So on Twitter they announced Main and Cotton, on the website announced just Main, and Gardner gets no announcement at all. I can't remember a NLI day for us being this... strange... in recent memory at least. Something seems up, but what do I know. Maybe they are going to go heavy on recruiting between now and February.

in the East Bay times today there are articles about Cal, SJSU, and Stanford recruiting. Cal signed 10 but expect many more by February. WIlcox was saying they still aren't sure how many scholarships they have available since some Seniors with COVID exemptions still haven't made up their minds about returning. I believe the NCAA easing of scholarship limits was a one-year only thing.

SJSU is hitting the portal hard.

in the section for Bay Area seniors signed, there were about 10 -> that's a pretty small number compared to the past.

Agree with all the comments about this years NLI day being "odd". I suspect that our (RS) Fr. and Soph. rolls are pretty full so we are probably targeting the JUCO ranks and the portal. And I don't mind. This is just the "early" day so there is still plenty of opportunity to fill in our needs.

Getting seasoned players may be a better tactic for the next 1-2 campaigns. Just a thought . . .

My gut tells me we are looking at making the announcement during the ‘traditional’ February timeframe. There are still names being added to the portal, and possibility that some seniors will opt out. Spring ball is moving back to spring, so perhaps our recruiting schedule is moving back to late winter

2021 Sophomores are the new fifth year seniors., they likely have been through four training camps and seasons, 2018 2019,2020,and 2021, so next year will be fifth year in program.
My point is that we don’t need to look to bring in upper classmen. A junior JC transfer is probably two years younger than a Junior in our the program. And just because someone has eligibility doesn’t mean they’ll be here longer than it takes to graduate. Gilliam and Perryman are just the first class of guys who will move on with eligibility, either to play elsewhere or to start post college life.

WR Jason Thompson and DL Kaz Melzer both headed to the 'Furd

I guess we'll just have to wait and see for February. It would be nice if we found some gems in the portal even if they are just bridge players while younger guys develop.

It may be a domino effect when key transfers commit. It sounds like a record number.

Hopefully we can get some key transfers. It's not a guaranteed thing though.

Folks, our coaches aren't gonna telegraph their recruiting intentions to our opponents. Just stating the obvious. We also didn't put a lot of high school offers out.

A lot of recruiting information is pretty public. Athlete Twitter accounts, coach Twitter accounts, high school Twitter accounts, regional recruiting Twitter accounts, websites dedicated to nothing but collecting and compiling recruiting data. You really don't have to dig too deep to find information cause the athletes want to information public. They want the buzz of getting offers cause it attracts more.

I'm not doubting that the coaching staff has a plan going forward and you are correct that we put out way less offers this season compared to previous seasons at this stage in the game. We will just have to wait and see what happens. Covid definitely changed some things for our program and it'll be interesting to see how it impacts the final recruiting haul.

Being there are so many in the portal the Ags may be saving their schollies for February and get some BCS caliber players left without a team.

I’m sure we’ll get some transfers, we probably avererage one or two a year. Question is will they be impact players. Transfers that are major contributors here have been rare. But I agree that that’s the logical explanation of why we put out few offers. I guess they have some indication they’ll get some people.
The other alternative is painful to contemplate, and that is the new recruiting coordinators can’t recruit.

Smalley*
Castles*
Woods*
Albright*
Lamson*
Hansen*
Scharetg*
Martz
Gomez*
White
HR*
Moreno
Rudd
Olivier
Povey
Wilson
Cloyd*

[Edit] I count at least 10 having an impact, more than I thought. Coach Tucker brought some key players from his JC year #1. At least five were big contributors.

I was thinking more of the transfers from four year colleges. The JC guys are kind of a given, there are some every year, many without a scholarship to begin with.
So guys like Castles, Smalley, Woods, Peyton Dixon, Albright, White (Navy). Martz is sort of a transfer from a four year Northern Colorado, but he never played there. Similar to Cloyd. Some stars, some not.

I inadvertently missed Cloyd.

If you were a cute girl at the prom would you dance with the first guy? I do not think so, unless he was very very good looking. I think the Aggies are on to something here. IMHO transfer portal is going to be a very much bigger thing in college football in the future. Yes. I am a dull one. Although I do not like it at al. Going maybe to destroy the college game as we know it. But, What hell do I know?
.

I think the combination of the transfer portal basically becoming free agency for college football with the addition that some of the top tier athletes getting paid now has definitely changed the landscape of the game. We're seeing some players making millions (literally) before setting foot on the field.

For example, Quinn Ewers from Texas (last year's top rated high school QB) left school early to go to Ohio State. He signed an endorsement deal worth millions. Never played a snap for Ohio State and entered the portal after his freshman season to go back home to play for University of Texas. So the kid made millions off the notion of playing for Ohio State then packed his bags and high tailed it out of town. Last I checked, these kids were still supposed to be student athletes and it's trending more and more to being minor league professional ball.

I'm not totally opposed to players getting paid for their likeness, but I do think that the more money involved in the process causes more politics to be involved in the process. Kids are going to be choosing schools that monetarily benefit them the most instead of a school that might provide the best education or program fit for themselves.

True at the top end but so far we’ve been effected by the fact that NCAA has extended eligibility ridiculously, first by letting freshmen play, then letting redshirts play four games, then by the loose criteria for extra season if injured even after playing five games, and finally the COVID year doesn’t count. So athletes can be in a program for six or seven years, when it only takes four to earn a degree. So after the mission of earning a degree is accomplished why not seek another experience?
The extended eligibility is unfair to later year players, who don’t get the scholarships they would otherwise be offered.

I'm not opposed to situations like Gilliam. I'm not at all against grad transfers and you are correct that there are some eligibility rules that benefit the teams like letting freshmen play limited time without burning a year.

I'm more worried about the long term ramifications of the newer rules I mentioned above. I personally feel that they are detrimental to the aspect of being a scholar athletes (although at a lot of power 5 schools that went by the wayside a long time ago). I don't want everything about college athletics to become "how can I make a quick buck".

The excess eligibility is the colleges looking at how can I make a buck too. Society would be better served by more scholar athletes not the same ones for twice as long

Very good point. Cheers. How ever this plays out, I still have immense confidence in Hawk and his staff to have a productive recruiting cycle - early, traditional, late . . . ultimately, I just want to win. GO AGS!!!

Last Word on Sports claimed UCLA was also after Perryman. They add:

"Shopping In The Portal

"So it is to the transfer portal [UCLA Coach] Kelly goes. And here is where the numbers require an advanced math degree. The NCAA allows for 25 players to be signed in a class. And in a one-off rule, teams can add up to seven more players to account for transfers and super seniors leaving. That makes for a potential class of 32. However, the Covid expansion of rosters is now over. Last year, teams were allowed to carry 100 scholarship players, and 115 total. Now they must return to the normal 85 and 100. So in the conundrum that is the NCAA, you can expand your signing class while reducing your roster size."

Sounds like a lot of FBS players may be looking for a home.

https://lastwordonsports.com/collegefootball/2021/12/16/uclas-roster-management-is-complicated/

Along the same subject:
https://eedition.sacbee.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&pubid=7218502a-ca19-4351-8b3a-6d7d686ee524

“ Amid this week’s early signing period for high school football seniors, the Pac-12 is facing a dire situation that could get even worse.

An unmitigated disaster awaits just around the bend.

The conference is currently devoid of top-10 recruiting classes, according to the 247Sports national rankings, and only one school, Stanford, can lay claim to a top-30 class.”

“ Four of the state’s top 10 prospects in the prep class of 2022 are committed to the Pac-12, with three more likely to follow, including the No. 1 recruit on the West Coast. Cornerback Domani Jackson pledged to USC last winter, then re-opened his recruitment weeks ago after visiting Alabama. But the Mater Dei prospect now appears likely to sign with his hometown team later this week.

The Pac-12’s poor position relative to peer conferences was easily foreseen. Its three heavyweight programs (USC, Oregon and Washington) have all experienced coaching changes, and a fourth school with solid recruiting chops (Arizona State) is under NCAA investigation.”

Well, i see that Athletics is still planning the recruitment celebration in February so that suggests we have more good news coming.

You wrote:
What's the roster limit? We have a huge RFrosh group, as big as Hawks first group.

15 - Freshmen
36 - Redshirt Freshmen*
23 - Sophs
17 - Juniors
<91>
13 - Seniors / Grads

Those limits are 110 players on the roster, 85 players on some sort of scholarship and 63 total scholarships to divide up.

The breakdown of classes based on eligibility is deceptive because freshmen can either have been recruited in 2020 or 2021, and redshirt freshmen span three years, 2019, 2020, and 2021. We have 10 current redshirt freshmen who will have been on campus for four years, before they start their junior year. Could be a situation where half of the 91 guys have completed enough units to graduate after the upcoming academic year. That’s an argument for bringing in young guys each year, so half your team doesn’t move on.

I believe last year there were over 2200 players entered the transfer portal, and more are expected this year. Let's say it's 2600, if we consider roughly 260 FBS & FCS programs, that's 10 players per team.

It's obviously a longshot that we land a former 4 star recruit. But 3 star recruits are conceivable, and the success of TE Castles and LB Smalley are an example.

UCLA & Berkeley seem prime possibilities if they're student-athletes with a desire to play. UCLA had a ton enter the portal, including a young 6'3" WR and linemen on both sides.

I’ve long been puzzled why we don’t get more transfers from UC campuses, but historically we’ve lost approximately as many guys to those schools as we’ve gained. And that included an era when transfers didn’t have to sit out if they transferred to FCS and did if they transferred to FBS. So why should we get more now they don’t have to sit a year to move to another FBS school? New transfer rule doesn’t make coming from Berkeley to Davis any easier, as far as I know.
Like I said I think we’ll get some transfers, us signing only two HS players points to more transfers on the hook. Looks like we’re losing two so we’re starting in a hole.

Maybe majors and Colleges play a role. I had a friend who was surprised a 2 unit class at Davis was 4 units at UCLA.

Then the number of class hours was different. Or, it can be influenced by quarter vs semester system.