One game at a time. The twins being out isn't good, but now the rested reserves have their moment.

We'll have a lot of grad students on defense to replace next year.

Sievers played well. He’s improving each week. 8 is still struggling and gets lost in traffic. Schematically the defense is set up for him to be the tackling machine and that’s not happening. Rough week for 31 also. He’s such a pest when he can chase from the back side but teams are going right at him and having a hard time disengaging.

NCAA FCS Statistics

Total Offense... #26 - 414 ypg
Total Defense #100 - 437 ypg
Turnover Margin #34 (t)
Turnovers Lost.. #14 (t) **

3rd down Completion % - #37 (t)
3rd down Completion % - Defense - #121

First down Offense - #83
First down Defense - #81

Red zone Offense - #35 (t)
Sacks Allowed - #109 (t)

Team Passing Efficiency - #14

Completion Percentage
Caden Pinnick #35

Passing Efficiency
Caden Pinnick #13

Yards Per Pass Attempt
Caden Pinnick #17

Receiving TDs
Zach Jones #21
Samuel Gbatu #21

Rushing Yds per Carry
Jordan Fisher #9

[Carter Vargas 8.24 YPC = #1 in FBS, but he doesn't get 10 carries per game, the minimum threshold.]

Rushing Yds per Game
Jordan Fisher #33

Rushing Yards
Jordan Fisher #37

Sacks
Jacob Psyk #13

Solo Tackles
Rex Connors #2

Total Tackles
Rex Connors #8

** = we could easily jump higher in the rankings w another TO-free game

https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fCs

126 FCS teams listed.

#100 total defense @ 437 ypg isn't great. 628 vs. Washington didn't help (and yes, everyone has body bag games I know).

Halfway through the season last year we really picked things up offensively. Hopefully this year we do the same on defense.

Some of these stats can really be affected by one game.

I believe I caught a big omission. I just emailed the NCAA with the potential correction. Go Ags.

Everyone doesn’t have body bag games, e.g. Montana, Sac.

This is what Plough was eluding to when he gave his introductory press conference...Montana having 1000 supporters donating $1000, sounded like annually. The body bag game is not necessary, but one could be arranged under scrutiny - ie, playing Nevada this season or somebody who is beatable, and still getting paid. The joy of having the funds, and a huge home field to pay you with sellouts - you can go out and schedule 7 or 8 home games a year, and only be subject to away games per your conference schedule.

As we all saw, Idaho State, battle tested, gave Montana the game of their lives - first taste of road adversity for the Griz.
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Two things Davis needs to continue to improve on:
1. Donations and securing additional funds for improvements and general program funding. Sounds like Ignite is tackling this as we expand up to the Mountain West.
2. Keep the upward trend of ticket sales going. Sell Out, Sell Out, Sell Out your home games.

another thing that might help is turning up the microphone in these press conferences :lol: . All jokes aside I agree with you completely, hoping the NAU game can get a good crowd!

Stats are easily skewed, trust what you see on the field. The Offense available to Plough is expanding because the QB is taking care of the football and distributing the touches very well. There's a new weapon emerging each week. CP just needs to be smart with his body and the Offense is going to keep rolling.

I think what you're seeing is a Defensive emphasis on stopping the run. SUU has an elite RB (as he has proven since we saw him), Weber ran the ball 43x, and Wulff at Cal Poly is an old O-Line guy and they tried to run it 37x. Our Rushing YPG allowed is decreasing, as is the Yards Per Carry stat (Washington skewed everything up statistically). When you commit to making teams one dimensional (ex. stop the run), you're going to give some things up, like balls up the seams (Cal Poly) and create some favorable matchups offensively in coverage (Weber State). With our pass rush and DBs, it makes sense to load up against the run and put it on those guys to make plays against the pass.

1000 at $1000 annually is a great concept. If UCD would hire someone wholly committed to soliciting for that sort of giving program, I think it's realistic given the sheer size of the alumni base and our metro areas. You could probably do at least half of it at Homecoming and Parent Weekends with the right person in charge.

Regarding the microphone, perhaps we can make it 1001 at $1000 with that gift specifically earmarked to rectify the mic issues, Call that person The Mic Backer...

From what I've heard, Montana has over 500 $1000+ donors (on top of their ticket/suite sales) and we are somewhere in the range of 125. The goal is 500. When i go through the Donor list, i don't see many from my era and we're at an age (kids are all grown up) where you should be able to cough up $84/month.

True. FBS game doesn't necessarily mean "bodybag."

NCAA needs a new stat category: "Bodybag Games" haha

This may be more common knowledge than I'm aware of, but does Montana, or NDSU, or SDSU take in enough money to pay FCS programs to come in and play them? ie, Montana got Indiana State to come to Wa-Griz in 2025, Morehead State in 2024, Butler in 2023, Northwestern State in 2022, Western Illinois in 2021, North Alabama and Monmouth in 2019... etc. etc. , these are favorable FCS matchups always played at home, with almost none of them reciprocated with a return away game (Indiana State got Montana at home in 2022).

Are those paid games? Or is it just for the privilege of playing Montana in Missoula? If that's the case, it's A+ scheduling.

What a deal that would be; travel, likely get a loss, make no money.
Did Davis,when we were transitioning, get paid to play Youngstown, or SFA, Montana State, etc? We had to schedule a lot of games, but I’m sure they got something.

The new price schedule for Champion Aggie, formally Team Aggie, hopefully will generate more revenue as long as it doesn’t scare some folks off. I know starting next year my donation will be double to maintain the same level of amenities such as the pregame hospitality.

Back to the game. Breaking it down from YouTube, vs. NAU we'll see a lot of 5-down looks with a loaded box and sim pressures on passing downs (a lot like Cal Poly's D from 2024). They're going to play man with some variations behind it, but it looks like they lose the QB and if you're playing man coverage, that can lead to big gainers. Against MSU, the Safety #8 spied the QB in short yardage situations due to their Q Run game; don't be surprised to see him tracking CP at times, especially on passing downs in Man. Well-coached defensive unit.

The Offense is very multiple. They look similar to Weber and Poly speed-wise to me, maybe a notch below that. NAU runs the QB enough to make him viable, but their RBs are not what we saw from Southern Utah or Weber St. in the base run game. Those guys will catch a lot of balls. The OL is solid, TEs are OK. WRs look like bigger guys that run solid routes but don't appear to be that fast. As mentioned, the QB will check it down to the RB frequently and take the underneath throws on some of the deep concepts. Dink and dunk, move the sticks.

Their Special Teams gave up a long punt return vs. MSU.

Aggies 42-45ish
Lumberjacks 31 at best

Happy Homecoming!

FWIW, I pinged the NCAA stat crew bc Carter Vargas at 8.24 YPC equals the #1 back in the nation at FCS, but he's not there. (I saw guys w fewer carries and games.) The NCAA limiting factor on this is a minimum of 10 carries per game.

Rushing Yards Per Carry stat:

Carter Vargas, RB, UC Davis

GP 5
Att 33
Net Yards 272
Average YPC - 8.24

Two backs putting up big numbers.

Have we run The Fly Sweep this year?

When i go through the Donor list... — DrMike

Where did you find the donor list? I remember seeing it on the old website and was told it was a few years out of date.

Maybe Zach Jones’ TD against Southern Utah
Update Watched the play it was an end around

I wonder how these stats would differ it we discounted games against FBS opponents and counted the Mercer game?

i haven't seen one since before the conversion to Champion Aggies. At the time, it seems consistent with the message of 125 or so $1000 donors.

Sure, but others play body bag games, too. I wait til mid season to skim through the stats bc of this. BTW, imagine where Connors ranked last week in FCS rankings before he missed a game.

Most Sky teams try do have 1 home gimme game. I mean the Ags are playing Stetson and often DII teams might play at Poly or Idaho.

I noticed that the @ Stetson game - which I thought was part of the agreement, isn't on any future schedules currently. Maybe we're improving in the scheduling department.

Two Pioneer Football League games in 2026? I understand playing USD for recruiting and alumni outreach purposes, but the Stetson Hatters are crappy. Thus far, they've split with a couple NAIA schools, got destroyed by an Ivy and Chattanooga (the Harvard of southeastern Tennessee), and won their PFL opener against a bad team. There is no way we return that trip (I hope) at a later date.

Weren't the gutty little Bruins on the 2026 at one point, only to be replaced by SMU?

D2 and Pioneer schools get some guarantee money for those trips, whether its an actual check or help with travel expenses (food, lodging). It is nothing like taking Power 4 money where you might get a double whammy of guarantee and TV money, but it is something.

With a good turnout, could we be on our way to a new season attendance record?

UCLA is 8/28/2027. Also in 2029

if @ Stetson ever happens, that would be about the only tailgate I could host lol.

almost positive Stetson is a one-off, that we are paying them to come out for. Here are future schedules:

https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/uc-davis/