The Write For California author confirmed he also wrote the 2019 preview for a different site, meaning this author is 2 for 2 for writing the most thorough game previews I've seen for Davis games.

Quickly becoming something to look forward to whenever we play UCB

Important to keep in mind that this particular graduating class had a pretty mediocre entire UCD experience seeing as a significant chunk of it was online or with the campus partially closed. (Also wildfire smoke closures, PE classes cut, housing prices shooting up, to name a few things).

20 minute drive to an AC'd arena probably sounds pretty good for the students who didn't get to walk at all after going through all that

Agreed, and script Davis is such a classy logo

Huh, you're right:

https://ucdavisaggies.com/documents/2020/2/7/UC_Davis_Athletics_Brand_Identity_Guide.pdf

I wonder if this is a mistake with the rendering or there's some reason they felt they needed to shrink the logo

I disagree. Some folks didn't get to walk at all, or got told they wouldn't get to walk and then didn't attend, or didn't have their families get to see them walk because they got inconsistent/wrong messaging from the university. It's shameful, to be blunt, especially since Class of 2022 had a very tough experience with COVID and wildfire closures and such.

If I were in the class of 22, I couldn't see myself donating, joining the alumni association, going to games, anything really if this was my last memory of Davis instead of a day of recognition and celebration.

I assume it's to prevent alcohol being smuggled in

Today had its own problems based on reddit and Twitter buzz. Allegedly the university emailed out that there would be NO walking at all, just speeches, in an email at midnight. Then in the morning, after a fair amount of families and students bailed or were considering bailing, the university changed course and announced on social media that they WOULD in fact have students walk starting very early. So there are some livid students talking about how their families didn't bother driving up to Davis because they didn't think their grads would get to walk.

Also anecdotes from this morning said that the students walking took 2+ hours anyway, meaning that the university's original timeline may have always been unrealistic.

This assessment and Dr. Mike's qualifier below it are correct per this site: https://www.on3.com/news/ncaa-tournament-selection-committee-sets-minimum-game-requirement-for-eligibility/

(25 games with tourney counting as one). However there's a case-by-case waiver process. I would hope that UCD has already done everything possible to secure such a waiver and it would be weird to keep fans in the dark about it if the AD did/has not going into the tournament.

I've done my share to support this team through good and bad via other social media, donations, purchases, and trying to spread word of mouth to my friends, on top of going to dozens of losing games.

I'm not a student anymore though and my time and money have value; the program doesn't get to claim either for free without accountability

I went to pretty much every game, the whole game, as a student during the Gould years where we were lucky to pick up a D1 win. Unlike most of this forum, I didn't get to experience any sort of football success as an Aggie fan until Hawkins came along and I'm certainly thankful for not being terrible every week anymore. I get very testy at being called a fair-weather fan after the abject disappointment this team kept dragging me through year after year with me keeping coming back for more for some reason.

That being said, now that the school seems to take football seriously now I expect the coaches to do everything they can to play to win. Good programs don't play for .501 seasons, they play for championships. That's what I want us to strive for, so it's really frustrating to see the program not seemingly striving for it.

At least he got put in while the game is salveageable. Expect defense to stiffen up in the second half too when they're not on the field as much hopefully

Now, yes, but the staff still needs to demonstrate that they're doing everything in their power to win. They're not.

Seriously reconsidering season tickets for next year. When I commit heavily to teams I kind of like when coaches play to win, not treat the year with our most stacked roster ever as a rebuilding year for no apparent reason

OK I wrote that before the pick. If Hastings is on the field next drive, then the AD needs to have a LONG talk with Hawkins this offseason. (Barring some hidden injury that let HR travel and play last week but makes him unavailable this week)

Hastings hasn't been awful but we'll need much more of an explosion to keep up with the Jackrabbits. The, uh, other SDSU beat Boise to clinch the division yesterday when they put in their benched Week 1 starter after falling behind double digits. That's the kind of gutsy substitutions that you have to make with the season on the line IMO

The fact that this represents mildly improved playcalling and offensive execution speaks more about the state of the offense the last few games than how I feel about Davis today

That 3rd quarter is why I'm a season ticket holder for this team. Pure effort leading to domination

Is either game on espn plus? Couldn't find it for a friend but I do see a TV crew here

That's true, we did take more shots, though I'd say that was partly due to the risk-reward ratio of the long ball being different (or perceived by the staff to be different) with Maier and Doss making most of the connections. Plough's offense's preferred play was still handoffs to Gilliam up the middle as I recall.

I've liked some of what I've seen this year, especially earlier in the year, with serious attempts to simply get the ball to the best athletes and mix up whether we were going to the side or up the gut. Hard to tell with the quality of some of the early competition but it did feel like the team was running the offense that needed to be run with HR at the helm and when opponents didn't understand the full scope of TT's abilities. Then it certainly did get more stale and transparent, especially with the feeling that relying on Hastings didn't add anything to the offense, just no longer threatened some of the things that Rodrigues brought to the table. I'm not convinced Plough would have done better in the back half of the season -- it's still fresh on my mind how lackluster 2019 was once Doss graduated.

(And as others have said, no knocks on Hastings, I expect him to contribute for years because Hawkins is good at getting a ton of guys in for specific purposes, but I don't think his role will be to play the majority of downs)

Was with family and took time to sort my thoughts on the game

• I don't feel comfortable inviting family and friends to big games after this and last week. Hawkins' teams have just not shown up for big games at home. His signature home win is far and away the playoff game vs UNI -- where we were clearly favored -- and after that, maybe the 2018 OT win against an decent-ish Idaho State?
• C. Hawkins might actually be okay as an OC -- I think he's a step up from Plough's playcalling tbh -- but "okay" doesn't cut it with the optics of hiring family. AD needs to step in and have a long talk with D. Hawkins about whether it's appropriate to even give Cody more time or just admit a mistake and move on with a national search. I don't think Daft or any prior OC is the answer, but I do think it speaks volumes that this forum is starting to get nostalgic for an OC who was from the team's least effectual years.
• I was willing to believe the whole game that HR was injured or something that made him nonviable because that was the most rational explanation for why he wasn't given a shot when the freshman QBs were struggling. But when he did come in, he looked like the readiest player on the field for the Ags (admittedly against the 2s, but still, a lot of poise and game sense).
• Defense has gone from perennially disappointing to kinda acceptable but that basically doesn't matter when the offense is in this shape and our conference is filled with high-octane offenses.
• We're still very, inexcusably sloppy. Not that it would have won the game this time, but a few better tackles and fewer penalties might have made the score a much more swallow-able 17-3 at the half or something, which changes the game plan, keeps crowd energy, etc.