This is just going off the top of my head so 100% accuracy isn't guaranteed. Doss was either not ranked or had 2 stars and we were his only offer. Maier originally signed with Sacred Heart University before going to Long Beach City College. I believe that Maier had some other Big Sky offers coming out of LBCC, Weber State specifically comes to mind. Just goes to show you that stars don't mean much. There are 4 and 5 star players that bust and not ranked and 2 star players that can blow away school records.

Don't recall either getting a lot of attention. Maier bounced back from Sacred Heart University (FCS) and threw for 3,800 yards at LBCC, and we jumped on him, incl Hawk. Doss played BB and possibly track, we were his only offer. Credit Gould & staff. A theory is that many FBS programs allocate most / all schollies by junior year, so have few left for late bloomers.

Jucos supposedly little help for us in past. This year Maier, Flowers, Cloud, Martin, Modise, Moe play big role.

Whether the new guys can turn the defense around will be an open question for about two years. They won’t do it by themselves but with other classes including guys on team now. It looks like we are going after speed and athletes on D. We’ve had safeties turn into good linebackers on multiple occasions, the DBs all have some height.

I think we have the athletes to at least have an average defense. One of the big things I noticed last season was that the tackling was horrendous all season with no signs of improvement. That's coaching.

Is the stud transfer DL from Fairfield still on board?

Playing defense in the Big Sky is brutal. Most are below #70 in the FCS / NCAA total defense. But we finished #113, giving up over 5,000 yards and over 6 yards per play. It's tough for me to believe a staff with Bob Foster would have a coaching problem that big.

The few people I chatted w point to a need for more pressure from the D Line. Gould lost several studs on defense to FBS dreams, and our staff brought in at least 3 Juco players for immediate help.

Special teams errors didn't help. Do we have the right plan?

You mean the one who just committed to Tennessee?

Sorry

I'm not necessarily saying there were coaching issues schematically, but more in the basic mechanics. Why at the end of the season were we still trying to arm tackle? At this level they should know how to wrap up and the fact that it never got fixed tells me that it wasn't being taught. These are D1 athletes, they should be able to pick it up.

I think we can count him as one who got away. He was here for a year.

After getting these 10 signees how many spots do you think we have left?
A lot of speed in this group. That will help on special teams kick coverage for sure.

I believe we had like 14 seniors last season, but I don't know if any of the PWO's from last year's massive class will be taking any of those spots.

PWOs?

Preferred Walk On

QB Hunter Rodrigues from American River College has committed and signed with UC Davis! GO AGS!

Were PWO part of the 30? Usually walk-ons not part of signing day announcements. Maybe partials
Interesting no running backs on horizon. That spot is up for grabs.

You are correct that they usually aren't included, but I still see a number of them from last season that are still on the updated roster, so they might have earned scholarships or could just be continuing without one.

Do you mean guys from signing day or walk-ons after signing day?

I mean guys who got preferred walk on status in last season's recruiting class. Guys who would now be red shirt freshmen.

This is what confuses me: did the thirty guys in last years signing class include walk-ons ?

I don't believe the actual signing class includes walk ons but that's beyond my knowledge of the specifics.

Just curious on the long term effect of signing 30 guys in a class. Seems like that would limit later class’ size. I think we are more attractive this year but have fewer slots. But that’s just a supposition

Also for those wondering, Rodrigues helped ARC in being one of the top JC teams in the country this last season. Good signing.

As armchair quarterbacks, we have to defer to Hawkins and staff. Judgement call, Hawk came in with established juice. Hopefully we get more kids ready sooner, Trimble and Hunkin come to mind.

Great news on Hunter Rodriquez. Threw 42 completions 1 HS game, ran for over 100 yards 1 game at ARC.

Rodriquez, from high school - "he’ll most likely follow in the footsteps of his brother Jake and play in college. Jake is a quarterback who transferred from Oregon to San Diego State for this season; Hunter said he has already received offers from Arizona State, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska."

I don't think we can announce the signing of anyone who doesn't sign an NLI, meaning all 30 of last year's class signed an NLI.

EDIT: Still not sure how we pulled that off..,

Stanford PhD.

BTW, our new QB will be a sophomore!

Stanford undergrad, Michigan State PhD. Either way, it worked!

At least one of them is a peer institution with UCD

Nice.

So we seem to be at 12 guys now? Hard to generalize on small sample but perhaps they are focusing on speed. Even the linemen are not big plodders. Probably will pick up a few more on the regular NLI day, but not a lot more. Could use a RB, among other positions. Interesting that the ball skills of several of the DBs was noted on team site.