I would guess we have at least 4-6 schollies, maybe more, available for Coach Plough and staff.
Innovative scholarships - we recruit kids with high GPAs. How do we factor in if a student athlete qualifies for a Cal Grant A, B, or other merit-based monies? These might allow us to stretch funds.
My understanding from a brief read of some blogs and a general understanding of Davis aid is that students on partials are eligible for scholarships that the general public can apply for and Davis is almost unique among the non Ivy FCS schools in how robust the aid program is.
So I think what Hawkins meant by that is that they’re scoping out which recruits are in income brackets that would result in things like guaranteed grants to cover tuition and then giving them partials to just cover room and board, that kind of thing. Also perhaps even declining to give certain recruits scholarships if they’re eligible for almost everything covered anyway
I wonder if Plough will keep Shanbour. He seemed the least proven coach. Kevin Burke has more QB playing and coaching experience. If they brought Daft back he might want to take responsibility for QB’s himself.
We do have RBs, but I'm all for loading up for the post LL competition. That and Plough's entire schtick is scoring fast and frequently which means we'll need a ton of depth on the offensive side of the ball.
Tompkins and Larison will be sixth and fifth year players respectively, Ward is doing to be a fifth year player if he comes back, which might be questionable as why have a fifth year player on scholarship who has never had a carry. Two other guys are walkons, who haven’t shown much. That’s not much depth, and what depth they have is in its final year.
Don’t rule out Kainoa Acia at RB. That is for the future of course as he is just a freshman and did not play last season. He is a very athletic young player and former wrestler. Very smart kid. Dos anyone remember another former wrestler and Aggies LB Tim Lajic? He was one of the most fearsome and formidable players to ever play as a Aggies LB.
Montana's not on this list and they're in the Final Four - so unless we're expecting to see Houston Christian barnburn the 2024 season, I think it still comes down to preparation and execution as always...and a bloody quarterback that can bring it all together.
How do they determine this? They don’t say.
They have 15 players a five of whom are upper class-men from JC or other colleges, red shirt juniors and seniors.
The difference between their recruits and Davis’ seems to be the number of transfers.
Sac has always relied on transfers, which means they have large recruiting classes because the players have less remaining eligibility.
As DavisAggie said, ranking recruiting classes is almost meaningless... especially so at the FCS level. They used 247's star ratings to rate the classes. I include those ratings while listing our recruits, but they lack any real kind of objectivity. Ulonzo Gilliam and Lan Larison were both 2 star players in high school and Keelan Doss was unranked for instance.