No way they don’t have some available.
Who among the 18 seniors and grad players exiting from last years team wasn’t on scholarship? Then we add Maae, Buchanan, and probably Kennedy. And then a few guys will not be back of their own volition, because they’ve chosen to move on either because they didn’t play, injury or maybe they just a ready for the next phase of life.
I’m sure they would give a ischolarship to the mysterious left tackle, he who can’t be named, if they hadn’t already. Maybe Shamburger was a walk on, but I doubt it. They have to have a half dozen or so scholarships available.

They use the roster bio page as the skeleton on the signing page, but that doesn’t list players weight. Its always been inconvenient that you have to go to the roster list to see that and these guys aren’t listed there, so all we know about these guys from the site is their name school and height.

11 signees
https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2023/12/20/football-aggies-ink-11-newcomers-in-early-signing-period.aspx

They sure got the press release out quick.
Seven guys listed in CA Forever’s list at the top of this discussion as having FBS offers.
Class seems targeted to positions where we lost the most to graduation and transfer.
They should still have some room for transfers or later commits.

Don’t put too much stock in the roster weights. I notice they rarely update them, and there is often comments by coaches or other indications that suggest the player has a different weight. If Castles says he gained 20 lbs. thats a different story.

You could say the same about Princeton Toki.
You remember when even the pros were not 300lbs?
Art Shell who was a big lineman and supposedly weighed 265, Gene Upshaw 255.
Why has the game evolved to heavier weights?

Chubba lost weight from 359 as a freshman to get down to the 347 listed in the roster. That was three seasons ago, who knows what he’s weighed the last few years, but 370 is not a big jump from his freshman weight,
The conditioning staff here don’t encourage most players to gain weight and most don’t.

I care about the playoffs, but I care about the conference games more.
First things first. We have a dismal record against the historically top teams in the big sky . 0-10 against Eastern WA. 1-7 against Montana State 1-8 against Montana. I’d trade a playoff appearence for a win over any of those schools.

Not until he beats Eastern Washington.

That change was a negative for FCS, because prior to that FBS players could transfer down without waiting a year, but FCS couldn’t transfer up without sitting.

There is a positive side to transfers. We haven’t lost any underclassmen to transfer so far and we’ve gained two sophomore starters last year, one who transferred after playing as a freshman at D3 Bennedictine and one who walked on at Nebraska and never played,

Most ( all?) the transfers graduated first

States where they are the biggest attraction, so they get publicity.

It’s not the gun slinger on Have Gun Will Travel ?

Mike Cody who arrived in 2021 as an offensive line coach is the longest serving coach on offense. Total turnover after Plough, Keane, and Speckman left before 2021 Spring season. Correction: Speckman left after 2021 season.

Last year they still brought on people in the summer. Two transfers that were not on the team until fall camp. They were never announced as signees, so maybe they were walk ons, in which case they earned a scholarship I expect. They started most games and played most the snaps,

There will be a few Grad transfers after COVID ages out but I don’t remember any pre COVID.

Our best targets for transfers are guys who walked on at big schools, and found they didn’t play much and likely didn’t earn a scholarship. Not the most exciting of transfers but in some cases they are players who can contribute here. Example Smalley at UCLA, Simonson at Nebraska, and even Cloyd who at least for a time was an Oregon State walk on. Get them as underclassmen, like Cloyd and Simonson.

The recruiting classes a few years ago were smaller in anticipation of guys hanging around.
We had 18 players who announced their graduation, there will be some loss to transfers, and some guys who didn’t announce will move on, as Poerio did last summer, after being on the Spring roster.

Once the COVID year is gone, grads won’t have remaining eligibility unless a player redshirts and graduates with his class or earlier. It is the two years of remaining eligibility that makes a grad transfer appealing since they can actually get a grad degree in many cases in two years. You can’t do much at Davis in one year, as school doesn’t offer much in the way of one year grad programs, other schools might have something vocational. And even the football program will have less interest in a one year transfer. Tattersall, Castles, Smalley all had an extra year due to COVID

Both of those guys actually graduated from their first schools. Thats what most of our losses are doing as well. When the extra COVID year fades into history transfers will drop off from schools which students initially chose because of academics. Underclassmen will still be bouncing around among less academic schools, but you won’t see as many senior or graduate transfers.

I’m in

Players are leaving because the’ve accomplished what they came for. They aren’t leaving because of who the coach is. The defense is going to struggle next year due to all the players who have played their final year and players who move on, that probably influences others having friends depart.
We lost 4 linebackers that played due to using up their eligibility.. A fifth, the team captain graduated after four years. Suani used up his eligibility.
Chubba and Kennedy have been here 4 and 5 years respectively and are transferring. , Budgett and Bearden have been here five years, they likely have earned a degree if they want to apply.
There is no academic reason for many players to hang around for 6 years.