Camp opens this week I believe? Do we have any locals who will be going to practice? Where is Sailor Gabe, he excels with practice reporting, we need his boots on the ground.

Pinnick will start. You don't poach and pay players then not play them. He'll have ample opportunity to establish himself if he hasn't already.

Is the Aggie QB situation settled, or are we going through camp with a "competition"? Is Eason still going to be in the mix? Lots of questions, love this time of year!

Plough said today at the Big Sky kickoff that the QB position will be decided after two or three weeks of camp.

I'd assume that Plough would like to nail down his starter sooner rather than later so he can get as many reps with the 1s as possible. It'll definitely be a different looking offense when compared to last season. Kollock and Cleeland can both run, but are gunslingers at heart from what their tape shows.

is there a recording of that interview somewhere?

I watched it on espn+.
Its probably still going on, Davis was about 2 hr and 52 minutes into the show.
Its on demand.

“ Do we have any locals who will be going to practice?”
I’ll be going on the 6th before we have lunch with Tim. He usually opens up at the lunches.

I think I will be joining you that day!

Plough said he’s confident whoever rises to the top out of the QB room would be talented with guys behind him ready to go and ran through the offensive weapons the team has mentioning Williams by name, which i thought was an indication Williams is likely to be recovered.
In whole Plough continues to be relaxed about the QB.
I’m curious about the previously unseen freshmen. Big recruiting class and everyone now has five years of eligibility.

I'm not worried at all about Plough picking the right guy for the job. He's an elite QB evaluator, so whoever he picks I know will be up for leading the team.

Correction, 1 hr 52 minutes. Then Sam and Drew get interviewed.

We all remember what happened in Portland a few years ago. This opening game worries me. We really don’t know what kind of recruiting success they had, but what i see is a very accomplished D2 head coach in Fisk. I wasn’t planning on going to that game, but i might change my mind. Fisk led his teams to D2 playoffs several times and had records of 8-3, 6-4, 9-4, 8-4 and 10-2 in successive seasons.

The first half could be pretty similar to last year at Utah Tech. I'm guessing we really won't have much to go on with PSU's new coaching staff as far as how they are using their new guys. Its been said- sleepy atmosphere too.
PSU will for sure be ready to play, and sick of being a doormat.

Just as we don't know what PSU will look like under Fisk, jumping up from D2 to arguably the strongest conference in FBS is no small task to take on. We have a very talented roster and Plough will have the boys ready. If our goal is getting by the quarterfinals at the end of this season, we start with a pounding of the Vikings.

I'm with , this is a big jump for that coaching staff and to open with a Top 5-10 opponent is going to be tough. PSU won't have had much success with recruits yet, it will be ugly unless the Aggies keep it close with turnovers, sacks, and special teams miscues.

100% confident that Plough has the QB situation under control. Prediction: Cleeland will start, Kollock will play some but not as part of a QB competition.

PSU have somewhere around 42 new players, They have some transfers, not a huge number. A almost 4 star (89) redshirt freshman linebacker from Washington huskies, Jonathan Epperson, They have a transfer from Hawaii who passed for 1600 yards last year, 56% completions 4TD, but 16 interceptions. Appears to be a decent freshman class.
Central Washington scored 17 points in the first half against Montana last year.
Speaking of big jumps, Weber’s head coach is jumping up from high school. 3 of his sons are on the roster, as is a QB he had in high school who was Cal’s backup qb last year. One of his sons was on Webers team last year but injured after 3 catches. 10.6 100 yard speedster

4 TD to 16 Interceptions is impressive, is that one season? Mountain West football baby!

Central Washington is traditionally an outstanding D2 program. They've also done a lot with limited resources, below average facilities, isolated location, etc. Fisk will bring PSU back to respectability at some point, I think he'll be good but get his ass stomped in the opener.

I need glasses

I’ve watched a decent amount of CWU football (I had a pe teacher who went there so I randomly started following them years ago). If Fisk can do anything, it’s turning a program around and quickly. I think PSU will be wildly improved this year. While I think the ags have a good chance to make this a statement game with our returning talent, I think walking into PSU and expecting the norm (despite that almost upset last time) would be a mistake. Fisk is a killer coach, I was really surprised he left CWU for PSU. I honestly thought he would get the call for a coordinator position in the PNW at the FBS level or get a job somewhere like Idaho or Cal Poly.

You hit this on the head with "I think walking into PSU and expecting the norm (despite that almost upset last time) would be a mistake". The Ags will get what they allow.

In early season games the number of veteran players familiar with the system is a big factor, and Davis clearly has that advantage. Davis players are not going to be overlooking anyone in the first game. The question is how new players and players in new roles perform and how well the coaches anticipate and how quickly they adapt to what the unfamiliar opponent does. Both the head coach and defensive coordinator are from Central Washington, so they probably will look like Central Washington.

They will definitely look like Central if the personnel matches. The new players in new roles for Davis starts at QB obviously, the LT is a question for me, but otherwise the Offense can ride Fish and Gbatu and the myriad of other weapons and be fine. I don't have a lot of Defensive concerns either after what came out of spring ball on the D-line especially. That group is deep and talented. Will Rex be ready by game one, and how will the other new players on the back end play? Again, looked good in spring ball but never know.

I think there is a big unknown as to how effective the defense will be as a unit. Have to replace Psyk’s pass rush and fix the huge vulnerability the team had defending run plays. Defense has to improve by about ten points a game to match Montana State’s. The way they played starting with the Idaho State game may all be because of injuries, but the first game is an opportunity to make that case.

I'm hoping that some of the improvement will come from scheme changes. In a zoom, Plough talked about trying to change looks on 3rd downs and being a bit more aggressive as a way to help get the defense off the field - one of our weaknesses the past few years, in my opinion. They were very successful in the spring vs. the first team offense in creating confusion, so hopefully that will carry forward.

Is the Aggie QB situation settled, or are we going through camp with a "competition"? Is Eason still going to be in the mix?

Don’t know Eason’s injury or recovery status but I think he did get in a few times last year as a receiver - I think for blocking primarily. I seem to remember a #14 in the Cal Poly game and I think someone mentioned his participation in another game. If he is not going to crack the QB 1 or 2 slot (seems very likely) then maybe he has enough athleticism - and he has pretty good size - to contribute elsewhere.

His dad was an incredible athlete. I was there when he was injured just before a playoff game and it literally broke the team spirit. I recall a player running off the field and saying “Its Bo” and weeping into the hands of his coach
.if the son has some of the fathers talant nd spirit i will never count him out. Hell, put him in as a safety just like his dad! He will get the job done!

Eason’s roster bio says he didn’t make an appearance last year. Not that they keep reliable stats. Scott Nixon a 6’2” receiver wearing 24 was being used as a blocker in last half of season before being targeted in the later games.. I searched and couldn’t find any posts mentioning Eason playing.

KCRA channel 3 evening news had a segment on Ron Gould tonight. He's now the RB coach for the Los Angeles Rams.

Good to see coach without the cane.

https://youtu.be/FGEcqXPc5Rc?is=gdSYUrPibIBdWAMQ

I don't believe Eason played at WR but I wasn't looking for it either. He seems to be pretty athletic so it wouldn't surprise me if that was a move, or even putting him back at Safety where his dad excelled at some point if QB doesn't work out. It is too early though to close the book at QB, a lot can happen but that is a crowded room.

There are a few things I noted watching the Aggie D last year, and obviously these are just fan opinions. I think Psyk was outstanding; big, physical, and very disruptive vs. run and pass. There is a kid named Jayden Few that played as a true frosh last season (is the new term going to be "first year player"?) that has a lot of similar attributes as far as size, motor, etc. He may even be more athletic. I think he will be a capable replacement there, and I'm not saying he will totally mitigate the loss of Psyk. Those dudes are hard to replace. But there is a good one in the wings.

There were only a few times where an opponent ran the football and I said to myself, "nice play by that Linebacker!" One was really good against the pass and the other seemed to run into blocks a lot. In retrospect, I think we missed Porter more than we missed Rex in that regard (stopping the run). There are probably some schematic changes on the horizon, and getting Porter back will shore some things up. But in today's 12 personnel Big Sky, would there be merit to ditching one of the five DBs in favor of getting another Linebacker on the field? Illinois State manipulated the Ags with formations and were able to remove one LB out of the box at times which forced a Safety into it. Then they pounded the rock. No bueno.

Our Corners are probably the best unit in the nation. Our Safeties played well in the spring from what it sounds like. I feel good there.

Bottom line, yes, we do need to improve by 10+ points and be able to stop the run against high caliber competition.

I'm interested to see what happens on Special Teams as well.

Getting excited!

(is the new term going to be "first year player"?)

I hope, but do not expect, that the roster comes up with a convention for describing players eligibility and stick to it. Something like fr, soph, jr, sr, 5th and list players high school graduation year like they did just a few years ago, They dropped that just before it became meaningful. HS graduation year used to be listed along with HS in the same field.