This article has number of coaches justifying whatever their schools policy was. With the exception of the teams that made late coaching changes, and were not ready to play like CalPoly, I think not playing in the spring was missing a great opportunity to improve.
Apparently Hawkins feels we made some progress this spring because I don’t think he would have said this is our best team ever without seeing what we had on the field this spring.

/Here is a Tulsa team preview from Ohio State perspective. Lots of returning starters for Tulsa.Basically everyone except the QB and a star linebacker.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/2021/07/21/ohio-state-football-schedule-2021-tulsa-vs-osu-preview-golden-hurricane/7965871002/

Maybe Theo is not playing football. He’s not on the 2021 roster.

I think our spring schedule was pretty comparable to a regular season albeit shorter. Only Cal Poly wasn’t respectable and Weber and Eastern were good. We played three games out of five against ranked opponents at the time we played them. And Idaho State was no slouch.
Regarding Tompkins pulling the ball down and running that wasn’t a common occurrence, he mostly ran by design. The offense this spring had a lot of QB run plays that weren’t scrambles. That was true even for HR. Tompkins had relatively few plays which were intended for a pass,

We averaged more yards per attempt this spring then 2019. But you could tell that the coaches either wanted the QBs to gain confidence by playing without the sense that they had to carry the team or the coaches lacked the confidence that the QBs could. Example, the Idaho game, if I recall correctly Rodrigues only threw a couple of passes before the middle of the second quarter. In Tompkins case he played several games before he got to throw at all.

I’m still curious to see what Gunnor Faulk can do. By all reports he’s a very polished thrower,
I’m sure glad our team played this spring so at least we’re that much closer to figuring out who and how to play. We won’t know what’s going until they play.

The most loaded positions on the team are the receiving positions including tight end. We need to play a QB who can get the ball to them.
We might be best off as a run oriented team but we can’t be as adverse to taking risks throwing the ball.
I hope the play calling gives the QBs the opportunity to prove themselves or fail so we can see what they’ve got.

According to the team statistics, Amoah started the last few games in 2019 at left tackle and then started every game this spring at left tackle. Richardson started the first two games at right tackle and then Colton Larson started the last three. So it looks like Amoah won the job from Lamson, who played at left tackle before Amoah and then Lamson eventually won the right tackle job from Richardson. Injuries may have played a role. If the stats are wrong it won’t be the first time.

My take is that the extra season of eligibility plus the fact that he could graduate gives him an opportunity to do something else, which is play with his brother and for his dad, If he’s interested, might be a step toward getingt into coaching.
His Twitter identifies him as a UCD Alum. so no academic reason to stay.

Congratulations to Kooper for having the opportunity to join the family enterprise. Also congrats for graduating from UCD.

If they purport to pick the best 25 teams they have to pick multiple teams from the stronger conferences, not least because there are not 25 conferences. Besides, it serves the purpose of ranking top teams within a conference. This year these things will have very varied lists because last years seasons were so messed up. Sometimes they seem crazy.

I’ll be in the same situation as you after I subscribe to ESPN+, which will likely be of no other interest to me. The ESPNU games are just two for the league each year, so that will be a rare occasion the Aggies are on it.

Thanks for that clear explanation. Sounds like a net negative.

Anyone know if this will end the availability of replays on the big sky site?

Are you just speaking hypothetically or have we lost anyone to the portal?
My guess is In the long run, we’ll have as many transfer in as transfer out.

That seems pretty generous. One of the top teams that didn’t qualify. We certainly have an upside.
On the other hand if we give any credence to the Idaho’s argument that their team was hampered by players out due to COVID protocols, our one win over a ranked team is somewhat tainted.

Leaving aside the admitted by exception issue entirely, it’s possible for a student to qualify at UC but not Cal Poly due to different criteria. For example I think Cal Poly uses overall GPA including 9th grade, whereas UC uses 10-12 in just the required courses. The base requirements are not that hard to meet at either school but there are lots of ways to not qualify

I don’t condemn the practice, if a student has otherwise good academic record and falls short by a course or two it’s appropriate. That’s where the absence of standardized tests makes it harder to judge if the kid can do the work.

I was wrong in thinking test scores mattered in qualifying, The biggest obstacle to qualifying the normal way is not overall GPA or test scores, it’s taking and passing the fifteen classes with a 3.0 in those classes. Lots of admits by exception have 3.5 or better GPA, but failed to qualify.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mercurynews.com/2019/08/19/behind-ucs-admission-by-exception-side-door-sports-money-diversity-and-secrecy/amp/

I think you’re correct.