Larison “ won a state championship in steer wrestling prior to his senior year” so should be a pretty good tackler.

Can someone explain why Sochor stepped down at the age of 50? He didn't go on to do much professionally, still had lots of productive years left

We were almost at the top, but weren’t.
Giving up a touchdown to lose after taking the lead a minute prior doesn’t show you’re on the level of the team that just went the length of the field to beat you with the game on the line.
We were not on the same level as Eastern in 2018, see first game with them for more evidence of that.
We can extrapolate that we weren’t on the same level as the other cochampion that year, Weber, because they smoked us in 2017 and 2019.

The Aggies almost got to the top of the big sky one year; can’t say they did because they lost to the same conference opponent twice that year. This year they were at the top only in people’s imagination.

Gunnor’s put on some weight since high school, roster lists him at 195 both this year and last.
I imagine there will be an open competition, I hope they pick the right guy.

Basic rule is player has five years to play four so unless something unusual he’ll lose a year.

Our one offensive lineman to get any recognition was Jordan Ford, who just earned a spot in the lineup mid-season ? Was he better than the others?

Not all D2 years were talent mismatches within our conference, that developed as success bred success. In the beginning of Socher years we faced teams with similar talent.
Also don’t overlook the College Division (before there was a D2) Massachusetts game in 72 and the Boise Thanksgiving weekend in 73, those teams were physically superior scholarship teams and we gave them all they could handle. The UMass score was deceptive because of the 5 yard end zones restricted our pass oriented team.

Hiring a run game coordinator... sounds familiar and not promising.

I note in the statistics that T Thomas played in six games, so no redshirt available there.
While on the running back subject, we could use a running back that can run outside. Gilliam is great but doesn’t have blazing speed. Combined with a QB who doesn’t run, and we didn’t threaten the edge much. We threw a lot of quick passes to receivers that often gained zero to two yards, I think that was partly to compensate for the limited outside running game.

I don’t think we can put much weight on offensive line injuries.There were some injuries that made players miss games but we had good depth there and always seemed to have five of our top seven linemen available. We always had an experienced player at every position and the newer guys, Ford and Amoah, warrant their playing time.
Some evidence that we weren’t lacking in offensive linemen is that a former starter, Riley Gallant who had played in thirty games in prior years only played in three, I believe that was just coaches decision.

I think on offense we obviously have some great athletes at wide receiver in Harrell, Vaughn and Babb, which raises the question of why the offense fell off so much after losing Doss, Kraft, and Crawford.
I know it’s not uncommon to have coaches who played QB coach wide receivers, but it seems to me that we might benefit from a receiver coach who can teach some receiver skills that were learned playing the position.

You wouldn’t put a player in just to fill a position, but that’s what they did.

Movie, Turay is just there as a fullback. Not every year used a fullback, but he’s the beat fullback we had as far as impact.
I’m with you as far as Manzanares is concerned. Pretty close call but Manzanares was always the guy other teams focused on and he still got the yardage.

We we’re desperate for running backs and he didn’t get the call so that says something. I think he has speed similar to Nemane Modise, last years #3 running back

we know they weren’t recruited by anyone, and we haven’t seen anything from them.

We need another running back. We haven’t recruited anyone playable after the Thomas & Gilliam class in 2017, and Thomas will be coming off an injury.

Biggs was his, Socher’s first QB, that’s the context under discussion. Biggs was the QB for the miracle win, took the team to the Boardwalk bowl in Atlantic City, and passed for 400 yards there.
Prior to Biggs QB we were not a conference power, his era started the string of championships.

On the basis of what he’s done to elevate the program he has to rank up there with Bob Biggs as a quarterback.
Biggs really started the winning tradition at the D2 level, hopefully that might be said of Maier at the D1 level.

How are we evaluating these guys, as college players or pro prospects?
If as college players Maier is right up there.
As a physically gifted player you have to go with O’Brien, which is why he was drafted in the first round.