Excellent article on official website about our defense by Bruce Gallaudet
About our multitude of linebackers. I didn’t know that Moe came here as a DB

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2018/11/28/general-defense-wins-championships.aspx?path=football

Right. If you build up the opponent pregame you soften the impact if you lose and gain more credit when you win.
After the game, saying the opponent was really good sounds like an excuse, so coaches focus on their team’s mistakes.

I agree the UNI coach seems like a class guy.
However, opposing coaches are often more complementary pregame than post-game. Montana made us seem pretty tough pregame

I’ve got the impression through the years, maybe wrongly, that to the Bee Sac State is the more local team and we’re from out of town. They don’t cover either team well but I think Sac gets more or equal coverage even when they are less newsworthy.

They got a senior linebacker back for Lamar and have their all conference first team corner warmed up last week so I’d count on him playing. He missed several games with a sprained ankle.
Impressive that they have three shutouts in an era where good defense is giving up less than 20 or 25 points

Probably not simple.
But at the end of the day I think this town is too small for the two of us, They moved to the Big Sky to get some space from us, but we followed them there. I bet they weren’t happy about that and they shouldn’t have been. Competing head to head with us is pretty hard for them in the long run.

Article on game. Mostly drawn from UNI press conference. Key info is their first team all conference cornerback missed games with ankle sprain, warmed up last week but didn’t play, so I would expect he will play. McCann is calling their plays as OC is out do to father’s death.
Elsewhere I saw that one of their linebackers has two pick sixes this year and four for his career. Duncan Ferch

https://wcfcourier.com/sports/college/uni/fcs-playoffs-uc-davis-has-earned-uni-s-respect/article_015b528f-c58f-50ee-834c-076e38ee2c70.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

The idea that Sac being good along with Davis is good for Davis is appealing because we hate to wish anyone ill. However the facts are that we compete with them in the same market. Not for players except in rare occasions, but for radio tv and print coverage, miniscual as coverage of what are still deemed “small college sports” is. Add that to the Bee’s seeming adoption of them as the local school makes them an impediment to us getting press coverage. In this case we are competing for slices from a relatively fixed size pie.

What do you sell if you're promoting Sac State? I don’t see how anyone can build a consistent program there. I don’t see how they recruit freshmen who have other options and transfers don’t stay long enough to have any consistency. I’m always amazed if we lose to them; It’s like the world turned upside down.

The UNI guys seem intelligent and likeable in the videos.
Strange that such an established program took on two coaches from Gould’s staff

the key determinant on the politics is who is fantasizing.

I think the idea that they’re big and of questionable speed is not correct. They play three down linemen on defense who are normal size for today and their linebackers and DBs are not big. They reportedly converted to a 3-3-5 defense in mid season. I don’t think that necessarily means five DBs, but they went to it because of injuries to linebackers. They are tough against the run because they “run to the gaps”. Their coach calls it a downhill defense, by which I think he means guys on D are running up field.
Awareness may be an issue, They have some young or less experienced guys playing due to injury.

Sure they should let unclaimed tickets go first come first serve.
One of these days a ticket will be hard to get.

Perhaps they anticipate that one day they’ll have more demand than seats.

It’s going to rain some Current forecast is rain early about a quarter inch in the morning showers in afternoon partly cloudy at night. So probably a wet field but not heavy rain during play since the game starts late. Breeze but not too much wind.

interesting, I recall many thought McCann did an excellent job recruiting.
The good thing is that they only coached under Gould.

I don’t put much stock in the composition of the big sky teams, no more than I did in our being voted ninth before the season. It’s good that our line is getting some recognition elsewhere. We’ve got some young guys on the line and will only get better.

Funny, not an all conference 1st, 2nd or 3rd team player among them

Probably too much to pull together for this year. One obstacle is dormancy of the mechanics club. No one knows how to get it going and operate it.
But this was a great feature that was part of our tradition. The Case buisiness is still going on, making farm and construction equipment. They just had a 125th birthday. Perhaps they could provide support. We’re on TV quite a bit, more so in future. Good way to promote their story.

Do you know what administrative body made the decision?
Who owns the engine? The antique mechanics club?