In his fourth season as head coach, Bob Hamilton's team lost 8 of their first 9 games. I don't recall anyone suggesting that he should be fired, but then I wasn't in touch with any alumni in those days. He went on to post a 8-4 record in the FWC. My former room-mate had tried out and been cut from that team, but he pointed out to me that Hamilton used those early games to see what his players could do, what combinations worked best, to try new plays or defenses and get the players to understand how to work together as a team. In that and other seasons he scheduled games against the likes of Ohio State, Santa Clara (then a top ten team nationally) and Missouri, almost always on the road. He wanted to his team to learn from the best. May I suggest that Coach Les is doing something similar?

Can't say I'm sorry I missed it, but I liked SloStang's point about at least being there. I hope we have something to build on for next year.

Somewhat reminiscent of the Pepperdine game, the Ags seem to have improved a lot in the second half, but were too far back and did not have enough of an improvement to overcome an 18 point deficit at the half. This is not a good trend and I am sure Coach Les will try to figure out why the team starts so badly.

Ags have 9 turnovers and one assist with 3 minutes left in the half. Glad I can't see it.

I'd like to write that I'm too afraid to watch, but the truth is that I'll be traveling so I won't be able to watch. I hope the Ags can pull of an upset though so I can see at least one more game even if it is against Sac State again.

Dang! I forgot to set my DVR for this morning and missed the ESPN broadcast. It seems odd to me that they would set up the brackets so that so many Big Sky teams play each other so early. Are they trying to save travel money?

I noticed that Big west teams were 5-0 yesterday.

One difference is that the game was at UCI. Still the Anteaters must be pretty good on D. They held Mallette to 4 points on 1/5 shooting and shut out Zidek.

The curse of any sports fan is raised expectations. I spent 8 years at the University of Washington during one of their runs when they rarely lost, often got to the Rose Bowl and were in the top ten of the national polls consistently. My friends there got to the point where they were sorely disappointed if they did not go to and win the Rose Bowl every year. I'm not saying we're there but right up to the EWU game when we were ranked as high as #4, all of us had a national title in our hopes, right? Hence the frustration and some thoughts of sour grapes. I'm hoping that the team gets into the playoffs and that maybe we lost our last two games to two very outstanding teams, meaning that we could see a win or two after this week. But then, I'm an optimist. I actually expected Cal to rip Stanford today.

I find it hard to believe that the Hornets are that much more talented than UC Davis. It just felt like Sac State wanted it more. They seemed to be playing harder. I don't think the coaching staff did the quarterbacks any favors by being so inconsistent with them. Of course, we don't know the reasons behind the vacillation, but a clear difference in the last two games was quarterback play. Still, this is the first year since 1974 when I have been able to see most of the Aggie football games and this chat site has helped me get some of the recent history. An 8-3 season is not bad, no matter what happens next week. I guess we all had our expectations raised by the upset of Tulsa, followed by a relatively weak schedule. Still...

Now I'll settle for any Aggie score.

It's gone from bad to awful with that injury to Harrell. It looks like his knee started to buckle even as he was about to make what could have been a touchdown catch. I hope it's not a critical injury but it looks bad.

24-14 was not so much a prediction as a hope for respectability. Hope fading fast. :(

Description of Ag offense today: Take off shoe. Aim gun at foot. Shoot.

Sac State was totally ready for that double pass. At this point, I will settle for a respectable score as opposed to a win. 24-14?

I saw #15, O"Brien, and #7, Eason, alongside the new #7, Benirscke. Are there any others up there?

I'm an optimist, but I have to agree that the game is over unless some kind of major and unlikely changes happen. Those who you who foresaw this sure called it. The Hornet QBs are good and their skill players are slicing through the Aggie defense like an NFL team. It's pretty disheartening, but I'm not going to give up on this game yet.

Hornets have punted twice.

If EWU wins today (and Montana wins), I think it puts UCD in 5th place in the Big Sky if we lose. Do we still make the playoffs?

Neither line is playing very well. No pressure on the Hornets' quarterbacks.