The new version of the roster has updated weights of the players. This was something I was irritated about because with rare exceptions the roster weight of players never changed. But the new weights show some surprises. Some of these weight changes may have taken place over years, except for the newer guys. Here are some notable ones

Hunter Rodrigues is now 170 lbs, down from 180
Jaylin White is now 180 lbs up from 158
Lan Larison is now 199 lbs, up from 180
Trent Tompkins is now 189 down from 200
Luka Nixon is now 279 lbs, up from 230
Colton Lamson now 296, up from 285
Bryce Rodgers is 311, up from 285
Nick Eaton 237, up from 215

Now they put him first team preseason all American, so they’re consistent. But isn’t this a lot of praise for a guy whose caught 12 balls? Is this because they pay extra attention to FBS transfers or is this justified?

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2021/8/11/football-three-aggies-earn-hero-sports-preseason-all-america.aspx

We’ll have to wait and see how he does in comparison to the other defensive ends, I’m guessing that’s his position. But he seems like he’s a good prospect based solely on his size and numbers. Not saying he’s better than anyone else but seems like he adds depth.

Also gleaned from the roster is that the team promoted to assistant offensive line coach Jacob Thomas who was offensive line quality control this spring. He was run game coordinator at Azusa Pacific. Played at Azusa under a NFL Hall of Fame O lineman. That sounds like a good addition.
Cody was an Offensive coordinator at College of Idaho, Thomas was run game coordinator at Azusa, Speckman has been a head coach and offensive coordinator. Lots of offensive strategy experience on staff under the two Hawkins.

ANTONIO OLIVIERI. transfer from Azusa Pacific. Played a little as a freshman there. Good size at 235.
High school report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oAgPI29grk

Martz had a full scholarship at Northern Colorado, transferred via the portal.

Fall roster update posted last week.
Fesili was first team all league for Long Beach Poly. Teammate of Chubba at Poly.
From a story about the Poly scholarship signees:
“I’m hyped for the competition up there. Chubba has been telling me there’s some dogs up there, so I’ll see once I get there.”

Good to see Suani’s name on roster, he was making an impact in 2019 but didn’t play this spring.
There is a JC transfer DL, Justin Martz who enrolled in Northern Colorado but they didn’t play 2020 so now he’s here. Good performer at JC level.

Maybe one or more of the RedFrosh you mentioned will get more opportunity this season, they’re still redshirt freshmen. Weird that someone can be a freshman in their third season.

Seems reasonable but that outcome would be very disappointing.

Maybe facilities was a poor word choice; i think the conference recognizes that some schools lack the resources to support a stream of a game at the desired quality. I suppose the needs may vary,

Listening to the Idaho Vandals fans on their Suds at the Pub video recapping the media days for the Big Sky Conference apparently the conference is funding some upgrades for the schools with poor facilities to improve their broadcast quality.

In addition to the fact we’ve seen some talent from our QBs, I think that the team hasn’t gone searching for a transfer as is typically done by other teams in our league is indicative that Hawkins and company are comfortable with what they have. I think the “best UC Davis football team” comment reflects belief in the QBs. Time will tell.

I don’t think the thought of the best Aggie team ever is going to impress the opposing teams, especially the out of state ones who we haven’t beaten for years. What’s it mean to them? They don’t remember a great Aggie team.
If Hawkins thinks it’s true then he needs to get the players to believe it. The expectation of winning is a big factor in sports.

We’ve certainly had two good running backs before. I think it’s an overall assessment, where we’ve got pretty good depth at all positions. Biggest defensive line we’ve ever had for example. The question is how good we’ll be at QB. Lots of good receivers, veteran line, no excuse if we can’t move the ball in a balanced way.

This article has number of coaches justifying whatever their schools policy was. With the exception of the teams that made late coaching changes, and were not ready to play like CalPoly, I think not playing in the spring was missing a great opportunity to improve.
Apparently Hawkins feels we made some progress this spring because I don’t think he would have said this is our best team ever without seeing what we had on the field this spring.

/Here is a Tulsa team preview from Ohio State perspective. Lots of returning starters for Tulsa.Basically everyone except the QB and a star linebacker.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/2021/07/21/ohio-state-football-schedule-2021-tulsa-vs-osu-preview-golden-hurricane/7965871002/

Maybe Theo is not playing football. He’s not on the 2021 roster.

I think our spring schedule was pretty comparable to a regular season albeit shorter. Only Cal Poly wasn’t respectable and Weber and Eastern were good. We played three games out of five against ranked opponents at the time we played them. And Idaho State was no slouch.
Regarding Tompkins pulling the ball down and running that wasn’t a common occurrence, he mostly ran by design. The offense this spring had a lot of QB run plays that weren’t scrambles. That was true even for HR. Tompkins had relatively few plays which were intended for a pass,

We averaged more yards per attempt this spring then 2019. But you could tell that the coaches either wanted the QBs to gain confidence by playing without the sense that they had to carry the team or the coaches lacked the confidence that the QBs could. Example, the Idaho game, if I recall correctly Rodrigues only threw a couple of passes before the middle of the second quarter. In Tompkins case he played several games before he got to throw at all.

I’m still curious to see what Gunnor Faulk can do. By all reports he’s a very polished thrower,
I’m sure glad our team played this spring so at least we’re that much closer to figuring out who and how to play. We won’t know what’s going until they play.