Uhhhhh... wow. That is quite the name that's for sure!

LB Donovan "DJ" Taylor has committed and signed a LOI! We had the offer but he hadn't committed from what I had been able to determine. Glad to have him on board!

Is there any way to know if any of these 31 ate walk ons?

And can someone ask Hawk tonight if we expanded our roster size?

The athletic website has put together a really nice page on this recruiting class. It also looks like they will be hosting a Youtube live stream for the event, which is available on this page. What time does this event start?

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/signingday/ucda-sd17.html

Only athletes who sign an LOI can be announced today. If they are a walk on they won't be named until they enroll in the fall (or summer).

The live stream just went up on the athletic website.

Here's the link again for those interested.

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/signingday/ucda-sd17.html

No question about how we could sign 31 players?

He said something along the lines of once you go over 30 scholarships in a class you can start applying scholarships from previously classes to any extra guys... something like that. We were only 2 guys over the 30 scholarships, so not that bad I guess. The 32 that have been signed are the official class at this point. Any other guys that are committed are probably walk-ons but they are not allowed to talk about them until they get to campus in the fall. He said that we have a lot of walk-ons looking to play here. At the end of the day he didn't seem at all concerned about the scholarship issue.

Also this was just a press conference. There is an event later tonight that I think some members of the board are attending. They can hopefully fill us in on anything of interest.

When we typically give 17 to 22 scholarships, ... Something is missing in this equation. ...Maybe there are 10 or 12 partials. I Don't know. Gray shirts, Redshirting, partials.

Yeeeeeah I don't know. I'm just as confused as you are. Like I said though, Hawk didn't really seem worried by the situation.

Even if the 2 apply to a different year or whatever it is (confused by that all), the math doesn't add up. That might be user error...

Maybe he learned some tricks at Boise... over a 5 year period that's 150 scholarships. Anyway, we should have offered Kobe!

You mentioned Greyshirts. That's a distinct possibility as they sign an NLI (2016) but count towards the 2017 scholarship allotment and doesn't compromise their redshirt year. Combine that with available scholarships from previous years...

Sac Bee article posted 40 minutes ago says 32 NLI tops our previous high number of 18. Hawkins very happy w the class.

I would be happy too! Huge influx of talent. Read the bios of the new recruits on the athletic website, we got some seriously talented athletes in this class. Will we immediately have success this next year? Probably not, but this is a good first step in my opinion.

Partials plus they were able to provide grant money to needy recruits to make up the difference, so some of the money did not come out of the scholarship kitty. Very exciting evening tonight with the chancellor in attendance. I really enjoyed visiting with Hawk and Mark Speckman. Both are down to earth and excited to be here. Tremendous energy. Go Ags!

And btw, i think we are going to see multiple formations with the wildcat and fly inside to 10.

Any more details in general from the staff? Sounds like it was a fun event.

No details that help the competition!

only that they do not plan to run offensive schemes that everyone else is, and they plan to give defensive coordinators "fits."

it was a really nice event. many former players (probably close to 10 from my 'era' back in the early 80's) which was great to see. we signed 32 BUT.....2 JC transfers are on campus, and 2 more are coming in spring so they can be counted against last year. 30 is the max at FCS, but, technically we're under the limit. sounds like between partials and some creative application of grants, we could cover the large in-flux. Hawk is jazzed about the kids here, the kids coming in and the future. its infectious. not many details about the game plan beside 'we're gonna throw the snot out of the ball' and 'we're gonna create turnovers on defense'. lots of motion, lots of formations, keep the offense simple (i guess the past offense was very west-coast like in the long play names and complexity). don't look for us to have a power run game (for now), and don't expect many 14-13 games (to the chagrin of Fred Arp!).

Staff introduced themselves; impressive group who are very excited about the class and the program.

Acting chancellor Hexler was there and was VERY excited about the event. when was the last time a chancellor showed up and showed genuine support.

big, big crowd. one of the staffers told me they expected 150, which is about 140 more than last year's event at the stadium.

apparently we can have 100 guys on the roster come fall by FCS rules. with incoming players, returners, walk-ons, we'll have 113......so, the kids will need to buckle up the chin straps and come out competing on day one!

one more thing about the class: we went for speed, speed, speed, playmakers (we'll find you a position, we want the best 22 'ballers' on the field), speed, and versatility (lots of 2-way players, most are multi-sport kids).

did i mention speed? its a new game ('basketball on grass'), and this staff is trying to get the kids who can play that game

I can't wait for this season to start

Thanks DrMike. I believe we are limited to 25 new scholarships per year, but the gray shirts would help there.

We effectively just signed TWO recruiting classes. Think about that! Creative, a way to jump-start the rebuild process. Hawk just doubled the typical impact and role players.

Questions. Do Redshirts count against that 100 player cap?

How do we apply , say, Cal Grants? A Cal Grant A is $12,000, do we get to apply that before the athletic grant in aid?

Well you guys sure have me pumped up. Hawkins and staff are saying all of the right things right now. They just need to show improvement on the field, any improvement at all and I will be really stoked. Also, no or little power run game? Please and thank you, so tired of seeing us try to force it the last several years.

one thing i liked in Dan's presentation was how he handled the question of injuries/depth. he was saying when he did TV, EVERY coach he talked to complained about 'depth, injuries, and playing freshmen', as if they were the only program in the world that had to deal with it. i think that's why they recruited athletes (he likes the term 'ballers') who can plug and play at multiple spots. you're always going to have key injuries -> prepare yourself to deal with them while minimizing the impact.

as for the questions about redshirts/grants.......i have no idea. that's the first i heard about either the FCS 100-man limit or the use of grants to help with partials, so i don't have any insights.

its been an exciting week to be an Aggie booster. the big comeback win on saturday along with the team aggie/alum reception. last night's event symbolizing a real change in culture. and the announcement of the return of ESPNU to the Pavilion. need to cap it with a basketball road sweep!

I thought there was an article out awhile ago that had Hawk talking about how they were dramatically changing the weight training program for the team and that they thought that would help to decrease our plague of injuries. I agree with what he was saying though, every team has injuries. It's how you handle those problems that determines success or failure. Unfortunately, under Gould our system wasn't prone to adaptability.

As for the large number of players signing they may figure out of 30+ players one or two may not qualify academically. If that is the case and all actually do qualify you may then see a few of the players grey shirted.

I read in Jan in the DE he was seeking input from everyone, including scientists across our campus.

Did you guys catch the NLI sent in from Italy?