The coaching staff has little choice but to accept that some players won’t hang around after playing for four or more years and earning a degree. They know it too, which is likely why the roster makes no attempt to list players by eligibility; it’s a jumble of academic year and eligibility.
Buchanan was in the 2020 recruit class. Hastings, Tompkins, Budgett, Cloyd and Chaz Davis are class of 2019

I think we can assume the scale was accurate and Lan weighed 207lbs. They don’t make any effort to update roster weights.
Lan is a good jumper but Teddye Buchanan, amazing for his weight, is better.

I don’t know the winning % of non scholarship D2 teams, but in a way it is deceiving because in the early years they would lose to the eventual champion; Lehigh, Eastern Illinois, Southwest Texas State. There were only eight teams in the playoffs in those years,

It is a championship, they have to take conference champions and give them a shot. Fifth place teams from major conferences have already proved they aren’t the best teams, they have to give lesser teams a chance to prove the same thing on the field.
In 2009 Davis won a conference without an autobid. Team was 6-5 but two losses were to Boise State and Fresno State, a third was to the #5 team Montana by 17 to 10, and they didn’t get a bid.

Watching Delaware Lafayette. I would like to see Davis play Delaware some time, since Delaware was a D2 or college division power in the 70s when Davis started to enter the rankings.
Surprising they only have 4,000 something in attendance for a playoff game.

Why not just graduate in four years and say “been there done that” ? Is he likely to have a better season next year, here or elsewhere? A old romantic might harken back to the time when four seasons are enough. Larison showed character this year coming back and playing two weeks after a knee injury. He showed he is tough and fearless.

He doesn’t need to strengthen his resume with a lot of senior stats the NFL doesn’t care about. As a friend of mine used to say about a bronze star, that and two bits will buy a cup of coffee anywhere in America.

Larison has nothing to prove at the collegiate level. He has shown he is a player with skills and they can and have tested his athleticism. That will determine where he is drafted not whether he transfers to a FBS school. If he transfers and plays behind someone or has a limited role what does that due to his marketability? And transferring does nothing for him academically, he already has four year in college so is likely close to a degree.

If you have Larison’s time from a workout along with his weight use that for your comparison. Larison weighed 207 lbs when he ran 4.49,
Larison weighs 14 lbs. more and runs faster in 10 and 40 yards.(than Gilliam)

https://twitter.com/CoachiJACK/status/1662239318897840133

The coaches poll is one of the criteria. If a team disappoints early, then its hard to get into or advance in the list because the teams in the polls are usually losing to each other and those losses don’t have much effect on the rankings, because the loss is discounted because its to a highly ranked team. I don’t think it is anti Davis bias, it is hard to climb back into the rankings beating unranked teams, by not eye popping margins. Even the Sac score wasn’t something that would cause a major reassessment, Sac being #15. If the second half of the Sac game had duplicated the first maybe.34-0 would have done it.

12 seems like a nice assumption because its roughly 63/5 but when you lose at least 18 in seniors and grad students it seems like you would have more available. There aren’t any names in that category that don’t seem like they are scholarship guys. And that doesn’t include any juniors who might move on. Lots of guys can graduate in four and five years, and may be looking for the next phase in their life.

Factors on scholarship numbers
We had 18 seniors and grad students who i think were all scholarship, just by looking at names

Who else beside Buchanan were announced as graduating with remaining eligibility? Buchanan was class of ‘20, we have many players from class of ‘19, Budgett, Bearden, Davis Tompkins, Hastings etc. Those guys have been here 5 years already

Who on our current roster as walk-ons are going to be given a scholarship? I bet Eli Simonson was not on scholarship for example. Shamburger have a scholarship?

Sagarin FCS top 25. These rankings by the end of the season are just based on comparative scores, so there is no bias in them by the later half of the season.
Davis # 17.
Davis beat #13 Sac, #19 Weber and #22 Southern Utah, lost to #4 Montana.

https://www.college-sports-journal.com/college-sports-journal-sagarin-fcs-top-25-nov-18-3/

Larison believe it or not was not offensive player of the week.

It is not that they don’t meet the requirements. It is that their coursework doesn’t map to UC classes. Athletes have to make specified progress toward a degree, and if they took classes that don’t map to Davis classes they don’t get credit and don’t meet the progress requirement. A lot of schools offer vocational type classes that UC doesn’t.
However lower classmen don’t have as much of a problem with that. We had two sophomore transfers who started games, Shamburger who was a freshman standout at D3 Benedictine and Simonson who was at Nebraska but didn’t play.

They carry the home games now on KQCA. That probably means some additional resources. They no longer simulcast on radio and video.

Of course thats better. But that is also true of every other position teams do situational substitutions with. If you don’t have a player who excels at all aspects of the position, situational substitutions gets the skills needed for certain plays on the field.

Or do what Sac, Idaho State, Montana State do which is have two QBs with different skill sets play, even in the same series.

Next year will be a rebuilding year because they lose 5 linebackers who played including all the starters who are all rare talents. Lose majority of offensive line, Parks, Povey, Ford. Will likely have a new QB. Many of the juniors are really four year players that may get on with their lives.

I know this could just be Hawkins philosophy, but the majority of teams in the league used two QBs.
Hawkins said in one of his monologues that coaches have a responsibility to get their young guys prepared to play, yet Davis was almost unique in the league in never playing a backup QB. I can’t think of any other team where the backup never got on the field. The one QB tradition in college football is an anachronism.

The emphasis on the playoffs is a distraction from the importance of beating rivals. Obviously the first increases the likelihood of the second, but that is a happy coincidence.
Next year the goals should be win a game against EWU and the Montanas, and beat the California rivals, and have a winning season Those goals are tough but if they achieve them it is more important the squeaking into the playoffs and losing the first road game like Idaho did last year. This year they achieved those goals except beating EWU or Montana, Next year is going to be a major rebuild.