Maybe they opted out due to covid concerns? With a new DC though I think that he would have an objective outlook on picking starters. He didn't necessarily have any specific loyalties to the previous starters.

I think Dan has even stated in news articles that the offense is changing very little right now. Cody is basically running Plough's playbook with a few personal twists. What I'm hoping to see from Cody is management of tempo. It will be tough with a new QB and OC, but I think if we can run up tempo out of the gate it could catch Idaho off guard.

In regard to the defensive youth, I'm sure Coombs is putting us in the best position to win some games. If Hawk had a wildly different opinion on guys starting we'd see him intervene. Youth doesn't necessarily mean unprepared, but I agree that there is A LOT of youth in that 2-4 deep.

My initial impression were not a ton of surprises on offense. A lot of returners on the line, wide receiver, and running back. The biggest question continues to be who will play quarterback on Saturday. On defense we listed a lot of youth for sure. Our nose tackles are huge even by nose tackle standards. Ambagtsheer is now listed on the D line after initially being recruited for TE. Will be interesting to see who actually gets the start here in a couple of days.

Game 1 Notes are up

https://ucdavisaggies.com/documents/2021/3/2/Game_1_Notes_Idaho.pdf

The folks at the Idaho forum just put up their prediction thread and the first individual picked 42-10 Vandals. I have a hard time believing that will happen, but I suppose you never know. Aggies by 1 score.

I have to imagine that we have a starter and he's keeping the name quiet. Not a good sign if we are really going with a game time decision. I know that everyone's schedules have been off due to covid, but at this point if you are truly unable to name a starter then it's because no one has stood out enough.

Not that a depth chart from Hawk means anything when it lists a 3 deep and never lists a starter... X or Y or Z.

I was watching the game and they didn't have a proper camera angle to really tell from our perspective, but EWU still allowed Idaho to march down and get a touchdown afterwards.

Idaho's quarterback started to pick up a little bit in the 2nd half, but good lord he couldn't have hit the broad side of a barn in the 1st half. I didn't think either Idaho or EWU looked particularly dangerous on offense, but they had guys flying on defense.

The article has been reposted

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/its-not-for-lack-of-qbs-that-aggie-football-goes-forward/

Could be that he spoke in general. He gave a blurb about every QB on the listed roster, so only omission would be potential walk ons that haven't been listed.

It was basically just a short quote about each guy. Nothing really indicative of who was starting. C. Hawkins said that he is very very impressed with Tompkins (second very in italics), called Hastings extremely competitive in nature, Rodrigues the old vet in the room, etc. It seemed like coach speak, but clearly something didn't go over well

Strange. Not the first time that's happened. I remember an article in the past that had Plough talking about offensive schemes that later got removed. You would think that if you're talking to a reporter from the paper there's a fair chance it's for an article.

I think when you try a wildcat gimmick you have to trust the guy to be able to make throws too. It seems all too common when teams attempt to run a wildcat player outside of the starter it becomes too predictably a run. You have to at least put a little bit of fear in the defense that they might get beaten over the top.

Yeah I think if you are fielding multiple "starting" quarterbacks, you really have no starting quarterbacks. You have to pick a guy, but also be able to objectively look at a situation and make a change if things aren't coming together.

Has anyone heard anything through the grapevine? Wouldn't surprise me if Rodrigues had a leg up simply due to experience and playtime albeit extremely limited FCS experience.

Agreed. When I watch the highlights of guys when I'm putting the recruiting lists together I noticed that Tompkins just seems to have the it factor. Maybe doesn't have the biggest arm, but he's quick, elusive, and just seems to find that open guy. No one really has any college game tape on any of our guys, so I imagine in true Hawkins fashion we won't know who's starting until game day.

Decisions, decisions lol

I took calc from Kouba like 10 years ago at this point. I guess he made calculus as good as it could be (which is still pretty damn low from this biosci major's opinion).

I am curious how offensive schemes will change at all. I would be surprised if it didn't change at all, but there also isn't a ton of time between now and the supposed start of the season to install an entirely new and flushed out system. I will say that I was more happy than not with Plough's tenure, but there were definitely still instances of total head scratchers along the way.