Did you guys catch the NLI sent in from Italy? — movielover

Hawk commented on it last night. As Dr. Mike said, the energy in the room was infectious. And there is a recent video of Hawk imploring fans to fill up the stadium.

In regards to the how-the-grants-work question, my understanding from having gone through the Financial Aid process recently is that the University gets from the federal government an 'Expected Family Contribution,' a number that indicates how much you're able to pay based on your tax returns. It's up to the university to subtract that number from cost of attendance and give you the rest of the amount, but it frequently doesn't go all the way, hence loans.

What I'm guessing they're doing is calculating the football recruits' EFCs, determining what grant they would get if they were a normal student, then applying a partial athletic scholarship to perfectly cover the remaining difference until the football player is only on the hook for the EFC, which can be close to zero. If the scholarship goes above that difference then it has to start cutting into the grant instead of the EFC.

From the UC Davis Scholarships website:

All UC Davis and outside agency/private scholarships are posted to the recipient’s UC Davis student account. When credited, the scholarship will first cover any unmet need; then, it will replace a student’s Self-Help expectation, followed by loans and Work Study. Grants and other gift aid will be reduced last, if necessary. Scholarships will be divided and disbursed evenly over fall, winter, and spring quarters, unless otherwise specified by the scholarship terms.

So it looks like they're treating an athletic scholarship as they would any other merit scholarship. Smart, but also kind of violates the spirit of the rules, which is to stop rich schools from crushing smaller schools -- I can't imagine Weber State or Northern Colorado have as robust need-based programs as UCD does, so this kind of adaptability might be more difficult for them.

Three new articles up the past 2 days at the Davis Enterprise.

In one at the Notes section at the end, I think Bruce may have accidentally mixed up our two new Irish kickers... I believe the high school player is the one who has nailed a 73 yd FG, not Max from ARC.

I haven't read the articles, but you are correct. Daniel Whelan, our new freshman punter, kicked something like a 72 yard field goal in practice, not O'Rourke.

Daniel Whelan, our new freshman punter, kicked something like a 72 yard field goal in practice, not O'Rourke. — CA Forever

Hawk spoke about him at the reception. They are really excited about him. Gosh, I hope we all don't have our hopes too high. But I am confident that we are not going to get out coached this coming year. I was planning on spending October in Montana. I might have to work my schedule around home games :).

Like I have said elsewhere, I'm really just looking for improvement this year... any kind of improvement. While it would be nice, as a fan I'm not really aiming at conference championship or anything this next year. I agree that Hawkins won't make a lot of the same mistakes that Gould was making (clock management, questionable play calling, ect).

i think Dan cautioned us about getting our hopes to high. he said something along the lines of 'to win the last game of the season, you have to run the ball, and be able to defend the run. well, we're not gonna be playing the last game of the season next year. so, we'll pass, be creative on offense and defense and build'. in other words, improve next year, and build up a program to be a consistent playoff team in the short term. at least, that's the message i heard.

I am so happy Field Gould has left. If Whelan was here, and Field Gould was the coach, I think we would be going 3 and a Field Gould every series we did not turn the ball over.

Agree with you about tempering expectations. I think a lot of alums are expecting a drastic turnaround in the win column. It's hard not to get carried away and think we're going to compete for a Big Sky title.

I think Whelan is down as the punter. Hard to argue that Gould liked to kick. His legacy includes the all time records for attempts, makes, and overall points in the history of football at UCD.

6 wins would be a miracle. There has to be a ton of pressure on the staff to turn things around and do it quickly, not from Blue, but from all the alums who are excited to win. There has been more talk about Aggie football in the off season than there was during the season!

I believe we have an educated fan base, and we know we can't become contenders overnight. Finding a QB (QBs) and a RB (RBs) are key ... we do have some studs to replace, like Inoke... I was hoping for 5 wins last year. ... I think Jamison could really emerge, along with Bennett, Rodgers, and Franklin... Gould's class was supposed to be top notch, so we'll see.

Educated fan here....
I saw Tedford take over a 1-11 Cal team with sleepy Tom Holmoe recruits and go 7-5 in his first year.

Hawkins has more to work with (relatively) in my opinion, and I expect a Tedford-like rise.

I want the Ags to win now

There will be a lot of youth ... bringing in those 4-5 JC players may be key, if 2 or 3 or fill needs, that would be Uuuge.

Can anyone here enlighten us as to what players do here in the summer per unsupervised practices? I know places like UCLA and USC hold 7 on 7 or full squads. First time I heard of off season practices recently was last summer, but I'm out of the loop.... Maybe we've always done it.... If we are introducing new schemes, repetition will be key.

Another DL guy who may contribute is Will Allen. He red-shirted 2015 and then sat out all of last year with a weight room injury. I heard he was just cleared to return this Spring.

Didn't't he also play TE in HS? ... I only mentioned a few of the possible breakout players off hand. CJ, Kelley, several WRs, several long DBs that will give us size... 6'"2, 6'3"...

Yes, roster info says 1st Team All-Mt.Hood conference, in Oregon both offense and defense, HM All-State. He is the kid who also played quarterback, halfback, H back, and at 250lbs (high school weight I believe) ran a 4.9 40.

Finding a QB (QBs) and a RB (RBs) are key ... — movielover

Hawk said something about having speed at first, then getting size to be able to run up the gut as the program matures. One thing i'm cofident about - we are not going to see "up the middle" play after play, stop after stop.

On another note, the suc board seems high on their recruits. Threr's been a bit more activity over there.

Unfortunately for Suc, I think they are suffering from some of the similar problems we were under Gould. You can land impressive athletes, but if you have no idea what to do with them you aren't going to be winning too many games. After back to back 2-9 seasons, I thought that they might start looking for new options for HC, but apparently they are giving Sears another chance.

I thought that they might start looking for new options for HC, but apparently they are giving Sears another chance. — CA Forever

Which is good for us. As much as i like destroying them, some of the best games were the nail biters. Sorry to be off topic.

Looks like we may have a new commit for this year. DE / T Colton Lamson of Sac City, where he maybe played only one year. From Union Mine HS in Folsom. He has filled out and is now supposedly 6'5", 255 #s.

Info derived from CJ Spencers twitter.

Edit.