Thomas was not 100%, according to radio. Could have used him in the 4th to pound it a bit. I thought we got too conservative with the clock in the 4th after the fumble recovery, and that put use in a tough spot at the end. But, we pulled it out.

We probably should have been up 37-14 at the half; tipped interception lead to short TD, and a clanked FG from short. Second half was really sloppy on offense. Too many penalties (5 guys in the backfield 2 plays in a row....i think the line judge is partially to blame for that), and several drops stopped drives. we have the ball at their 45 after the safety and did nothing. that would have put them away.

kicking game wasn't great. two missed FG's, punts were spotty, and the kick offs were not deep (directional stuff didn't work out too well). we HAVE to clean that up.

nice to be nitpicking the negatives after a FBS victory! San Diego and Idaho will be tough, but we could get through September 3-1. that would be something.

Good win over an awful FBS team. SJSU football has been on the verge of being shutdown for years...sadly, it may be time. The win will look good for our ranking, but it's really like beating another FCS. I'm optimistic that we are finally running the offense we have to, but I'll truly celebrate when we have an over .500 record in our conference. Side note: the fact we couldn't see this game in any form of TV speaks volumes about the quality of our opponent and our perceived level. If we can truly turn this thing around, I think we will look back at this period of Aggie Football and laugh.

If SJSU shuts down football, then maybe we can slide right into their spot in the Mountain West. How's that for getting ahead of yourself after one game?

it has to be VERY discouraging for SJSU. at halftime, students were pouring out of the stadium. in the 2nd half, the one section of box seats at the 50 were empty. not mostly empty, but EMPTY. not sure what their pregame atmosphere is like because its not in the area it used to be (off of 10th). but, its not looking very good for them. they announced 13000 attendence last night which seems padded. their next home game is September 29 after road games at Oregon and Washington State, followed by a bye. they will be 0-3 heading into Hawaii. Not looking promising.

That's hilarious, but not totally unreasonably someday (we have to raise some serious dough for the stadium upgrade). Per ESPN, SJSU was preseason Bottom 10 for football, so while we did our job, it wasn't that big of a deal. Not trying to be Debbie Downer, but Ronnie Realistic...lol.

Not going to happen in my lifetime. We beat literally one of the worst 10 teams in all of FBS. We wouldn't win a game in the Pac-12 this year (Oregon St. is also bottom 10, so maybe 1). Moreover, we would have to play 9 Pac-12 teams each year. Unless the poles flip, we will never get the level of alumni or university support to join the Pac-12. Plus, I see no chance they take an FCS team directly into the Pac-12.

Pac12 is a nice long-term dream, but MWC would be excellent for a while. Imagine regional rivalries with Fresno St. and UNR. Could finally get the greater Sac area to support the Ags. I have to think a guy like Blue has a plan around this.

I checked out the local Sac sports reports on the 11:00 news last night after the game. Channel 3 (NBC) had the score but nothing else. Channel 10 (ABC) actually had a few video clips. Channel 13 (CBS and sister station to CW31 which will air suc st home games) didn't mention the game at all, but rather had a whole segment about the hornets with interviews with their coach and qb. I understand the station wants to plug their programming, but to not even mention the Aggie score seems a bit negligent.

Go Ags!

San Jose Mercury had a small picture saying ‘score was 37-24’ at print time. Curious to see if there is a print story tomorrow or if high school edges it out

It’s a big deal because it makes more people aware of what you already acknowledge, which is there is an overlap between bad FBS teams and good FCS teams. If we lose games like this it cements the image of UCD as minor league. Also remember that NDSU started by beating teams like Ball State

The guys over at Hero Sports are high on the Ags... https://herosports.com/fcs/football-uc-davis-defeats-san-jose-state-bzbz

Okay. Enough dancing in the endzone. Time to focus on USD. That has trap game written all over it - a playoff team last year.

I only get online version of the bee, but not anything about the Ags victory apparently. Is it the same for the print version. If so, not surprising for the bee. But still strang.

A playoff team that WALLOPED NAU in the playoffs!

San Jose Mercury News: What we learned in San Jose State’s opener. (It wasn’t good.)

Excerpt: "With a season-opening 44-38 loss to UC Davis, any semblance of hope and pompous predictions for San Jose State football came crashing down almost immediately. What was supposed to have been fixed in the off-season still looked badly broken."

"It was the third time in history (19 games) that San Jose State has lost to an FCS program. The last time, in 2010, also was against Davis. But this was worse. That loss was 14-13 and the Spartans defense didn’t give up 589 yards."

“It’s all on me. We have to learn to block and tackle better and we have to just take responsibility and fix it,” said Brent Brennan, now 2-12 as the SJSU coach “Obviously, I’m very disappointed and everyone is disappointed. We had a great crowd out here tonight and we let them down.”

Article link: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/31/what-we-learned-in-san-jose-states-opener-it-wasnt-good/

Davis Enterprise: Aggie up! Maier unloads on Spartans in 44-38 UCD win

Excerpt: “I’ve been in this game long enough to know there’s no such thing as an ugly win,” said Aggie coach Dan Hawkins as he begins his second season leading his alma mater.

“It’s obviously good to win your opening game, to win on the road and to beat an FBS opponent. To win your opener says a lot about the hard work our guys put on in the off-season.”

“Our inability to stop them and our inability to move the football were crippling in the first half,” Brennan noted.

“They outplayed us, they outcoached us and they deserve all the credit. I was proud of our fight in the second half. I think we made things interesting, but Jake Maier is an awesome player. Davis has some fantastic playmakers on the offensive side of the ball.”

Article link: https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/aggie-up-maier-unloads-on-spartans-in-44-38-ucd-win/

“It’s all on me. We have to learn to block and tackle better and we have to just take responsibility and fix it,” said Brent Brennan, now 2-12 as the SJSU coach “Obviously, I’m very disappointed and everyone is disappointed. We had a great crowd out here tonight and we let them down.”

12300 is a great crowd for your home opener? besides "Crazy George" and his drum (yep, THAT Crazy George) it wasn't a very loud crowd. I think the 4000 or so that left at halftime ain't coming back.

San Jose Mercury News-

Pre-game:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/29/sjsu-should-thump-uc-davis-in-opener-thursday-night-and-heres-why/

Post game:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/31/what-we-learned-in-san-jose-states-opener-it-wasnt-good/

The reason the authors gave that they were going to win came down to FBS vs FCS. Also they had to win because the next two were games were next to impossible.
None of that had relevance to whether they would beat us. Might have talked about what their pass rush was, could they cover, can their young guys understand what they need to do.
Instead they were going to thump us because they are FBS. Still have to play. An extra 20 scholarships are not definitive in a sport where you only need 50 to play.

Their board had complaints about hiring a position coach, and not having rhe QB position figured out.

I hope they turn it around, they are an underdog... last thing we need is to lose another local college football team. Their fans were friendly and receptive.

This article is unkind https://www.rgj.com/story/sports/college/nevada/2018/08/31/1-000-words-mountain-west-needs-do-something-san-jose-state/1158736002/

I hope SJSU can turn it around and prove the author wrong. Would love UCD (not UTSA as the author suggests) to get a shot at SJSU's spot in the MWC is it comes available, but we're a few years (and many $$'s as @OldAggie points out) away from being ready. Would hate o miss the timing.

The sky is falling because they lost to FCS. Stanford lost to us in 2005 and one of their players said something along the lines of “well they are a pretty good football team” and then I think he was sent to a re-education camp.
So what if we were picked ninth in the big sky? No one should believe that stuff as it’s based on next to nothing. Example; Even among those who try to follow the team, almost none of us expected Gilliam to play much less be any good. The voters in those polls don’t know much except how the teams played over the years

Whatever the expectations, the Mercury News wrote before and after articles, and with some size and analysis. The best anyone can expect of the Bee is a small bit in tomorrow's paper, with an attribution to "a campus website." Probably too late for even that. WIll have to write something about Slack's opener against the NAIA FIghting Saints of St. Francis University of Illinois.

The outright pettiness of the sac bee in purposely ignoring the Aggies is beyond rediculous. Its stupid. UC Davis is a huge economic and prestige pressence in sac. No one else is even close. Recently the UC Davis medical Center was rated the 5th best hospital in CA. Was this covered in the bee? No. Only a mere mention several paragraphs into the story. Does sac have anyone or anything thing else anywhere thats 5th best in the state. No. Simply stupid and petty by sac bee.

As the Finns like to say, we took 'em out behind the Sauna.

somehow because were 15 miles out of their city limits we’re not the hometown team, and we aren’t significant because we’re not the PAC 12, and even if we were we’re not Cal or Stanford. So basically nothing in the Bee. The the Enterprise covers high school and the university about the same, and covers all the minor sports together in a level similar to football. The University should promote some coverage on the site, get students to write content. Etc. We have no real newspaper coverage so we need to promote web content

To be fair, Bee's Saturday print edition has an AP wire service article on the Davis game in the middle of page 2 of the sports section, (and nothing I could find on that other school.)

Street & Smith's piece on San Jose State ends with "Beyond the opener against UC Davis, it's tough to spot many victories on the schedule."

Fake News! #SAD! Making Aggies Great Again!

Yikes, according to the DE, this is the first Aggie game 1 victory since Azusa in 2012, the very first UCD game I saw. That's a long streak of starting 0-1

Nice photo gallery of the game:

https://www.facebook.com/UCDavisFootball/photos/ms.c.eJxFj1EOwEAEBW~;U8Dys~_1~_sqQ39nYwBBCg6kYkMnAcXRKqElOWAis~;w5IB0WhGBNawB1zi3ods4bAAZQPRI~_QBn36ExwOQzTLZBvSNreHSUe7rbbeTfaMBdG~;1LCF~_VGzNX.bps.a.2022945251060979/2022945427727628/?type=3&theater