The Wildcats come into this match up with a 3-0 record with predictable wins over Western Oregon (41-5) and Utah Tech (44-14), while also claiming an impressive FBS victory over Utah State (35-7).

On offense, Weber State has a 2 headed monster in their rushing attack with RBs Josh Davis and Damon Bankston. Davis has 44 rushing attempts for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns while Bankston has 43 rushing attempts for 265 yards and 2 touchdowns. QB Bronson Barron returns to action as the man under center. He's completed 52/83 passing attempts (62.65%) for 722 yards with 6 TDs and 3 INTs. He's additionally added 81 rushing yards. Barron's top receiving targets have been WRs Jacob Sharp and Ty MacPherson. Sharp has 13 receptions for 246 yards and 1 TD while MacPherson has 10 receptions for 243 yards and 5 TDs. Overall, the Wildcats have a very balanced offense gaining 210.7 rushing yards per game and 245.0 passing yards per game.

On defense, the Wildcats have only allowed 26 points over the course of 3 games including a FBS matchup. LB Winston Reid is their leading tackler with 22 total tackles with 2 tackles for loss and .5 sacks. S Naseme Colvin has been causing havoc behind the line of scrimmage with 3.5 tackles for loss on the season. Cody should be harping on Miles to STAY AWAY from CB Maxwell Anderson who has 4 interceptions on the season already. Gonna be a tough matchup as Weber only allows 59.3 rushing yards per game and 177.0 passing yards per game. They have allowed 0 rushing TDs through 3 games.

P Jack Burgess is averaging 44.3 yards per punt with a long of 53 on the season. He has landed 6/10 punts inside the 20. K Kyle Thompson is 7/10 on FGs although similarly to our situation he is 0/3 on FGs 40+ yards. WR Haze Hadley is their main punt returner and is averaging 14.29 yards per return with a long of 47. CB Abraham Williams and RB Damon Bankston have taken the majority of kick returns averaging 21.67 and 29.0 yards per return respectively.

All-in-all, this will be another incredibly tough match up for the Aggies. We were lucky to beat them last season and that was with both teams dealing with injuries. If the Wildcats had just beaten up on Western Oregon and Utah Tech I would maybe have a little bit more confidence going into the game, but with how they manhandled Utah State... I don't know, we could be in for a rough one.

I think we could easily be 2 TD underdogs going into this game. We'll need to play better on both sides of the ball to be competitive in this one. Weber looks like they're scary good.

well I think there could be some perspective put on the Utah State game. The only win Utah State has is against Connecticut who is awful. Utah State had 4 turnovers in that game. This is not to say Weber played a very good game and will be very stiff competition - their D is always very good - but the (Cal) Aggies - rather than the Utah State Aggies are going to be the best team they have faced this year. I had the pleasure of seeing Utah State beat BYU with Steve Young at QB in Logan in 1982 when I was getting a Master’s there. Was snowing and the place went wild.

Oh come on. They might be slightly better than last year, but I think we're at least slightly better than last year also. Coin flip game

I hope you're right! This is a huge game for us.

They’ll be better because they lost theit starting QB the game before they played us last fall.

I see Weber is #7 in one poll, #10 in the Athlon poll, where we are #24.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/fcs-rankings-top-25-power-poll-following-week-3-2022

Without tremendous play from Hastings, Gillam and the OL, I see Davis losing by about two touchdowns.

I think we have to play better on defense than we did against USD. We gave up a lot of big chunks of yardage too often and our pass rush wasn’t creating much pressure on their QB. Our LB’s and DB’s continue to make most of our tackles too. Our D line has not been making the initial contact with our opponents’ RB’s very often this year. I’d like to see that improve.

Then there’s this kind of offensive behavior:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/19/sport/university-of-oregon-football-game-mormon-chant/index.html

I wonder how many BYU players are actually Mormon?

Remember the slac students who had “F Davis” written on their backs? How about the T shirt that said, “my cleaning lady went to sac state?”

Denigrating a religion is more dangerous to society than denigrating a school. There is more history of religious persecution than scholastic persecution.
BYU student body is 98% Mormon.
I bet the Oregon chant was inspired by the racial epithet hoax by the Duke volleyball player.

Agreed. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.

I didn’t take it that you were.

Let's not beat ourselves up too much, we lost by 2 points to the number 2 / 3 team in the nation. I think all agree that our QB play is key.

Hawkins reminded me that WR Kraft has missed a lot of time... most of 2019 after a promising start, and then all of 2021. Great to see him back.

I really like that the Athletic Department is making these pressers each week but how hard is it to get a microphone to the people asking the questions so we could actually hear what their questions are? Personally, I'd be embarrassed to post a video interview where you couldn't hear the questions being asked. It's not like it's hard to get a working mic to the people asking the questions.

https://www.college-sports-journal.com/college-sports-journal-sagarin-fcs-top-25-sept-17/

After three games Sagarin is higher on Davis than pretty much any media outlet or poll and maybe anyone except Hawkins. It also thinks we've had by far the toughest schedule in the top 10.

On the other hand, it also thinks Weber is closer to SDSU than to UCD.

Is our audio working at UC Davis Health Stadium?

Too bad we’re not playing Georgia Tech this week,

The comparative score algorithms haven’t got enough data yet.

the PA? New announcers this year who is a huge upgrade over the past couple yesrs

The audio system malfunctioning, or human error, at events.

referees mic cut out a little. Seemed like our standard scoreboard operator issues persist

I recall a few years ago hearing little of a School of Education award at halftime.

PPG scored by the Ags:

2022 - 26.0
2021 - 28.3 (favorable schedule)
2019 - 28.7 - JM, UG (Keelan Doss gone)
2018 - 39.7 - JM, Doss, UG
2017 - 33.6 - JM, Doss
2016 - 28.2 - (HC Gould)
2015 - 22.3 - (HC Gould)

It's tough in the Big Sky only scoring 28 PPG.

PPG allowed by our defense:

2022 - 23.7
2021 - 22.7 (DC Combs 1st yr, favorable schedule)
2019 - 29.3
2018 - 27.4
2017 - 32.2 (Hawks 1st yr)
2016 - 37.1
2015 - 34.2

Weber State QB earned Big Sky Player of the Week honors.

"Barron and the Wildcats blasted the Trailblazers, 44-14.

"On Monday, September 19, the conference honored Barron as the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week.

"In Weber State’s victory over Utah Tech, Barron was 25/33 passing for a career-high 368 yards and four touchdowns. He added three carries for seven yards with his legs."

https://kslsports.com/492926/weber-state-bronson-barron-big-sky-player-of-the-week-utah-tech/

2021 was a favorable schedule only because of the sequence of the games but the schedule this year isn’t tougher by a significant amount. League is about the same except for Montana State instead of Eastern Washington and this year we played South Dakota State in place of Dixie State.

Watched part of Coach Hawkins weekly presser. Great guys, impressive.

1. LB Connors switched positions before last week's game.
2. Smalley is working on his second graduate degree. Amazing.