Did rich donors instigate Goulds removal or just make it possible by providing the funds to buy him out? If the administration could have fired Gould without the money would they have done it? I don’t know the answers to those questions, but he would have been gone the next year in any case, not because of play calling but for not making any improvement during his tenure.

Defense is going to take a step back. Between graduation and transfers lose two of our three nose tackles, three starting linebackers.. The other two starters on the DL are going to be sixth year seniors if they come back. Zach Kennedy would be attractive to many teams. Budgett in the secondary has also been here 5 years.
I don’t think we’ll lose players because of Hawkins leaving, i think it’s because of the longer college careers. Once the Covid year effect is over the amount of transfers will drop off.

If they get Plough, they likely keep the assistants that are recruiting this years incoming players. Anyone from outside is risking keeping those recruits.
I think Mike Cody did a good job with our run offense, they should retain him as the OL coach.

Jake Maier

His last team here 2019 was only slightly better offensively than this season.

The coaching staff has little choice but to accept that some players won’t hang around after playing for four or more years and earning a degree. They know it too, which is likely why the roster makes no attempt to list players by eligibility; it’s a jumble of academic year and eligibility.
Buchanan was in the 2020 recruit class. Hastings, Tompkins, Budgett, Cloyd and Chaz Davis are class of 2019

I think we can assume the scale was accurate and Lan weighed 207lbs. They don’t make any effort to update roster weights.
Lan is a good jumper but Teddye Buchanan, amazing for his weight, is better.

I don’t know the winning % of non scholarship D2 teams, but in a way it is deceiving because in the early years they would lose to the eventual champion; Lehigh, Eastern Illinois, Southwest Texas State. There were only eight teams in the playoffs in those years,

It is a championship, they have to take conference champions and give them a shot. Fifth place teams from major conferences have already proved they aren’t the best teams, they have to give lesser teams a chance to prove the same thing on the field.
In 2009 Davis won a conference without an autobid. Team was 6-5 but two losses were to Boise State and Fresno State, a third was to the #5 team Montana by 17 to 10, and they didn’t get a bid.

Watching Delaware Lafayette. I would like to see Davis play Delaware some time, since Delaware was a D2 or college division power in the 70s when Davis started to enter the rankings.
Surprising they only have 4,000 something in attendance for a playoff game.

Why not just graduate in four years and say “been there done that” ? Is he likely to have a better season next year, here or elsewhere? A old romantic might harken back to the time when four seasons are enough. Larison showed character this year coming back and playing two weeks after a knee injury. He showed he is tough and fearless.

He doesn’t need to strengthen his resume with a lot of senior stats the NFL doesn’t care about. As a friend of mine used to say about a bronze star, that and two bits will buy a cup of coffee anywhere in America.

Larison has nothing to prove at the collegiate level. He has shown he is a player with skills and they can and have tested his athleticism. That will determine where he is drafted not whether he transfers to a FBS school. If he transfers and plays behind someone or has a limited role what does that due to his marketability? And transferring does nothing for him academically, he already has four year in college so is likely close to a degree.

If you have Larison’s time from a workout along with his weight use that for your comparison. Larison weighed 207 lbs when he ran 4.49,
Larison weighs 14 lbs. more and runs faster in 10 and 40 yards.(than Gilliam)

https://twitter.com/CoachiJACK/status/1662239318897840133

The coaches poll is one of the criteria. If a team disappoints early, then its hard to get into or advance in the list because the teams in the polls are usually losing to each other and those losses don’t have much effect on the rankings, because the loss is discounted because its to a highly ranked team. I don’t think it is anti Davis bias, it is hard to climb back into the rankings beating unranked teams, by not eye popping margins. Even the Sac score wasn’t something that would cause a major reassessment, Sac being #15. If the second half of the Sac game had duplicated the first maybe.34-0 would have done it.

12 seems like a nice assumption because its roughly 63/5 but when you lose at least 18 in seniors and grad students it seems like you would have more available. There aren’t any names in that category that don’t seem like they are scholarship guys. And that doesn’t include any juniors who might move on. Lots of guys can graduate in four and five years, and may be looking for the next phase in their life.

Factors on scholarship numbers
We had 18 seniors and grad students who i think were all scholarship, just by looking at names

Who else beside Buchanan were announced as graduating with remaining eligibility? Buchanan was class of ‘20, we have many players from class of ‘19, Budgett, Bearden, Davis Tompkins, Hastings etc. Those guys have been here 5 years already

Who on our current roster as walk-ons are going to be given a scholarship? I bet Eli Simonson was not on scholarship for example. Shamburger have a scholarship?

Sagarin FCS top 25. These rankings by the end of the season are just based on comparative scores, so there is no bias in them by the later half of the season.
Davis # 17.
Davis beat #13 Sac, #19 Weber and #22 Southern Utah, lost to #4 Montana.

https://www.college-sports-journal.com/college-sports-journal-sagarin-fcs-top-25-nov-18-3/

Larison believe it or not was not offensive player of the week.

It is not that they don’t meet the requirements. It is that their coursework doesn’t map to UC classes. Athletes have to make specified progress toward a degree, and if they took classes that don’t map to Davis classes they don’t get credit and don’t meet the progress requirement. A lot of schools offer vocational type classes that UC doesn’t.
However lower classmen don’t have as much of a problem with that. We had two sophomore transfers who started games, Shamburger who was a freshman standout at D3 Benedictine and Simonson who was at Nebraska but didn’t play.

They carry the home games now on KQCA. That probably means some additional resources. They no longer simulcast on radio and video.