Post of the Day. Wish he was my neighbor!

https://x.com/giana_jade/status/2016158163452461057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2016158163452461057%7Ctwgr%5Eeb9c1addff015dcf16eb448c7bdfb88fe4af00e9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.baltimoreravens.com%2Fnews%2Fteddye-buchanan-maryland-baltimore-snow-shovel-driveway-kids-neighbors-storm

Such an awesome dude. Ravens were a great team to draft him too.

Agree. That podcast was amazing. Coach Plough is such a good coach, we are so blessed to have him leading our football team.

JTO on Contacts Podcast:

I was about to post a link about new information on the 2026 Signing Day from Facebook, but I lost it. I'm hoping someone else can post it.

here’s the signup link. Wednesday noon at Sudwerk’s, $25 for lunch. This is the time/place of normal monthly lunches.

https://ucdavisaggies.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS:UCD:DEV2526:LWBC0204:&linkID=twucd&dataAccId=779&locale=en_US&siteId=ev_twucd&fbclid=IwVERFWAPniDpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeUmZLuSWDHEvJYh42zyO-8uKuFaQ5jUW6p20RJndolBSVt9Q3gsNjxut0Brs_aem_TcMfcDPnImqqro1tPBkD6A

Yeah, well, won't be making that one unfortunately, ha.

I like the idea of recruiting and developing depth for deep playoff runs. Getting college kids to buy in to that philosophy is the secret. Belichick always talked about prioritizing an elite QB1, then building the rest of the roster from the 53rd man back up to the top. As we experienced last season, you're going to take some injuries so the reserves are critical. Plough mentioned throughout, "we're bring this guy in to compete with this guy." Enjoyed the pod, as usual

I guess the media folks had a brief hiccup today when at around 11:45 they released the “febuary 5, 2026” recruiting class list. Before they quickly realized that they had screwed up and took it down I was able to only read that is is 20 freshman and 10 grad transfers. So no new news there, but still a pretty funny development and apparently no big changes.

Oh jeeze. No screenshot??

.

Bobby hauck is stepping down?!?

apparently. Love the timing.

https://footballscoop.com/2026/02/04/bobby-hauck-to-resign-montana-head-coach

yep

- never a head coach
- never a coordinator

Don't programs learn? Have position coaches ever succeeded as HC?

AND he's a Receivers coach! Not too many WR coaches that have made great coordinators, much less Head Coaches. Not saying it can't be done, but most of them can't get on a board and draw pass protections or a defensive front 7. He'll have a lot of support there and will likely be the relationships guy, but I would not hand the keys of a blueblood program over to a WR coach... EVER :rofl:

And they passed over two coordinators on staff who are alums. Pease and Cooper.

Something sounds weird. Pretty sudden move, with a questionable promotion.
I wonder if eGriz is freaking out (I bet yes)

I guess I should watch the presser, etc.....

Bobby is BURNED OUT by College Football 2026. It's a shitshow out there, who can blame him. Especially at a place like Montana. Hopefully he can go up to his lake house and skip rocks and catch fish and get refreshed. He's an acquired taste but a good guy.

We don't give Plough enough credit for how he manages the program and the roller coaster of recruiting and agents and raising money for the cause at a place that is mostly but not all the way in compared to the Montanas and Dakotas of the world. Maybe he goes home and throws his patio furniture into the pool and kicks his dog, but he doesn't strike me as that guy. I really appreciate the way he is both passionate and realistic. Has a vision and isn't scared by it. Consistent on every level that we get to see. Go Ags!

Frankly I'm surprised we haven't seen more coaches quit given the state of college football. The whole notion of basically unregulated NIL and transfers needs to be reconsidered. The free for all nature of basically having to re-recruit your entire roster every season seems silly.

With all of the great player and coach retentions, new HS players, and new transfers, our feel like our team is in better position than last year. With a very strong QB room, I believe (100%) that whoever comes out as QB #1 will do a good job and I would not be surprised if QB #2 gets more playing time by design (not because of injury or illness).

Looks like our 2-deep (plus) is looking strong across the board, however, I am pleased that staff has been able to focus on special teams. We now have a 5-star kicker and 5-start punter on our 2026 roster and if we can do a better job with field position, it may help with an extra win(s) over the long season.

The "bonus" our program could experience over the next few months would involve the return of the Conners. I am not familiar with all of the weird laws/rules or current on the various court cases, but from someone on the outside looking in, it seems crazy not to grant an extra year to these two players.

Well said and couldn't agree more!

Agreed. The Montana retirement and Montana State defensive coordinator bolting to the NFL (not to mention all their portal losses) has the Aggies in a prime position to contend for the Big Sky championship. The 2-deep will be strong and also still young. Another area of strength is the staff retention. Plough made a nice move with the special teams position while retaining a very good position coach. The RB guy leaving is a loss, but that is a plug-and-play position on staff with the talent in that room. I feel really good heading towards Spring Ball in April

Let's friggin' do it then - this window won't stay open forever - big programs, with lots of money and support will simply pop right back up, Griz and Cats won't have problems finding great players for their programs and great coaches will want to go there. However, I think the Aggies have more gel internally, so they gotta cash in with their gameplans and returning personnel.

What a mess and a shame. I wondered if more coaches would quit, here's one. I though I remembered hearing that Saban quit because of all of this money nonsense. I was sort of in favor of players being able to get NIL money from 3rd party advertisers/corporations, but having schools and school alumni/supporters raise money to pay kids just doesn't make sense. Just a bunch of wasted effort/energy and money that could go elsewhere. There are lots of trades that require unpaid internships, so can't college football be considered the unpaid internship. Is that so horrible? For many with scholarships you are getting a free college degree, so not entirely unpaid. Is that worth nothing? Is the showcase and the platform a big time school provides to the player that gives them the opportunity to play in the NFL worth nothing?

I can see the players' point of view that at least the top 20 to 40 schools make money off their football program, so shouldn't the players get a piece of that? At all other schools the football program does not make money but is a big drain away from other sports teams' budgets. I'm not sure what to do about the top programs. Is there a way to create a separate division that is essentially a professional division and the rest go back to amateur status. In the professional division, maybe the leagues which negotiate the big TV contracts where most of the money comes from, dishes out a pool of funds for the teams to allocate to their players. But the school and their supporters cannot add to that so that it just becomes a deal where the best fundraisers and the most money win the championships.

Paying the players by sharing revenue and NIL was decided by the court settlement as was the 105 roster limit, no scholarship limit. (The roster limit was necessary as allowing NIL made the scholarship limit unenforcible). That spilt milk can’t go back in the bottle. Judges make decisions based on the parties in the case, they don’t decide what is sustainable for smaller programs, fans, or student athletes in other sports, but the precedents set by those cases set the new rules.

the speed with which this spun out of control was astounding. The original complaint was should a student athlete be able to monetize a bad homemade music video on YouTube. Under the old rules he could not but a non-athlete of course could. I think most reasonable people would agree that was unfair but I don’t think very many reasonable folks would call this the answer. You’re correct that judges must decide cases on the facts that exist but I’d argue that the way this was applied was probably overreach because the legislative branch just didn’t do anything.

Once the courts defined the issue as the NCAA colluding to deprive the players of their right to earn, it put the NCAA in a situation where they had to negotiate the settlement, The resulting settlement has terms the big programs can live with and some even profit from and the small programs not so much. The interests of the fans and other sports were not at the table.