'Returning starters' and 'returning lettermen' are figures often cited when teams talk about prospects for an upcoming season, but the terms can mean very different things to different people.

Some schools list players as 'returning starters' if they started any games the previous season, meaning that if a player started only once last year he's a returning starter.

Other schools require a player to start half its games, or even more than half, before he's listed as a 'returning starter.' 'Returning lettermen' is even more vague.

Different schools have different methods of determining who earned letters and who didn't, so pointing out that one school returns 35 lettermen and another returns 50 doesn't mean a great deal.

I know of one school that letters players solely on the basis of whether or not they make the travel or dress lists consistently.

Myself, I've always felt you're not a returning starter unless you started at least half the time, and I pay no attention at all to letters. Instead, I look at numbers of starts and numbers of games played, and adding those up gives a much better indication of whether or not a team is experienced. You figure a team has 242 starts in an 11-game season (22 per game, 11 offensive and 11 defensive).

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com