It did not take long for the top Aviators rookies to get adjusted to the UFA.

Jonathan Lyle has one specific play in mind. In only the second game of the season against the San Diego Growlers, Lyle found himself open on an initiation cut. After he received the pass, the lefty launched it 53 yards into the hands of James Franklin, a connection fans have grown accustomed to seeing on the field.

The connection wouldn’t stop there, as Franklin found Lyle in the endzone for the pair’s first combined score of the season.

“James and I kind of established a bit of a connection,” Lyle said. “Sean [McDougall] and I established a connection where it was like, ‘All right, if I throw this ball up, James is going to come down with it. If James throws it up, I'm going to come down with it.’ And so I think it was just establishing trust over two games.”

The goal was Lyle’s final of two total scores for the game, which was tied with the season opener as a career-low score total. Lyle has since exploded for the Aviators, notching at least five scores in eight of his last nine matchups.

Going from not knowing whether he’d make the team to earning a spot on the O-line to leading the Aviators in scores and assists, Lyle’s confidence has only grown as the season has gone on.

“[I have] no hesitation on some of these shots that maybe should have had some hesitation, and I definitely would not have taken those shots earlier in the season,” Lyle said.

Now, Lyle finished the regular season tied for seventh in the UFA in scores with 67 on the year and tied for sixth in scores per game. Even with the no hesitation shots, Lyle had a 75.0% completion rate on hucks, the eighth-best mark in the UFA for players with 15 or more huck attempts.

Similarly atop the UFA rankings is Max Combs, a fellow first-year UFA player.

While Combs can’t point to a specific moment, he found his confidence in the UFA just one game later than Lyle. The 2025 UCSB Black Tide captain came into the Atlanta game with five blocks, but it was when he scored five goals against the Hustle in the third game of the season where he felt the field under him. 

“I didn't expect to find the end zone that much in that game,” Combs said. “But that was kind of when I realized that I can play a pretty good role on this team and contribute at a higher level and be a player that the team depends on.”

Combs has returned to playing on the D-line, but joined Lyle on the O-line for two games, capitalizing on the opportunity and showing off his frisbee versatility.

 The 23-year-old hasn’t played more than six O-line points since the two-game stint earlier in the season,  but the goal production has not stopped. 

 Still, Combs is not known for his goal-scoring abilities. Combs has had at least one block in all but one game he’s been on the D-line, finishing the regular season with 16 blocks to put him tied for ninth in the league and second among rookies, not including the playoffs.

“I didn't think that anything would really come of this season,” Combs said. “But, yeah, I definitely never would have expected to be up there with guys like [Jeff] Babbitt and [Noah] Coolman and all those guys. So it's definitely an honor, and only going to get better from here.”

Lyle and Combs are the perfect opposites of each other as rookies, but both are key components of the team. Beyond playing on different lines, Lyle just celebrated his 29th birthday this past week while Combs sits at 23. Lyle first played competitive frisbee with the Charlotte Storm, a mixed team, after learning of the sport through his twin brother, while Combs first started playing competitively at UCSB after learning to throw with his family.

Other rookies like Liam Bestian, Daniel Eppstein and Nicholas Dunbar are in a similar boat with Lyle, all sitting at 29 or older. Then there are rookies like Owen Shaff, Everett Grass or Dox Raskin, who all gained the legal ability to drink alcohol within the past 14 months.

“I do still consider myself a rookie,” Lyle said. “But also, I think there is a little bit of establishment that comes with a few more years. So I definitely feel just more confident in my game and who I am as a person and a player than I did when I was 22, 23 and so I think that helps calm some nerves that might be there in my younger self.”

The O-liner and D-liner, representing two sides of the same coin, were two great examples of the Aviators’ story this season. LA was heavily reliant on rookies unlike any other year. Only nine rookies appeared in a game for the Aviators in 2024 and combined to play 54 games. This season, 14 rookies trotted out for at least one matchup and combined for 102 games played.

With the increasing reliance on rookies, head coach Jake Baumer and assistant coach Skipper Hamon had to set the tone for the season.

“We didn't know where to set expectations,” Lyle said. “Coach Baumer set expectations with ‘Hey guys, we're going to grow together. This is going to be a learning experience, and we're going to see what we're capable of, and we don't really know what we're capable of.’ And so he was excited, and he in turn made us excited about the season.”

Since the rookies stepped up in a big way, delivering game-changing blocks and consistently dishing out scores, the expectations had to shift away from a throwaway season to one of growth and potential. While a much more veteran LA squad finished with three wins last year, the Aviators matched that number, even with a lower level of UFA experience.

“I remember the first game against San Diego, it was just like, ‘All right guys, our goal is to try to win one quarter here. Can we win one quarter?,’” Lyle said. “And now there was a game against Seattle just a couple weeks ago, and it was a tough game. We were hanging in there for three quarters, and then had a rough run and ended up losing the game. And everybody was pissed about it.”

Noting that change in mindset as a type of “graduation” when it came to expectations and standards, Lyle believes this team can make waves in future seasons.

With so many rookies and such drastic improvement across the season — the Aviators had an average point differential of -7.3 across the first four games and a -1.5 mark in the most recent eight — Lyle’s belief that LA is set up for success is not without reason.

There are only four players who have played in all of the games this season, two of whom are rookies between Combs and Shaff. Those players, along with Raskin and Grass who had 11 games played, are being thrust into high-leverage situations which are usually reserved for veterans.

The Aviators have had three games go to overtime this season and 10 of LA’s 14 rookies have competed in at least one of the overtime periods, including when Combs, Grass and Lyle went out for universe point and earned the break for the team’s first win of the season against Houston. During the Texas road trip, Hamon and Baumer sent out six rookies to start the first overtime period on D-line against the Havoc.

“They're not scared to be that moment, because it's not a moment they’ve been in before, this is their first year playing UFA,” Hamon said. “That has been such a welcoming feeling to be like, ‘we're not scared of being in overtime or double overtime.’”

Trusting the rookies in those situations has led to two wins across those three overtime chances. And with those reps, the rookies gained the belief they can hang with anyone.

Lyle tied a career high with 10 scores against a San Diego Growlers team who are going to the playoffs for the fifth time in franchise history. Combs was able to put up five goals against the Atlanta Hustle, a team who won its third straight division title this weekend. 

“Playing against Atlanta too, that's one of the tougher teams in the league and to have a performance like I did, that makes it just that much better,” Combs said.

With the rookies’ gained experience this season, the Aviators are set up for a much different season in 2026 if they can retain their top rookies like Lyle and Combs, who already wants to play more.

“I'm kind of bummed that it's coming to a close,” Combs said. “We need to make the UFA season longer, extend it to 16 games.”

The season isn’t 16 games just yet, but Combs, who has the second-most number of blocks among rookies, and Lyle, who was second among first years in scoring, hoped to show the selection committee they deserved a spot on one of the All-UFA Rookie teams throughout the season.

With the success of the rookies throughout the year, the team hopes it serves as a blueprint for future years.

“I hope that this is a season, regardless of playoff chances and what our record shows, that people want to come back and build on,” Hamon said. “And I think having such a wide net of first-year players hopefully means that we're able to excite more people to get on board, but also have a lot of this group come back.”

The term “rookie” is a name players only get for one year. Lyle and Combs excelled with that title. If they return along with the rest of the rookies, that’ll give them the opportunity to not just be “the best of the rookies,” but sit at the top of the UFA next season.