Yes, the 10,000 seat arena is part of a $1 billion project. I changed the thread title to avoid confusion.

Idaho and EWU are tied 7-7 early in the 1st.

The EWU 2nd string QB is starting today against Idaho. Kekoa Visperas, who was 22-31 for 208 yards against the Ags last week, is out today.

The Aggies remain unbeaten in conference play with a 4 set victory over Bakersfield on the road (23-25, 29-27, 25-15, 25-15). The Ags are now 3-0 in conference play and 8-5 overall. They play their 14th straight road match at CSUN tomorrow afternoon at 3 pm.

Thanks for the link. I'm not sure how you found it though. The link opens to the the press conference on YouTube but, if you click and open the the UC Davis Aggies YouTube channel link which is displayed under the video, the video isn't shown there. How did you find it?

https://www.youtube.com/@UCDavisAthletics/videos

I think that's the most interesting game of the week. I think EWU might surprise some folks. Of course, it nearly makes me go blind watching any game at EWU on that horribly ugly, red carpet!

He does move around a lot. I just posted the places he has coached after I looked him up. I had no idea he had coached at all of those different colleges. The Aggies seem to play in Reno every few years so we might get to see the Ags in that new arena in the future.

Manchester College - 5 years (78-29)
Southwest Missouri State - 4 years (78-48)
Iowa - 8 years (152-106)
New Mexico - 6 years (155-52)
UCLA - 6 years (124-63)
Nevada - 4 years to date (70-51)

Big Sky Game for Week 5 (all start times are Pacific Time):

Weber State @ Northern Colorado - 12 noon
Portland State @ Montana State - 1 pm
Idaho State @ Montana - 1 pm
Idaho @ Eastern Washington - 1 pm
Aggies @ Cal Poly - 5:05 pm
Northern Arizona @ Sac State - 6 pm

From the Sac Bee:

Larison was the last to leave Jim Sochor Field after scores of teammates hugged him, his bulky knee brace and ice pack impossible to ignore. The fear for the Aggies is that Larison will miss the rest of the season, but UC Davis has yet to disclose the nature or extent of the injury.

“A lot of therapy (for Larison),” Hawkins said with a smile. “That’s my update.”

“He’s super talented,” Hawkins said. “Heart of a lion. He’s as good of a receiver as we have, has the best arm, great return guy.”

UCD has played Sacramento State annually in the Causeway Classic since 1954, and the series with Cal Poly often evokes the same sort of intensity. UCD is in its 108th season of football and Cal Poly its 105th.

“We’ve had really good games (against Cal Poly),” Hawkins said. “They have a tremendous program. They won a national championship (in 1980 in Division II). I thought it was smart to retain Paul (Wulff) as coach after (Beau) Baldwin left for Arizona State).”

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article279830054.html#storylink=cpy

The Aggies have now played 3 conference games and are 0-1-2 in the Big West Conference and 5-4-2 overall.

Tie with CSUN 0-0
Tie with Bakersfield 2-2
Win over Long Beach 1-0

The Aggies opened conference play with a 1-0 win over Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.

Good points. It will be interesting to see if someone steps up big time in our running game now that it appears we have lost our top 2 RB's. Among Larison's impressive talents is his vision, patience and good decisions he makes before he explodes through the hole. Chukwudobe appears to more of a downhill charger whereas Larison, not only can break tackles, but he can make people miss and has such great agility that he can recover and keep going after being hit.

Hastings has made some mistakes for sure this year but I don't think the offensive struggles are primarily due to to him by any means. He's been under tremendous pressure in every game except the opener at TAMC forcing him to throw on the run or very quickly to avoid being sacked. I think Hastings is really quite an accurate passer and better protection from our OL would help a lot.

Hastings has thrown some picks on balls that should not have been thrown. There's no arguing about that but those picks have generally been when he was feeling the heat from a heavy rush and he was trying too hard to make something happen.

Folks are commenting also that we are predominately relying on short stuff in our passing game and the EWU game was a prime example. Again, with Hastings under heavy pressure, he has to get rid of the ball quickly and, consequently, our receivers really don't have much time to get open on the deeper routes either. We also don't seem to have the kind of tall, speedy WR's like Doss and others we've had at times in the past who could really stretch the field quickly.

Our receivers have made some spectacular catches in tight coverage especially Tompkins who seems to be able to make a play on the ball no matter how heavily he's covered. So, from my perspective, we're seeing a lot of short, possession type passes and swing passes that go for short gains primarily because Hastings is not getting enough time to wait for our receivers to get open on the longer routes.

I think the Mustangs will come out and play with their hair on fire after the way things have gone so far for Poly. We're pretty beat up too so anything could happen especially since it's a rivalry game.

I just don't get it especially since Keelan performed really well in the pre-season.

Lots of good discussion going on here. Thanks guys for contributing your thoughts. There often seems to only be a few of us "regulars" posting on AST but I think there are probably of lot more Aggie fans who read this forum but never post. I hope we can continue to keep up a robust conversation and, hopefully, get more Aggie fans to actively post here on AST.

From the Davis Enterprise:

"You turn the ball over four times against a good football team and it's going to be hard to win," Hawkins offered. "That's the nature of the Big Sky. We have to learn from this and move on. You have to learn how to handle defeat without getting defeated."

Much of the post-game focus, however, was on Larison's status.

"He's very special," said Hawkins. "He's strong and physical and with his speed, he can leave you. That kid is blue collar all the way. He is the definition of work."

Added Tompkins, "No matter what, he'll be on the sidelines encouraging us. He's a captain. This one hurts, but that's football. Hats off to them. They play hard and they always find a way. But our confidence is still high. We still have all our goals."

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-uc-davis-lose-tough-big-sky-conference-opener-to-eastern-washington-university/article_b2be12f2-59a9-11ee-9a82-0be8cdcfaa93.html

Mike Ichiyama, a versatile football player who earned first team All-America honors as an all-purpose back in 1994. He is best known for posting consecutive 300-yard rushing games in the final two weeks of his career, becoming the first collegiate player in NCAA history to achieve such a feat. Ichiyama remains among UC Davis' all-time leaders in all-purpose yards, receptions, receiving yards, rushing yards, punt returns and kickoff returns.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-induct-six-aggie-hall-fame

THE 25-YEAR ICH
On what was roughly the 25th anniversary of Mike Ichiyama's back-to-back 300-yard games, Gilliam's 242 at PSU stands as the No. 5 single-game performance in UC Davis history... Oddly, all five games took place in November, with the No. 6 game – Jermaine Rucker's 238 vs. Saint Mary's – taking place on Oct. 25, 1996:

1. Mike Ichiyama - 309 (11/5/1994)
2. Mike Ichiyama - 305 (11/12/1994)
3. Manusamoa Luuga - 249 (11/19/2016)
4. Preston Jackson - 243 (11/13/1993)
5. ULONZO GILLIAM, Jr. - 242 (11/9/2019)

Ichiyama's performance wrote one of the great "what might have been" stories in program history... He had served as a slot receiver and return man throughout his career, but an injury to starting RB Rusty Stivers moved the diminutive Ichiyama to the backfield for his final two games... On that Nov. 5, 1994 game, the heavy downpour forced UC Davis to run: Ichiyama carried the ball a school-record 42 times... The prevailing thought was to credit the conditions... A muddy field and a small, shifty runner enjoying a one-off start at RB meant that a 300-yard rushing game was unlikely to happen again at any time soon... Yet one week later, Ichiyama broke loose for 305 on a sunny and clear day at San Francisco State's Cox Stadium... He became the second player in NCAA history to run for consecutive 300-yard games, after Northern Illinois' Leshon Johnson in 1993... The next to do so: Texas' Ricky Williams, during his Heisman Trophy season of 1998.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/11/12/football-aggies-host-bobcats-for-salute-to-heroes-home-game

I remember him. He was a fireplug running on jet fuel and, once he got going, he was like a zigzagging, steel, bowling ball on the loose. Super strong and hard to bring down!