I know he had some trouble seeing the field in his career because of leg injury, that might've messed up his window to play more often, played in 7 games last year - speed to cover? Certainly length to match up with tight ends

Certainly was fast enough before he got hurt to start a bunch of games, make a lot of tackles and multiple interceptions in the ACC. Hopefully he's fully recovered by this point.

Batson reportedly had an upper body jnjury. He was great until he got injured, which finished him for that year. He came back the following but he had been replaced and maybe not 100%. Supposedly 100% now.
He was a free safety.

My guess, uninformed, and almost surely wrong is that our lineup looks like this 3-3-5
DL Carrade ?
NG Porter ( porter can reportedly play anywhere on the D-line, so we could play a bigger nose guard if desired)
DE Psyk
LB Porter Connors
LB Rutchena
Rush Goligoski ?
Boundary Safety Rex
Field Safety Batson
Nickel Riddick
Corner Allen
Other corner lots of candidates but i’ll guess Ty Richardson the transfer from Tufts.

This was waaaaay harder than I thought it would be- Riveraggie, I now understand your uncertainty about the defense. A lot of unknowns.

DL Carrillo/Carrade (?)
DL Psyk
DL D. Porter

LB P Connors
LB Rutchena
LB/End (?) Goligoski

CB Josiah Allen
CB Richardson
CB Stanley/Fowler (?)

S Rex
S Riddick

^ posted at pretty much the same time as Riveraggie...great minds think alike.....

I meant Allen, so i edited my post.

I thought maybe either Stanley/Fowler would start because they both played pretty significantly last year. I can see Batson starting for sure....all three of them definitely playing a lot

Preview. Weird that they only name Psyk, Rutchena and Ty Richardson out of our grad transfers.
Davis wouldn’t be a top 15 preseason team without players that don’t get a mention in this video, Derrell Porter, Riddick, Batson, and Allen.

It would be interesting to know if the coaches doing these previews are so lackadaisical about the effort that they do it off the cuff and leave out the transfer safeties and nose guard or whether that part of their response ended up cut out, or whether the transfers looked so unimpressive that they aren’t worth mentioning. I’m leaning towards lackadaisical.

I'd guess its editing (?)

Or first game subterfuge.

Bingo.

From study I want to believe that this Aggie front line is one of the best in history. Not overly huge but very strong intelligent and extremely mobile. But I have never really understood the concept of the 3 man front. I know that many teams have used it and still do but I still don’t get it. Please help me understand. All other aspects of the defense looks pretty solid to me. Your views appreciated.

I'd say a 3 man front allows for more flexibility and speed on defense.
3 linemen, 2 LB and 5 Defensive backs + a "rover" like Goligoski for instance who can drop into coverage as a LB or move up and rush on any given play.

Ex-Aggies, or pro ballers / coaches feel free to educate!

The idea behind having a three man line is you have moved a player off the line of scrimmage so he is harder to block and can move laterally. Teams started to go that route when there were a lot of option offenses in the 70’s. It was effective against the run.
The “new” approach is the 3-3-5, which removes a player from the traditional front seven, and provides a fifth defensive back. They went to that to counter the numerous receivers in spread offenses, they have five DBs to cover 5 potential receivers.
They can play one of the linebackers at or near the line of scrimmage, as essentially a defensive end, so in effect they can have four linemen if they want. It is harder for the offense to anticipate what the defense is going to do, which is probably the key thing. Lots of players can potentially blitz.

I think the Aggie offensive line is one of the better ones in our D1 history. The defensive line has a lot of turnover from last season. Transfers and non-starters form last year taking over.

Game week. Go Ags!

Tubs at the Club guys predict the Ags to finish 2nd in the Big Sky behind MSU

https://www.youtube.com/live/Yznl9pUKL_M

People let their bias against Sac States style color their predictions.
Sacs challenge integrating new players is shared by every team. Davis is the island of stability and has to replace 12 starters. Senior heavy classes due to 2024 being the end of the line for most players who were anything but a true freshman in 2020 meant losses to graduation were more than normal. People argue that teams like Idaho have shown the ability to reload, but FCS teams were exceptionally deep in prior years due to the extra year. Idaho has been hit by heavy transfer losses in consecutive years, at some point depth suffers.

Nice of them. As the Idaho / UC Davis series continues -- it's a bit like the Aggies have the Vandals' number for whatever reason. With a new coach in the Idaho program, the perspective and the game plan will no doubt be different, so interesting to see the next match up.

There is an hour long podcast on the team site, Plough and David Collins

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2025/8/18/football-catching-up-with-tim-plough.aspx

They posted the text version of the offensive position review.
Not much to say about it, although they claim David Porotesano is a returning starter which i don’t think is right.
We seem to have lost OL Souriolle, Strange trajectory for his career. He played in his first game as a true freshman against A&M Commerce, which is a rare thing for an offensive linemen. I’m pretty sure he was on the summer roster.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2025/8/19/2025-football-positional-preview-offense.aspx

Here is the video offensive position preview.

They have posted the game niotes in the schedule and there is a depth chart. Lots of ORs
The players aren’t listed in alphabetical order. Make of it what you will.

DE 96 Jaden Few (Fr., 6-5, 250) -or-
94 Jacob Psyk (Gr., 6-3, 265)
-or-
56 Julius Ray (Jr., 6-2, 250)
Does that mean Jaden Few is the #1 guy? No way.

Interesting they list so many freshmen. I doubt most of them play but they must look good

They moved Nava to Main’s spot at right guard, put Porotesano at right tackle.
If you listened to Ploughs press conference he said this year was the first that players gained weight. The roster weight are updated. Zaire Collier is 320lbs, Jace Rodriguez the left guard is 305, Porotesano is 300 Eli Simonson at 295 is the lightest lineman likely to start.

I seem to remember Hawkins listing everyone and their brother...
I think this year, we just don't know who's going to be the guy at each spot yet. Understandably.

It is a little odd that Psyk isn't on top.

Totton / Cofield were really big recruits. Being listed as a true freshman is impressive.

Can we not ask Rex to return kickoffs? His load is really heavy as-is.....

we will only know who is at the top of the list when they play a game and we see who starts.
They list so many of the freshmen, even guys who were lightly recruited, i wouldn’t attach much meaning to it.
However, Cravin and Cofield were top prospects, they may play and one of them might not redshirt, thats my guess.

Regarding “It is a little odd that Psyk isn't on top”
I belatedly figured out how the depth chart order works.
When they say OR, they list the players they are ORing alphabetically.
So the positions like defensive tackle and end everyone is tied for first, but listed alphabetically.
When players are not separated by an OR the order means ranking. This may seem obvious but i didn’t parse it.

Could also be the starter depending on defensive package. Nickel/Dime/3 down vs 4 down.

The depth chart is laid out for 3-3-5, their base defense.