At tailgate with the guy who offered us free tickets. Met the parents of the Conners and O’Keefe’s grandparents

Forecast shows 100% rain probably by halftime. My thought is this favors the bobcats with their predominant running game

Raining now on campus. Rain fore ast shows rain at 9 local with 90% chance at 10. Forecast changing by the hour but looks like it will be a wet ball tonight.

Watching Idaho state - Montana. Idaho State hung in there for about 1.5 quarters then doors have came off. ISU defense looks real bad. Montana announcers keep calling the Bengals the Vandals. Really?

We’ll if you have dish network or sling tv you will not be able to watch or record tonight’s game. The people of undetermined parentage at Disney cut off all its ESPN channels to dish and sling as of today. This is the one time it would have been better to have had the game on ESPN+ as that is a separate subscription. If you have local cable tv or other streaming services with ESPN plus you should be ok.

The local folks are so accommodating. They added a Cal Aggie logo brand near our table at the steakhouse. Awesome steak.

In a bit of “magic” serendipity I meet Trent Tompkins parents in Target. They were wearing UC Davis t-shirts. Had a nice quick conversation with them. They weren’t sure if he would be able to play - but he is sure wanting to.

forecast keeps getting worse. Looks like rain at game time.

yah. Sure to be a different vibe. If it is 1/2 of our experience in Fargo it will be awesome.

I’d also highly recommend South Bend.

Ironically I haven’t been to a game at the “new” Aggie Stadium.

Your local correspondent reporting from DIA en route to Bozeman. Already have been invited to a tailgate and offered tickets for no charge. Our Vividseats overpriced tickets can in last night so have to take those instead of the free ones. (I cannot recommend vividseats). Ran into a couple in Raleigh on same flight that are going to the game. Their grandson is an architecture major at MSU. Looking forward to the GameDay experience.

bottom line is that you have to put up “W”s. Unless you are totally dominant, good and great seasons are determined by getting a few breaks and winning the close ones. Close loses will only count towards securing a playoff berth if you have enough wins to gain consideration.

they don’t call it “the swamp” for nothing.

Montana continues with their easy schedule to date.

yah and 10:15 EST. I will be in Bozeman and will hopefully have tickets but will need an afternoon nap to make it through the game. It has been sold out for weeks. I suspect wife and I will be only Aggie fans (her vicariously) besides parents, etc.

my gut feeling is that with stiffer competition (to date and this Saturday) the offense has been conservative to “keep the Aggies in the game” and to work the clock and keep the other team off the field. Hence the short passing game with no up tempo. I too believe the up tempo offense should be used more. One of the questions is can Hastings run it efficiently. Maier was good at it.

I think the poor clock management came earlier in the drive. You can milk clock later if their is a need to limit time for a subsequent series for the opposition but you cannot store elapsed time. The color guy (don’t know his name but is very good) was befuddled and noted questionable clock management at the earlier stages of the drive. Of course, had they scored, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

I will say that Weber made some excellent tackles that were critical.

For those with ESPN+ If you want to see a very entertaining game - and one in which the losing team is coached by someone not endeared to Aggie hearts - check out the Montana State - EWU game. Back and forth battle. Tommy Mellot banged his head against that awful red fake turf in the first half and was motionless for minutes on the field - very scary. Fortunately, he was seen later in street clothes on the sideline. I suspect he underwent, or will undergo concussion protocol. Reminded me a bit of HR at Weber last year.
Chambers (Wyoming transfer from CA) came in and led the team to victory. He seems to be as effective a runner as Mellot (different style and more of a big bruiser that probably is less subject to injury) and in my opinion a better passer. Kind of ironic that Touchdown Tommy who took over last year to big accolades and expectations may be himself replaced this year. In any event I hope the young man recovers fully and quickly.
If EWU could halfway stop the run - they would be a decidedly better team than they are. I think their ranking going into the game was an artifact of past seasons.

that’s my hope. (i.e., take another job). He may stay another year or two just to prove himself and team in the playoffs. You gotta know he’s going to get offers. Seems to me he is pretty clearly the best coach in the league.

I wouldn’t call this a noteworthy statline for Hastings despite the yards and lack of TOs.

I wouldn’t call this a noteworthy statline for Hastings despite the yards and lack of TOs.]

Totally agree. Seems the passing offense consists entirely of swing passes out of backfield, drag routes at 5-10 yards - no wheel routes, post patters or anything downfield and when seldomly tried inaccurate. There were several near interceptions. I would say Hastings is getting slightly better but he seems to play (maybe with influence of OC) just to go for sure, quick, short passes and hope for the best. Just no threat of a big passing play whatsoever.

Weber was stacking their D all night and did t have to worry about vertical coverage. If the goal is a high passing percentage, then the Ags are pretty much a success- last I checked it was scoring more points than opponent. The telling stat is 4.5 yards per pass attempt. Bronson was 6.7. Something needs to change. As all have noted, Gilliam is just carrying this
this team’s whole offense. He is a real player - what a pleasure to watch.

accurate summary.