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.

I predict there will not be a decline in CSU applications because students who used to apply only to UC will need to apply elsewhere as well because there is no means of distinguishing academic excellence when everyone has good grades due to grade inflation. Students will need to be in the top 10% of their high school regardless of the quality of the school and have the right resume of activities. If they don’t have those credential then they better have an alternate plan.

Now that the University is no longer considering test scores as admission parameters the gates should be open for any prospect who can hit the right buttons with his biography. That should broaden the field of prospects. On the other hand that diminishes the “Public Ivy” appeal.

Article on Whelan including video of a 72 yard field goal high school practice.

https://www.desertsun.com/story/sports/football/2021/01/23/mel-kiper-jr-daniel-whelan-who-drilled-72-yard-fg-top-5-punter/6678127002/

Does anyone know whether Whelan kicks soccer style on kickoffs and field goals? I know he practices place kicking and has a lot of distance.

While I did some graduate study at SF State,, I’m not talking about their academics. They had a good football program before the 1968 student strike. They were the class of the league prior to that and had two quarterbacks go on to football head coaching careers in Sochor and Bob Toledo.

I don’t know who hired him but it wasn’t much of a reach to hire Sochor, who won three league titles in the Aggies league while playing for SFState, and then spent most of a decade as an assistant at SF State and then UCD. SF State was the more successful of the programs in the 50s and 60s. So SF State was not a nowhere school from UCDs perspective; they were looking up at them.

I don’t get too interested when little guys are fast but it’s pretty significant if a guy has some size and is also fast .Example: Herschel Walker 10.23 seconds 100 meters. The guy hitting him often got the worst of it.

muscle contractions do that without mechanical assistance. I suppose this replaces walking to cool down.

Worth noting that Nick Amoah and McCallan Castles were unanimous first team selections. Since the honor is voted by the coaches, that’s meaningful.

What a poorly written press release. They don’t say Ford made second team.

I suppose he might have recruited Harrell and Vaughn just to block but I doubt it.

My attention fell off during the Gould years, but I followed Randy’s career as he’s from my hometown. I speculate without having watched much of the later years that part of Gould’s problem winning after Randy's era ended was due to his inability to recruit a productive quarterback or to coach them to be productive. Maybe it was the system, but I don’t think that’s all of it.

Randy played 2010-2013, after redshirting in 2009. So all but the last Sac victory was under Biggs.

In 2014 their only victory was Cal Poly.

We still had five or so Gould signees on the roster; this year is maybe the end of them. Two of the most prominent are ironically wide receivers, Vaughn and Harrell, who are better suited to Hawkins’ offense.
I wonder what Randy Wright thinks of the three coaches since he’s had an inside view of all three.

your winning record in league for Biggs includes just the four years and is for both the Great West and Big Sky?

My main memory of Gould was prior to his first game where he said that from now on, things were going to be organized, implying they weren’t before.
And amusingly, when an opposing coach was trying to say nice things about an upcoming opponent, pretty much all he could come up with was something like “they line up in the right place”