Feels about right, with the questions at QB, it's a bit favorable.

The media's opinion on this is worthless. For an equally worthless opinion I polled some transients in the park. They had UC Davis at #11 because the lost to the Bengals at Idaho Monster Truck Arena last year.

They should eliminate NFLpre-game shows and replace them with an hour of silence (well 25 min after you take out the commercials. The pre-game show sponsored by Skyrizi because "Nothing is Everything".

Also, UC Davis should eliminate all its sports so it can use the student fees to bring back P.E. classes and be real smug about how it's working toward a kinder campus where no one is treated better based on their athletic prowess but rather the wokeness of their social media posts.

The story on the web site engages in a little creative writing in this paragraph:
For Pettek, it marks the second-straight preseason that he earns the recognition. The staple in the center of the UC Davis offensive line has started 35 games and helped the Aggies boast the second-most prolific rushing offense in the conference and the fourth overall.
What?
We were second in rushing overall, counting our playoff game, but fifth in conference games. The actual situation is worse than that because we ran for 380 yards against Dixie,

All i can say is we better beat SLAC this year. And we have them at their place.

Camp opened for the Ags and Bears. Bears have 2 DL out for the year, and transfer QB Plummer still appears to be the starter.

https://bearinsider.com/s/3226/fall-camp-day-1-report/2

I hope Wilcox’s coaching skills are on par with his english skills, unless he is getting misquoted by the writer.

I will just chime in here to respond to the bee article today and its mention of who the starting Aggie QB will be this season. I do not think that miles Hastings should be considered the front runner. He is an outstanding athlete but his last two games last season were disastrous. Way too many interceptions and a lack of mobility cost us those games. So my thought is that jack newman a transfer from CCSF should possibly be considered the probable starter. I base this on his CCSF record and the opinions of my brother in law a HS coach and sonoma teacher who watched him play while a coach at sonoma valley high school. His main talents are that he is fast, throws very few interceptions, can throw on the run left or right and is real threat to scramble. Few downsides but he is not real big or tall. And that is what took HR down. Probably a good recruiting decision as our OL was a bit porous last year (maybe be still?) and this guy apparently can deal with this probably better than Hastings. At least IMHO.

I think Dixon is coming in as the front runner with Newman a dark horse

Second that notion.

Good. Hastings is an adequate third-string QB.

Outside of our new transfer QB, all of them are young. Hastings had similar completion % (60%), TDs (7), and INTs (8) to HR, YPG less at a soft 117 per game passing.

I mean, they have time to develop but it's never good to have a season where you have more INTs than TDs. I'm all for new blood getting an opportunity to start.

Coaches see practice. Recall CJ was great but reportedly had subpar accuracy in practice. Hoping for the best.

I'm sure Hawk is going to put us in the best situation to try to win games, but we can't deny that Hastings was underwhelming for a lot of his given opportunities. From what I remember he looked alright in the NAU and led the game winning drive against Weber, but struggled elsewhere.

Having little knowledge of the prospective qbs, a did a little search to find the size stats on some good FCS qbs. My thought is that in todays game a qb has to have at least some mobility and the first 3 in the list are very good at that. My first instinct is that Newman would be the one to try first due to alleged mobility. I know that HR size was a concern (although only real injury was concussion).

Eric Smid (Sam Houston)
6’1” 180
Tommy Mellot
6’ 0” 195
Asher O’Hara
6’ 195
Jake Dunniway
6’1” 198

Newman is listed at 6’1” 200 on ccsf site but 6’0 195 on ucd site so I would trust the latter as not so inflationary.

From what I seem to hear, Dixon has a strong arm, and if accurate that would be a real plus. I am a bit concerned with mobility at his size (this is just an assumption). I guess my point is that Newman is really no smaller than these other QBs that have had successful careers.

HR was listed at 180 pounds for 2 years, then 170. (Dixon listed at 222 pounds.)

DB Sean Harlston has gone from 6'3" 205 to 228 pounds.

LL up 19 pounds since his first year.

Don't forget Boise transfer new DB Semaj Verner***, had 19 offers out of HS. (Shrank 2" to 6'0".)

Don't forget we lost Bryce Rogers on DL. RB Trevor Facey not on the roster (PWO?), graduated.

From what I gather from the roster info, Dixon has never thrown a pass in D1 or any level of college football. So I don’t know where all the enthusiasm over him is coming from. But, what the heck do I know? Newman had very impressive stats at CCSF. That I do know.

Newman is probably the most ready guy since he played two full seasons and has gone through a camp at Cal and with us.
and would likely do a good job. I don’t know if he has the highest upside. So, I’m thankful he’s in the roster but if someone beats him out so much the better.

Newman started his career at Berkeley?

No, he spent a year there between seasons at CCSF in 2019.. By a year I mean he went through spring and fall camp but left the Cal team during the season.

CBS Sacramento: All-American UC Davis running back returns for final ride

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/all-american-uc-davis-running-back-returns-for-final-ride/

The schedule this year is pretty daunting though...esp for the first haf of the season so 5th makes sense.

I don’t think the conference ranking reflects our schedule so much as we finished fifth last year and there is no clear reason to think we’re improved. It is a conference ranking, so if anything were probably helped by the schedule as we don’t play Montana or Eastern Washington.