scholarship projection in the low-to-mid 70s. It's likely at least a couple of the 82 players listed above will depart, but it seems WSU should be a little healthier on the scholarship count next season.

The biggest difference from last season is a very healthy junior class. Heading into spring football 2015, the Cougars had 14 scholarships slotted to the junior class. Roughly half of those were minor or non-contributors. WSU now has a very healthy junior class, and it makes up a significant portion of the contributing roster. That's a great trend.

The scholarship allocation is close to identical from recent seasons. The Cougars are a little lighter on offensive linemen than recently, by a player or two. There is a little more scholarship depth at linebacker and cornerback as a result. Overall, there is a lot of depth across the roster. This is also the first time the Cougars have had four scholarship quarterbacks in some time. The running back depth is considerably stronger as well.

There is still work to do, and there will certainly be changes in the next few months, but WSU's roster continues to trend in the right direction, getting deeper and more experienced each season.