The COVID extra year has had the unexpected result of making upper class transfers more viable.. Without that extra year I think most players stay put. Sarale is the recruiting class of 2018 which means he’s been here six years already, and he thinks he might have two years eligibility left.

I think they knew what they had with Larison. I recall the coach who recruited him predicted we’d win a championship with him. 2023 was his fourth year with the team, so they knew.
I think Hastings inconsistent play was unexpected. They had changed the environment for Hastings when his position coach and offensive coordinator left. They brought in a qb coach from the North Texas who had previously worked under an offensive coordinator / offensive line coach. That offensive coordinator is now the offensive coordinator at Cal.

The scenario below is possible if the QB job is handed exclusively to one guy. This isn’t the only scenario, maybe both guys aren’t remotely comparable in ability and giving the job to one or the other full time is the only choice. But assume that it would be reasonable to play either guy.
Hastings wins the job, Wrighster redshirts. Hastings returns to the level of play he had in 2022, before the departure of the offensive coordinator and QB coach. We have a productive offense based on running the football and short passes. Hastings plays until the end of the season when Davis drops out of playoff contention, as the defense isn’t as good as the last year due to personnel loses. We end the 2024 season with very limited returning QB experience and also two prominent running backs graduate.
However they choose to do it they should develop a new QB, by getting him some playing time,

Do they still fax these letters in?
I think the only one QB plays philosophy is outdated. I’d like to see Davis use two QBs, like Sac, Montana State, Idaho State and others did this last year.
Its impressive how many FBS offers Damon had.
I bet the playbook is still mostly what it was in 2020 when Plough departed,

Seems an unusual amount of publicity for the hire. Same job title as TEVIS BARTLETT, and Tevis didn’t get a news story on ucdavisaggies.com.
The wunderkind hire is a recurring theme at Davis, where very young guys get promoted to bigger roles than they previously held.

Is this ranking from 247? It seems to be from Sidelines, whoever that is.

I’ve seen rankings in past years that rank by number and types of schools offering scholarships. I think that has more validity. For example Sac has a 3 * qb, but only Sac offered him a scholarship. Davis has a 3 * qb, who had multiple offers, including from Arizona, Their QB is a passer, but is only 5’11.

How do they determine this? They don’t say.
They have 15 players a five of whom are upper class-men from JC or other colleges, red shirt juniors and seniors.
The difference between their recruits and Davis’ seems to be the number of transfers.
Sac has always relied on transfers, which means they have large recruiting classes because the players have less remaining eligibility.

Tompkins and Larison will be sixth and fifth year players respectively, Ward is doing to be a fifth year player if he comes back, which might be questionable as why have a fifth year player on scholarship who has never had a carry. Two other guys are walkons, who haven’t shown much. That’s not much depth, and what depth they have is in its final year.

We only have three that have shown anything, four if we consider Tompkins.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Shanbour moves to Cal to rejoin the offensive coordinator there, for whom he coached QBs at North Texas.

Montana signed a guy named Tommy Running Rabbit.

Plough in a interview with Fox40 on the day of his press conference said they have an OC “in place”, with “Aggie ties”

Daft shared the OC job with Plough in 2012 and was the OC under Gould for Gould’s entire 2013-2016. So he has a lot of Aggie ties, as hall of fame player and on two coaching staffs for five years as OC. My guess is it isn’t him because he is so high profile, but just a guess. On paper he is a perfect candidate if he and Plough share same philosophy.

Did you see his name on the initial release? Do they still fax the NLI forms in?

Could be. It is someone currently employed who wants to finish a commitment. Either keeping it secret because of a bowl game, recruiting period, or like you suggest NFL.

He had been recruited by the QB coach, who he said he had a good relationship with. . Kid had a lot of offers.

UCDavis.com is really a poorly managed site, You can’t even navigate to the signing day roster from the home page, they just show their press release, that they stealth edit.

That is a FCS rule, not a Davis innovation.

The changed the story on the UCDavis.com site from 11 signees to multiple. Which means 10 i think

Yeah, but was he in 2023? He walked on at Nebraska, never played so likely wasn’t on scholarship there. Might have transferred here for a chance to play and earn a scholarship.