Early signing period

JoshUCA

Gready

JoshUCA Now this guy is very much needed. We have struggled to get touchbacks for more than a few years now.

joshgoff

32 touchbacks in 66 kickoffs this season – we’ve had a total of 33 in 198 over the last 3 years.

Went 5-8 from 40-49 yards, 0-1 from 50+, long of 48. They trusted him with 9 attempts from 40+ this season; we’ve had a total of 9 attempts from 40+ in the last 4 seasons, and haven’t attempted one from 50+ at all in that time (he had a 50-yarder in 2024 at Fullerton College, which is in the same California CC league as Saddleback). Don’t know if that’s all kicker ability or if some of that was impacted by philosophy or situation, but just looking at the numbers this certainly seems like an upgrade.

Bigpurplebear

joshgoff I truly believe special teams have hurt us way more than folks realize the last year or two.

MountainBear

Thanks for the stats drop Josh. Touchbacks and distance kicks have definitely been a weak point, looks like we have maybe have a weapon.

Gready

Bigpurplebear I’d say even further than that. We haven’t had a reliable kicker threat since the back to back Eddie years (Eddie Carmona and Eddie Camara). Which was like from 2008-2015. Well Hayden Ray was okay from 2019-2021.

Bigpurplebear

Gready I agree. I’ll go a step further. I believe there was 2-3 games this season that might have had different outcomes. Fair catching balls inside our own 5 more than once. Us not kicking the ball into the endzone. We just need to do better. Those little things add up.

JoshUCA

Ok! I must admit that I am impressed with the talent they are snagging from the portal!

1968graduate

I’m impressed with the talent we have signed so far, but I was also impressed with it for the previous 5 years with very minimum results. Hoping they will be coached up this year instead of down. GO BEARS !

Bigpurplebear

1968graduate some of the commits are unproven at this point. It doesn’t really matter where they were previously. It looks good on paper, but we have to make wins out of it. Their work is cut out for them.

Gready

1968graduate I’d say the talent we bringing in now is above what we’ve had the past few years. Not by an overwhelming degree but clearly slightly better than what we’ve seen recently. Looks like Coach Brown is feeling the pressure to have more than just a winning season to keep his job. Lots of FBS guys that have played or still have high potential being plucked out the transfer portal. I’ll still hold off on believing the hype until we see who’s left ready to play game one next year. Because a whole lot can wrong between now and then.

JoshUCA

https://ucasports.com/documents/2026/2/4/26_signing_day_packet.pdf

Charlie76

Is the ceremony on YouTube?

JoshUCA

Charlie76 Normally they do, but I haven’t seen it yet.

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