Amen, 6th, Amen!! I'm sure those of you that have been members of the forum for a long time like me have read several of my rants about starting the games later to help with the inherent problem of Aggie Stadium being a solar oven when the heat is on. When you factor in the fact of football season starting before the majority of students are back in Davis and combine it with brutal heat, it's no wonder that the stadium is mostly empty in the early season.

I never really remember having this kind of heat problem back in the D2 days of Toomey Field. Of course, if my memory serves me well, which seems to be no sure thing anymore, the games usually started at 7 pm (were there even a few 7:30 pm starts?). I don't remember the sun being directly in my eyes either if I was sitting on the west side bleachers. Of course, Toomey was at ground level where the breezes could circulate and the field was grass not synthetic and it was surrounded by trees not concrete. I'm sure that helped keep things comfortable on hot evenings.

Aggie Stadium can be broiling at 6 pm in September and even in early October and, with climate change, it may only get hotter in the years ahead, and there is very little shade in the stadium until the sun sets. We've all seen fans seeking out any bit of shade anywhere in the stadium just to avoid being fried.

The stadium is what it is: it's a nice facility with an almost unbearable heat problem on hot days. The synthetic surface absorbs heat and reflects it. The field is sunken and surrounded by concrete that holds the heat like a solar oven, and the breezes don't circulate like they would if the field was at ground level to move the air. There is little shade anywhere in the stadium, and the sun cooks and blinds the fans on the east side as the it goes down. It's a problem...a big problem that makes for an unpleasant experience and discourages attendance.

Blue has made some nice changes to the pregame activities to try and stimulate a better fan experience for all. Those have been welcome changes but, again, the heat and lack of shade for fans in the area surrounding the stadium is a detriment to the attendance. There needs to be more shade structures, trees, tents and/or canopies so fans can find some respite to the heat. No one enjoys walking around in 100 degree heat with essentially no place to sit in the shade.

I brought some friends to their first Aggie game on the "food truck fiasco" day last season when the food truck promotion failed to materialize as advertised. We ended up having a beer and had to sit in a patch dirt beside a tent that had a small area of shade beside it. The tent had tables that were fairly empty but entry was reserved for certain Aggie donors only. Our seats on the west side were still in the hot sun when the game started and we lost as usual. Obviously, they weren't impressed and have never returned.

There isn't much that can be done about the design of the stadium that makes it unbearably hot. The only thing that can be done is to start the games later at 7 pm. This would greatly help with the problem and make it a much more comfortable experience for the fans. Starting the games at 7 pm would also help fans coming from the Sacramento area avoid the traffic bottleneck that occurs everyday before just before getting to the Causeway on 80 in West Sacramento. There also needs to be more shade structures available in the area outside the stadium for the fans at the pregame activities.

Bottom line: 7 pm starting times for games in September are a no brainer that needs to happen.

It's apparent that Blue has been working behind the scenes for a while with influencial former Aggie coaches, players and donors to make changes and get things rolling. Another indication of this was that Blue flew up to Boise to interview Hawkins on a donor's private plane.

Blue recognizes that the football program needs an infusion of money to get some of the pieces in place that will help put us on a more even footing with the top programs in the FCS and help make the program more attractive to recruits. It was rumored that many of the most dedicated Aggie donors were so upset about Daryl Gross not becoming the new AD that they closed their wallets and walked away. Obviously, Blue has done a great job in winning their back confidence and bringing them back into the fold.

Exciting times ahead for Aggie football!

There was a stretch of 8 minutes from late in the first quarter and into the second where the Aggies went on something like a 20-0 run and broke the game open. That was a beautiful stretch of basketball by the Aggies on both ends of the floor. When this team gets in a rhythm like that they can be a very, very good basketball team.

The Aggies move to 5-1 with a 75-55 win over the Aztecs. Dani Nafekh had a career high 28 points 10 of 14 shooting of which 8 of 11 were from 3. Morgan Bertsch continued her excellent offensive play and added 20.

The Aggies won the boards 40-35 but had 18 TO's most of which came in a fairly erratic second half of play. The Aztecs played the Ags even in the second half as the Aggies did not handle the press very well. My guess that the Ags may see double teams and pressure in the future.

Next up is a visit to #11 Stanford on Sunday.

Go Ags!

A ragged 3rd quarter for the Ags but still lead up 21 at 59-38.

It's been the Dani Nafekh show with 19 points on 7-8 shooting to lead the Aggies into the break with a 21 point lead 44-23. Morgan Bertsch has 12. The Ags are doing a much better job on the boards and have a 22-17 edge.

The Ags overcame a frigid start shooting 1 for 10 and then hit their next 6 of 7 to lead the Aztecs 18-12 at the end of the 1st quarter.

Aggie convert! Now that's Aggie Pride! (Y)

Horrible video feed! I had to watch the sidebar commentary to even have a clue what the score was. Tough loss for the Aggies. Water polo is consistently one of our most competitive sports at the national level.

Congrats Ags for another great year!

Come on Zander, once an Aggie always an Aggie! (Y)

That's a very well produced video that the Aggie athletics media put together in a short period of time. Nice job!

I noticed a banner at the end of the video that's says new episodes each week. Cool if that happens.

I would assume so. Look at the wide net Coach Les has cast in the past few years.

Nice to know it isn't any the vulgar things I was trying to guess it meant!

I'm ok with a National Championship! :-}

This was posted over on the Hornets Football Forum by Green Cookie Monster:

"Heard that a $5M donation was made the day the new HC was hired at UCFE, to better football facilities. Yet our AD claims success when a new tarp is put up in the vacant upper bleachers.

Must say, things dont look good for Hornet football longterm with Macriss at the helm. The slow agonizing death to oblivion by an uncaring AD is painful to be part of.

Obviously UCFE has made a commitment to football in an already nice facility. What has Nelson done? Chirp, chirp."

I have no idea what his acronym, UCFE, stands for but I'm pretty sure it refers to the Aggies and is not flattering. I seem to recall that Bruce Galluadet recently wrote that Blue would be "announcing a major contribution" from a donor in the near future. Does anyone know if there is even a slight of possibility that the Hornet post has sliver of credence to it?

http://www.bigskyfans.com/hornets/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2588&start=100

It seems ironic, movie, that we would attract coaches to UCD and the Davis community and then not pay them enough to be able to afford to live there.

It's going to be an uphill battle on a steep slope for sure given the history of our comparative lack of financial support for UCD athletics to have the resources necessary to be competitive on equal footing with our competition at this level. Blue and his staff have got their work cut out for them when it comes to fundraising and finding major donors.

When it comes to student support the truth is that it has been fickle best and practically nonexistent at worst. That rings true for fan support in general as well. Sure we have packed the Pavilion on a few occasions when ESPN came to town, and there have been a few football games during the Biggs D1 era that had Aggie Stadium rocking but, for the most part, the students have been largely missing. Even on those occasions when they do show up, many of them leave at halftime and, by the 4th quarter, only a smattering are left.

Of course, we haven't done much in football or basketball to get fans terribly excited lately. Year after year of losing in football has drained the enthusiasm out of all but the most dedicated Aggies fans. Basketball has had one season to truly get excited about since moving to D1 also. So you really can't blame the fans for becoming complacent; we really haven't given them a whole lot to get energized about.

We have a couple of inherent problems that I think helps foster apathy towards our D1 athletics also. First of all, we are a huge, world class, major UC school and our athletics program pales in comparison to the schools that I think the students believe we are equal to in all ways except athletics: Cal, UCLA, Stanford etc. So, we're handicapped from the get go by being the "little brother" in athletics that struggles to win against teams in the Big Sky and the Big West. There isn't much we can do about that now but failing to be a consistent winner at the FCS football and mid-major basketball levels is crippling our fan support. Gotta win, get to the FCS playoffs and basketball post-season tournaments if this is going the change.

Secondly, regarding football only, as we all know Aggie Stadium is a solar oven in the early season, and the student sections on the east side get the worst of it. Heaven knows that it's uncomfortable for all of us fans when the temperature is 90 degrees and above at game time, but it is absolutely unbearable on the easr side in those conditions. It's broiling and the sun is directly in their eyes! It's brutal and, once the new students experience that combined with a likely loss, it's no wonder they are reluctant to return.

Not much we can do about the stadium. It is what it is, but who can blame the anyone for not wanting to be fried in Aggie Stadium. Fans do avoid those games when the conditions are like that and it's just unfortunate.

Winning can go a long way to chipping away at some of the apathy that exists. I hope it happens!

Just show them Hawk's twitter page. There's enough Zen sayings and inspirational quotes over there to keep the prim and proper folks engaged until the yelling has died down.

We all want Aggie Stadium to be packed to brim and bursting with excitement. We need to start winning consistently for that to happen. Most importantly we need to get the students motivated and involved in the Aggie Pack in order to generate the enthusiasm of a great collegiate atmosphere. The majority of the fans who are not students have become so complacent that you would be hard pressed to find a pulse in many of them. I hope a good dose of winning will get their juices flowing again.

Hawk will most certainly generate energy and optimism. We got an early indication of that at his presser yesterday. He's already got people excited and hopeful about the future of Aggie football. If Hawk is unable to turn this program around to the point that students and fans are reinvigorated and supportive, it won't be because of his lack of leadership and energy, it will be because the program was so far gone to begin with that no amount of life support could save it.

That said, I think the program will come back to greatness under his guidance. There's just too much rich history and Aggie Pride for that not to happen under the right leadership. Like Hawk said, "it's the right place, the right time and the right fit." Now it's time to get'er done!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I do not think that the coaches are required to teach in the classroom anymore.