One of the most telling signs of a healthy football program is whether or not the program is forced to toss its young players into the fire of Division I football before the student athlete is fully prepared to play to their potential. The redshirt is an extremely valuable tool afforded to athletes and coaches. The maturation, both physical and mental, between a true freshman and fifth-year senior is monumental. Redshirt years allow programs to maintain balanced scholarship distribution between annual recruiting class sizes as well as depth chart rankings within position units.
The following five players are the Roadrunners that would gain the most from utilizing their redshirt year in 2017.