New offer on 3 star linebacker Sincere Jackson from City College of San Francisco

Offer on OL/DL David Main from Los Alamitos! GO AGS!

I looked at the roster just announced. It appears we have very good potential for a great team. Solid OL. Very good DL. Good to great DBs. LBs, I do not know. But what I do know is that Hawk has an abundance of talent at RB and QB. At RB we have Ulo, we have Larison, we have Dixon and others. The question is at QB IMHO. HR is very good, but how can you keep a guy like Tompkins off the field every play. He is a beast! I understand the team calls him the “Magic Man” apparently because he can do things others cannot do. Hard to see that we are not an offensively oriented running team next season. Look forward to your thoughts, as I am not an expert in this stuff.

I'm no expert either, but I was frustrated Tompkins didn't get more opportunities to show off his arm this last season. He was a very accomplished passer in high school and has done nothing but win his entire career up to this point. I believe he has an it factor that you just can't leave off the field, but clearly the coaches at this point see it differently. I think Rodrigues did alright, but he had a propensity of taking sacks or losing the ball from holding on to it too long or trying to force something that just wasn't there.

the jury is out on QB. I think the conservative play calling was a reflection about QB decision making/accuracy. Rodrigues wasn’t accurate against the good teams which is a concern. I thought he threw well on the move (think about that winning drive v ISU); hopefully we’ll see more of that. Hastings also had accuracy issues, although he didn’t get many reps to get comfortable. Accuracy has been the negative that I’ve heard about Tompkins since spring 2020. If one guy makes a leap, we will be very good.

As far as the players are concerned, there is only one guy they call “Magic Man:” Tompkins. To me that says a lot.

The most loaded positions on the team are the receiving positions including tight end. We need to play a QB who can get the ball to them.
We might be best off as a run oriented team but we can’t be as adverse to taking risks throwing the ball.
I hope the play calling gives the QBs the opportunity to prove themselves or fail so we can see what they’ve got.

I agree River; but it is seldom that a team can boast of having two AA RBs: Larison and Ulonzo and a QB who can run, really run: Tompkins. So, yes we have great WRs, but how do they get the ball? Does the run actually set up the pass? I refer you to an article in The Signal by Brandon Skerda (2017) which addresses this exact question. The answer is an unqualified YES. Skerda used the Mixpanel JQZ Console to analyze this in an NFL context using an enormous body of official stats from the NFL. He uses the run first down and pass second down model. He starts with the premise that the first down has to be a “good run” defined as 5 yards or better. After a “good run” the likelihood of the next passing play being a caught pass improves exponentially over a pass after a poor run, less than 5 yards. Anyway a good read. Alert: Skerda works for Mixpanel. If 2021 season taught us anything it is that we can do the “good run” thing fairly well.

I’ve heard the accuracy issue for Tompkins before, but he is a really fun guy to watch. With the crop of QBs that we have somebody has to emerge. Redshirt freshman Miles Hasting looks impressive. High GPA, tremendous HS stats in a very competitive league (San Diego) and earned first team San Diego All-CIF and All-Avocado League first team honors as a senior.

I’m still curious to see what Gunnor Faulk can do. By all reports he’s a very polished thrower,
I’m sure glad our team played this spring so at least we’re that much closer to figuring out who and how to play. We won’t know what’s going until they play.

Seems like Faulk had some reps last season. Another kid with impressive HS stats.

Rooting for them all. Coaches get to see practice and film every day. We didn't have the strongest spring schedule yet our passing numbers were off, especially compared to Maier / Doss.

We averaged more yards per attempt this spring then 2019. But you could tell that the coaches either wanted the QBs to gain confidence by playing without the sense that they had to carry the team or the coaches lacked the confidence that the QBs could. Example, the Idaho game, if I recall correctly Rodrigues only threw a couple of passes before the middle of the second quarter. In Tompkins case he played several games before he got to throw at all.

OL Jake Steele commits to San Jose State

Ushering in a new era of recruiting

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/miami-booster-offers-540000-nil-endorsement-deal-to-all-hurricanes-scholarship-football-players/

...and they're off and running!

Things are going to get interesting, and I'd give it 5-10 years, before the next Pony Excess bomb drops with some overzealous program pushing through the limits going at light speed.

Wow...I've never seen those videos before. I never knew it got that bad. I can only imagine what has gone on a many of the big money programs that has never been exposed.

I think if Tompkins is going to “win” the job, he will need to start assuming the Barriere model, I.e., a pass first, run second approach (at least on designed pass plays) and Barriere has matured in that regard. . With such success running it is hard to get in a mindset of keeping the feet quiet and letting plays develop rather than pulling the ball down quickly. Oddly, it’s a bit of a difficult position to be in when you can run so well. He will need to be a dual threat if at QB, and this past spring he was pretty much a one-way threat. I do think a strong offensive line and a good running game that wears down folks is a more consistent recipe for wins than a more pass happy approach. Anyway tompkins needs to be playing somewhere and there are other options in addition to QB. Anyway I hope things will sort out. I am hoping for a healthy UG all season- in my mind he is still the most valuable player on the team (at least offense)

NC it is always hard when you have a very good QB (HR) and a potentially great QB (Tompkins) and a coach has to choose between the two. I think Hawk had to give HR the ball this year due to his being the only QB with any experience this year. But as the season wore on we got to see more and more of what TT could do on the field and it was an awesome performance. With TT, UG and Larison in the backfield I see that as a very formidable and powerful group of athletes. So I see a more run oriented team this coming season which I for one see as great!

Don't forget we didn't have the toughest Spring schedule. I liked how HR became a bit more selective when he would run, but I think both he and TT may have been banged up at seasons end, even in a short season. Could TT be taught to pass first AND second, but only run selectively?

Are dual starting QBs out?

I think our spring schedule was pretty comparable to a regular season albeit shorter. Only Cal Poly wasn’t respectable and Weber and Eastern were good. We played three games out of five against ranked opponents at the time we played them. And Idaho State was no slouch.
Regarding Tompkins pulling the ball down and running that wasn’t a common occurrence, he mostly ran by design. The offense this spring had a lot of QB run plays that weren’t scrambles. That was true even for HR. Tompkins had relatively few plays which were intended for a pass,

I am fast becoming a Woody Hayes devotee. Remember “three things happen when you pass the ball: two are bad.” I am looking forward to a successful season of “three yards and a cloud of dust.” Well, lets just say a cloud of rubber chips, but thats OK. My bet is TT starts the first game. UG and Larison behind him. Really looking forward to this season!

Not sure how to embed the link

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/5468834/5bda11e7ff0bfa0998d9b864[media]

OK, we can pass on third down. TT can do that as well. As I reported before, according to the WP statistical study of the effectiveness of passing the football. We have: UG for three. Larison for three. 3rd and 3 is about is good as it gets for a completion percentage or by a run by TT. Who would you rather have with the ball? Thanks agalum, great post.

LB Ripp from Los Gatos chooses Boise State.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/05/football-recruiting-los-gatos-star-chooses-boise-state/

OL David Main commits to UC Davis! GO AGS!

ATH Jeremiah Earby commits to Cal

WR Samuel Gbatu Jr commits to Air Force

New offer on DB/WR Lamont Johnson-Burrell out of Sacramento! Go Ags!

Good catch, listed on a baseball recruiting profile as 6'2", 165; FB profile as 6'3", 170.