Hero Sports preview.

https://herosports.com/fcs-2023-uc-davis-football-preview-bzbz/

I think our team has good depth, which doesn’t really show in previews which focus on returning all conference players. We lost most heavily on the offensive line, tight end and defensive back. But there and elsewhere we return guys who’ve had playing time.

We can see what a five star recruit qb looks like when Davis plays Cal Poly, assuming he can earn the job. Sam Huard couldn't get playing time in Washington in two years. I bet he’s mobile and has a good arm.

Lost his job to a guy who transferred from Iowa State. Big guy 6-5 240.
South Dakota only beat Cal Poly in their first 6 games with Camp and he was pulled just before halftime trailing 21-7 in game 7 against a ranked opponent and his sub won the game.
Bouman “completed 80-of-132 passes for 892 yards and eight touchdowns against one interception … also ran for two touchdowns … threw 106 passes before his first interception”

Obviously he transferred for playing time, But Sac gets a guy who is a proven high caliber qb with three years of experience playing at a high level and he is just a junior!

They lost to Washington State by 7.
Its easy to look at a team Davis has defeated four in a row and not think they’re any good. But there they are ranked in all these polls.

Idaho was a quality team, ranked 15 when the game was played.

Looking at some of these teams web sites and press about their spring sessions highlights again that Davis sports information is really deficient.
Davis still doesn’t have the 2022 season in the player profiles.
They don't have the players class listed on the basis of eligibility. They list all of last years freshmen as sophomores for example. Few of those guys played more than 4 games.
I think Davis is a better team than New Hampshire for example, but given that there is no press coverage, no spring media coverage, and a poorly updated web site, I'm not surprised people have forgotten that Davis was the sixth highest rated team in FCS using Sagarin’s methodology. ( I’m not saying Davis was the 6th best team but it’s a good guide to what a betting line would be) New Hampshire by contrast wasn't top 25, and if we had a game with them at end of last season we would have been favored by two touchdowns.

Since the list is in inverse order what does ahead of mean?

I think Davis is lower than it should be, i don't see Davis is not ahead of Weber, and Idaho is too high.

Tompkins was listed as a wide receiver in the tests. He’s as fast as Larison for 10 yards but not for 40. He ranked best in the agility and L drill of any of our players and 1st and 2nd in those tests for any wide receiver in whatever database of results they have. I think he can be a good wide receiver. I hope they keep the wildcat and run it sometime by with Tompkins on the field with no player substitution.
Teddy is the best athlete if you factor in his size. Impressive jump numbers for a guy weighing 239#.

The press secretary.

Last year we had a lot of depth at tight end, and Gale was probably in there only when we had multiple tight ends. We started some games with two tight ends and played three quite a bit. With less depth at tight end will they still use as many multiple tight end plays? Probably dependent on how deep we turn out to be at wide receiver. Can Gale handle the other responsibilities at tight end well enough to be out there when we play a single tight end? Not saying he can’t, and maybe our new offensive coordinator, a former tight end, loves multiple tight end plays.

Chaz Davis is in the mix too.
I bet one of the JC Transfer tight ends gets playing time. Gale is light for a tight end, as are most the returning TE. Evan Bearden will likely be a tight end, but he’s never caught a pass, playing quite a bit as a blocker two years ago.

The table is truncated but if you go to the twitter page you can see CJ Hutton and Trent Tompkins. Trent is not that fast in the 40 but has the best agility score and L-drill score of any of our players.

We only have a 39% chance if winning at Weber, a team whose QB transferred, and also lost 3 transfers to BYU?
I think our team looks solid. Lost some good players but have a guys with experience for every spot. Biggest question mark possibly tight end and receivers because we lost some good ones, but we return quite a few as well.

How do we interpret this? Have many players on other teams been tested? Seems unlikely that we have two linebackers tied for first in the agility test.
Teddye Buchanan really impresses in these tests and he weighs 239 lbs.

I don't have an opinion on the rule. Drives will use more clock, and that assists offenses that aspire to minimize the opponents possessions by dominating time of possession. May be small effect, we’ll see.

Now long drives can eat up more clock. Eventually a team will use up 15 minutes on a possession the current longest drive record is 14min 26 sec.

I’m just talking FCS football and offensive linemen being 6’3”, where anyone would have to say Amoah was a standout. Remember when Poly changed from the triple option there was discussion of their tackles being to short for a more pass oriented offense, and they were 6’3” if I recall correctly.

Nick Amoah started every game for us at left tackle was first team all conference, made some all American FCS teams, signed with the Bears and yet some people still think 6’3” is too short for playing offensive tackle at this level on a team that runs a balanced offense.

FCS