I have two different theories --

One is that the number is some formula like regular tickets sold or distributed and student tickets claimed or scanned. Meaning there is some sort of floor reflecting season/corporate/staff ticket counts that UCDH Stadium can't go lower than regardless of how few students or one-time fans show up, but there's a potential for spikes like for Orientation. In order for this theory to work there would have to have been some sort of ticket special or giveaways at the TAMC game (I wasn't able to make it) to make up for the lack of student attendance though.

The other theory is that maybe the Running of the First Year students weren't counted either due to the process of lining them up or an error. That could account for a few-thousand swing and put this weekend's attendance above 10K which also looked right to me.

https://x.com/jakemaier15/status/1840262649474625546

The Mayor of Shredville took note of Miles’ performance

Believe so. Though his SJSU win and Montana win in 2018 were comparable accomplishments IMO.

Maybe someone said this and I missed it, but I wonder if the controversial 4th down call was intended to just try to get Idaho to burn a timeout or jump? But then it backfired in that Plough also didn’t want to burn one and his signal caller in that formation wasn’t used to managing the game like that

I thought it started trickling down at halftime, but I estimate a first quarter crowd size that would at least be announced as above capacity based on previous games

Gotta be UCD’s best FCS win ever on paper, right?

Idaho gets a free timeout for targeting review

Another big stop when it mattered most

Pass to Lan I think

Run up the middle didn’t go anywhere but I understand the decision

Big stop by the D

Last twenty minutes of real time was I think what most us were hoping for from Plough returning. Blazing fast offense that overwhelms even a top FCS D, our D plays just good enough to to force low percentage plays of the opponent

Shirt was a student design contest that the new Fan Council came up with. Somewhat more community involvement / crowdsourcing in the marketing this year

I was thinking they must have scripted most of these plays on the quarter break or something

Cody's years as OC were basically our best non-2018 teams as I recall -- 3-2 in the COVID season (likely would have been 4-2 and playoffs without a cancellation), 8-win playoff year hamstrung by QB uncertainty, and that 6-win year when we played a ton of eventual top-10 teams. Multiple quality FCS wins and an FBS win.

It could be something like the magic of 2018 was having both Hawkinses, Plough, and Speckman all at the table and two Big Sky MVPs on the roster, and we're not getting that back.

That’s the stadium attendance record I think? At least higher than last year’s highest announced attendance from a quick google. Certainly looked about as full as I ever saw it.

Based on what I understand of the more aggressive student outreach strategy and past trends we should get comparable but maybe not quite as earth shattering turnout next week. They deliberately put the first year stampede and t shirt giveaway on a separate week from orientation which helps spread out the early year enthusiasm and curiosity.

Pic from last night:

there were a few modest improvements I thought — return of the wildcat, an actual jet sweep to CJ and a few fakes, and a variation of the double pass MH has been running from under center where Lan got the lateral, faked the throw, then ran for TD himself.

Still more vanilla than Hawkins era but I’m hoping this at least keeps defenses guessing a bit more and forces Idaho to spend time to prepare for more stuff

We’re what the kids on Twitter would call a sicko team now I guess

I honestly thought that Gale had that from the video board angle

Human polls are currently in agreement with Sagarin and Massey ratings That Davis is a #11-15 team, but probably for different reasons. Voters are giving us the benefit of the doubt and ignoring the Cal loss; computers are giving us credit for the Cal loss. All rankings are probably directly or indirectly baking in last year's ending rank too.

No exception this year, as I understand it. Hoping for a quick score in the 1st quarter to get the students into the game early