First game is against South Dakota State who lost their coaching staff and about 16 players to Washington State, and lost 21 players overall as transfers They brought in a dozen transfers, but not rated as highly on average. Every team is going to be rebuilding.

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I was conceding your point that they are very talented, but questioning what it meant.
A lot of these guys were signed before Sac filed the paperwork to move to FBS. I wonder what the coach really feels about his transformative year being truncated. Just seems to me that was an own goal.

It doesn’t have to come as a surprise.
If the aim is to free up a scholarship, you would approach an in state athlete and propose he take $20,000 or whatever in lieu of his tuition and other costs covered by scholarships plus taxes, then give the guy from out of state the scholarship.

Good question. They have had 40+ players leave, so maybe not,
I don’t see an obstacle of giving out NLI money instead of a scholarship and effectively compensating the player the same amount.

The issue isn’t whether they have talent, the issue is what do the games mean?
If they get their FBS waiver then their games this year are basically exhibitions. Their schedule is not that tough, they’ll play 1 FBS team that was bad last year,South Dakota State is decimated by transfers and the coaching staff moving to Washington State. Sac plays a few games against teams near the bottom of FCS, and even the better teams in the Big Sky are somewhat depleted by transfers, so they aren’t proving they are FBS ready, and there is good reason to skeptical that they can recruit at this level on an ongoing basis, or even retain the coach.

If they get denied in their FBS move they might win a FCS national championship, which would be dramatic story, but if this is a transition year it’s ho hum.

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.

Another issue is what happens to a teams credibility with HS coaches and players when 40+ players leave because they’re being replaced. Those olayers may also lose progress to their educational objectives due to disruption. Sac in prior years made a big deal that they recruited locally, now they risk burning that relationship.

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.

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

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

Anthony Soto brief recap of coaching background and 2025 Mercer team.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5cCR3cusUD/

The third is in honorable mention.
Derrell Porter (DL) Dartmouth to UC Davis

It would be more interesting if they were still FCS playoff eligible, which I suppose they will be if they get turned down by the FBS Committee for their waiver to move up without a conference invite.

got injured

They didn’t come for the money, they came for the chance to play FCS football, but without the need to play more than 12 games.

The attorneys for the plaintiffs in the NCAA settlement case now proposing that the players who lost their spots on teams due to roster limits be given career exemptions from counting in the total at either their old school or their new. Another way to mess with competitive balance. If adopted this enables schools to raid other rosters and not have to cut anyone,

Now compare it to the average Cal road game,

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We have nearly as many tight ends as receivers on the Spring roster, and I remember hearing that the tight ends learn all the receiver routes. Perhaps unfortunate the team doesn’t have a light tight end who could move to receiver, a la Hayden Hatten. But they’ll play a lot of two tight ends this year.

Soto and the head coach are a tandem, coaching at 3 schools together. Soto was assistant head coach at the previous stop.
Mercer’s freshman QB who started six games transferred last week to Oklahoma.
Davis may have half the defense starting lineup show up for the first time in summer camp.
A real challenge for coaches on both teams to get their teams ready in week 0.

The Analyst has a updated preseason ranking of FCS teams where Davis is ranked 15th.
Of the 14 teams ranked higher, Davis plays four of them, Montana State, Sac, Idaho and Mercer and they also play 18th ranked Southern Utah. Throw in Washington and that is a challenging schedule.
This is a hard year to forecast, all the FCS teams have significant player turnover.

https://theanalyst.com/2025/05/fcs-football-preseason-top-25-rankings-2025