Some very interesting additions. Notably it looks like we snagged a Davis native in AJ Hasson. He started off at Washington State and hit the transfer portal, but last I saw he had committed to Wake Forest. Big time add for the OL.

Eli Simonson is on the roster. The o-line returns all starters except Mirabella,, and he only started 7 games.

Hasson followed his HC to Wake. That’s a good get. If healthy he can plug in anywhere.

I see Nava is listed as a grad student. Good to see experience on the o-line. Hasson looks like a great addition.

The only question regarding returning o-line starters is whether David Main is recovered from leg injury suffered in playoffs.

Hasson: 6'4", 307#, perfect.

Nava is one of those JC players who got extra eligibility following a court case that the NCAA couldn’t count non NCAA years against a olayers eligibility. Remains to be seen what that means in future years but for this year juco players who were on their last year now have another year.

Looks like we brought in a legit punter! That's more exciting than it should be ;)

where did you see that? i'm not seeing the 2025 roster online.

looks like they took the 2025 roster down. Anyways, this was the punter they had listed: https://247sports.com/player/dylan-mauro-46154632/

Punting was a glaring weak spot for most of last year so hopefully that will be rectified. Field position is a big deal.

https://masseyratings.com/cf2025/8200

Massey has us going 9-3 (6-2 Big Sky) with loses to @ UW, @ Idaho, and @ Montana State.

I'd take this in a "rebuild/reload" year.

I’d take 9-3 also, but i don’t think Idaho will beat them.
Idaho has new head coach, their transfer losses exceed their additions. According to HeroSports seventeen Idaho players have transferred to the FBS, including seven to New Mexico.
Pre season these algorithms are too influenced by last years performance. Look at what they project for Sac, 5 wins.

totally agree on too much influence from last year’s performance.

With all the new size/talent alone Sac might win a couple more games than that, regardless of the coaching.

Porter Connors on this list: https://herosports.com/fcs-football-top-returning-2025-linebackers-bzbz/

Good for Fish.

I though he got hurt in the Sac game?

My memory failed me.

Why would they take the roster down? I checked a few Big Sky teams sites and they all had a 2025 roster.
I assume the roster was taken down because it listed someone who wasn’t correct, or at least was undecided.
First guess was AJ Hasson, but he is also mentioned as committed to Davis on 247.com.
https://247sports.com/player/aj-hasson-46136486/

They continue to have difficulty in giving recognition to Eli Simonson. They finally have credited him starting in the 11 games in 2023, where before they said he didn’t play, but he is the only Davis All Big Sky Second Team player where that is not mentioned in his bio. If he is coming back they should promote a player who starts 25 straight games and gets all conference recognition.

There was a player listed on the 2025 roster who is now committed elsewhere although it is not Hasson. It was a long snapper, Jacob Poff, who is now committed to to App State.

A former player for Montana, Samuel Akem, has a podcast where he listed the teams in the big sky by strength of schedule using won-loss records of opponents, Davis was 9th, Montana 10th. So that sounds comparable.
However. Davis plays a team from a power 4 conference, Montana doesn’t have any FBS opponent. Davis plays 4 FCS playoff teams, Montana 2, Davis has 5 home games, Montana 7. Montana has a D2 opponent Davis doesn’t.

actually, Montana has EIGHT home games (all of their OOC games). The advantage of selling out at 24000 stadium with dozens of luxury suites!

our luxury suites cant come fast enough. that revenue generation!

suites start at $14k and there are 40 of them. I’m sure the ones near midfield are much higher. And the are almost sold out for season tickets!

https://upwithmontana.com/seating/washington-grizzlies-stadium/

yeah I don’t doubt that when rocko announces our suite expansion project that they will sell quickly. Plenty of local companies and ag alum who would love to say they have a suite

This has always been a pet peeve of mine. I think Montana always has more home games than away games every regular season, and I think UC Davis never has more home games than away games in the regular season.

This has enormous playoff consequences.

Well, when you can rack up close to $1M in suite sales and probably twice our game ticket revenue, it takes away the need for a FBS payoff game. If we have 3 OOC games, one will be FBS (away), and more than likely one home/one away - unless you can pay off a team to come here on a one-off game. No D2 games in our future

Those guys have been asked for years and have passed. Many of them have kings box seats or suites. The only way this works is if it’s pushed hard by May and he really leans on Health and the university’s major partners. The economics on suites are not great most places (Montana is not most places).

My limited experience with private boxes was in SF at the then AT&T Park in the AT&T suite which AT&T used to entertain corporate clients. The value of that type of suite depends on how much the average client of the suite purchaser values a ticket, so to get the level of rent they get in Montana means that a large portion of the community, who aren’t alums, want to see a Davis game,

Montana is just a different dynamic. Demand from paying customers well exceeds supply. Then factor in weather and the lack of competition for sports entertainment and you have a recipe for success with premium seating. Davis has more supply than demand and as Fugawe astutely points out, the capex associated with traditional suites does not present a compelling economic opportunity. What a lot of schools are doing now is building a club experience in one of the end zones. This provides a differentiated experience (aka an expensive bar) that generally pencils from year 1.