1. QBs on/will be on roster as of now - Grant Harper (Sr), David Rasor (Jr), Damon Wrighster (RFr), Caden Pinnick (RFr), Treynor Cleeland (Fr), Axel Eason (Fr), Xzavior Guess (Fr), Tyus Miller (Fr)

I think Grant Harper probably has the inside lane due to experience, but I'd be excited if one of the younger guys managed to win the job. No matter who ends up taking snaps we will certainly have a new wrinkle in the offense of QB mobility. Every single guy listed above is SIGNIFICANTLY more mobile than Miles. In this day and age of college football your QB has to be able to run the ball at least in a pinch.

2. RBs on/will be on roster as of now - Michael Ingrassia (Sr), Darian Leon-Guerrero (Sr), Jordan Fisher (Jr), Kai Acia (Jr), Carter Vargas (RFr), Aden Jackson (Fr)

I don't think that we're going to have a bell cow next season like we did this season with Lan. I think we're going to get a mix of Fisher and Vargas if I had to guess. Two VERY different runners.

3. We have to work on the trenches and punting in the transfer portal. There are more guys than ever available so it would be nice to bring in some guys with experience. Especially if we end up having a young QB we will need an offensive line that's actually able to protect.

4. We're losing a ton of talent on defense at all 3 levels. Do we have the horses on the roster to not see much of a drop off? I'm not so sure about that.

Looks like we're losing a lot of talent on both offense and defense, even without transfers. Seems to me that if the returning players are looking for more playing time, they should stay in Davis with so many starters and key back-ups leaving. I counted 18, roughly, but Hastings, Larison, Williams, Tompkins, Hutton, Kennedy, Baines, Toki, etc. sheesh.

Who all do we lose? Here is a start, 27. [Updated]

Defense - 12

Zach Kennedy - DE*
Noa Masui - DL
Evan Bearden - DL*
Princeton Toki - NT*
Luca Sarac - LB
David Meter - LB*
Tristan McMurray - LB
Jackson Cloyd - LB*
Jacob Horns - DB
Kavir Bains - DB*
Markeece Alexander - DB
Mario Minor - DB


Offense - 15

Miles Hastings - QB*
Cole Wright - WR
Trent Tompkins - WR*
Chaz Davis - WR*
CJ Hutton - WR*
Abe Del Rio - WR
Julian Alessi - WR
Josh Gale - TE*
Winston Williams - TE*
Mitchell Dixon - TE (??)
Ernesto Nava - OL*
Miles Mynell - OL
Andrew Rumary - OL
Mateo Perez - RB* (eligibility left)
Lan Larison - RB*

Does Harper have another year left?

We've also got three graduate transfers and a couple of redshirt seniors who may graduate. That could add another five.

Over the year we've talked about the post Miles Hastings + Lan Larison era, but I don't think we've discussed how much we're losing at WR. Tompkins, Hutton, Davis was a large part of our receiving production along with Larison. Gbatu is the only WR we're returning who put up notable stats. Dobbins got some play time as well.

Who are the most likely players to lose to the portal?

The only player that I know for sure that's already in the portal is WR Robbie Mascheroni. I know Plough has stated that he wants to recruit guys that want to be at Davis so hopefully we don't become a program that is a constant in and out.

Mascheroni's practice tape looks solid, but we don't see drops / errors. With his 6'4" height he was grabbing some high point throws. It's a balancing act. He was considered a great signing and has 3 years eligibility remaining. No PT didn't help.

Hutton coming back (or paying with) an injury sucked up reps, as did speedster Dobbins. FTR, I would have tried to get Dobbins a few more reps given his speed.

Miscellaneous observations

Meyer has no more eligibility. He has played in 10 or more games in 4 seasons.
Mateo Perez has more eligibility if he wants. He has 2 seasons out of his 4 where he played in four or fewer games.
Nava is a weird case where they used him in five games his first year hear according to stats, but our stats are pretty unreliable.
Antzoulatis could probably get a year. He played in 2020 that doesn’t count, missed all of 21 with a training camp injury, so has just used 3 years 22,23,24.

David Rasor is listed as a sophomore but has only burned one year of eligibility, so he was sort of a redshirt freshman this year in those terms. Should have 3 more years of eligibility. Maybe I could be incorrect, but he wasn’t on the team until last year.

You're probably right. I just went off the current roster, but I know that it's filled with mistakes.

The roster doesn’t even try to account for eligibility of the last few years recruits. If you are a class of 23 recruit you are listed as a sophomore,

I don't know why there's so many mistakes on the roster in terms of eligibility. It wouldnt take someone long at all to double check that stuff.

It was getting pretty complicated for a bit so they waved their hands in frustration and gave up.
What bugs me is listing 5 games for players like Souriolle and Fisher when I’m pretty sure they didn’t appear in five games. (They fixed this for Fisher in the stats but not in the roster bio.)

Here is Mateo Perez’s career. 2021 was clearly a redshirt year.
2023 was a year mostly lost to injury, I’ve seen the NCAA grant another year in that case. So Perex may have two years more eligibility.
Season GP ATT YDS TD Long AVG/A AVG/G
2021 3 1 2 0 2 2.0 0.7
2022 9 34 175 1 16 5.1 19.4
2023 4 23 98 1 37 4.3 24.5
2024 13 58 240 0 21 4.1 18.5
Total 29 116 515 2 37 4

Possibly managed by the same folks who didn't publicise our NCAA playoff game / free tickets?

Another realization that I had was that unless we land more commitments in February or bring in transfers our WR room is going to have only 2 guys that eclipse the 6' mark: Laviel Pickett (6'4) and Cole Owens (6'0). Not that the 6' mark is the determinant of being an effective receiver, but our room is definitely on the smaller end and you want to have some diversity in size for different roles on the field.

Holding my breath on who were going to lose to the portal. Conners?

noooo please no. I love the brothers

That sounded sarcastic, I really do love those dudes watching them communicate on the field yesterday must make the parents proud.

Based on the offers Larison got without entering the portal, we might not see any names for awhile.

Year end interviews start tomorrow if I remember correctly. Expect a few guys to move on and those spots are going to be needed.

I imagine we might see some guys from the classes between Plough as OC and HC choose to move on. In this day and age it's pretty unheard of to not have any guys transferring out. I just hope we can get some trench guys coming in to bolster things. Not that we had a ton of places that we struggled this year, but I would say that OL play and pressuring the QB were a few of those places along with DB coverage.

Agreed. The trenches lost us the game with the yotes. I think we match up fairly well with teams in the top 25, but not the top 5. Maybe with a stronger pass rush the seams in the secondary will be easier to seal. When the qb has plenty of time, somebody is going to open up.

We haven't had a strong pass rusher in years. It seems we get our sacks from delayed blitzes and deception.

Davis isn’t going to lose many transfers, one reason being the small number of returning starters.
The last few years veteran transfers were numerous due to the number of 5,6,7 year players, those are diminishing
I imagine some of the players from the last few recruiting classes transferring because of dissatisfaction with opportunities to play. Davis has been playing veteran players and there are lots of lower classmen that haven’t had much play. I don’t think that has much to do with who the OC was when they signed on.
Plough’s saying that the more physical team always wins and the smarter team doesn’t lose was correct. In these playoff games the home team wins more than usual because of seedings and because if the limited preparation time for the visitor due to travel. Davis had to travel on Thursday due to location and the need to take finals, and they didn’t look as prepared as usual.

I have high hopes for Sam Goligoski. He seemed to have good contributions when he was in during the 2nd half of the season. (Go Padres!)

Meyer is listed as a redshirt Jr for some reason. You are correct on his games played status--UCD left out his 2023 season, so it looks like he only played 2 full prior seasons.

Are you saying we may have Meyer for another year?

I don't think so. I think the redshirt Jr. designation is a mistake

He isn’t saying that.. He is saying that the UC Davis site is wrong in callling him a red shirt junior. Meyer played ten or more games in each of his 3 seasons at Cal Poly. Then he played here. That is four solid post covid years, 21,22,23,24. He was at Cal Poly in 2020 also and Cal Poly called that his redshirt year, which makes no sense as it was a free year for everyone,