Next up, the Toreros of San Diego come to Aggie Stadium at 7 pm next Saturday, September 8th. Time to start a new discussion.
Sandwiched between our big win over San Jose State and a trip to #13 Stanford in two weeks, the Ags dare not get caught looking past USD. The Aggies will most certainly be favored in this one but San Diego will be fired up and will come ready to play hard. We need to stay focused on improving from the previous game and just prepare for the next opponent week by week.
Excerpt from the Davis Enterprise: Vs. San Diego (Sept. 8)
"The Aggies routed the Toreros, 35-7, last year at home in the first win of the Dan Hawkins era. However, after a 1-2 start, the Toreros put together a nine-game win streak that included a stunning 41-10 rout of the Big Sky’s Northern Arizona in the first round of the FCS playoffs. (Northern Arizona had beaten the Aggies, 45-31, during the regular season.)
After their dud against the Aggies, the Toreros were monsters on offense, twice hitting 63 points behind talented quarterback Anthony Lawrence, a Payton Award Watch List nominee.
Lawrence hit 66.5 percent of his passes for 3,131 yards and 33 TDs last year, with seven interceptions.
Beginning his sixth year, head coach Dale Lindsey has put together a 46-13 overall mark, including two playoff appearances and four straight Pioneer League championships."
We can't get caught sleeping this game, but I still think the Aggies come out fast and pick up their 2nd win of the season. People like to bring up their win over NAU in the playoffs, but they beat CP the season before in the playoffs and we still smacked em down in the next meeting. This is a winnable game.
this is a a different kind of challenge, but will be equally telling in evaluating our team. SD isnt as unsettled as San Jose and will be ready to play. Last year the game was more competitive than the score would indicate. They are probably anxious for a do over.
We had 518 yards of offense to their 298 despite losing the turnover battle. Sure, a couple of our TDs came in the 4th quarter, but we controlled that game.
last year it was 14-7 in the second half we went for it on fourth down and Justin Williams ran 72 yards for a TD. Their coach if I recall,blamed himself, I think they called a blitz.
But you are right it was more onesided than I recalled in the stats.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not insinuating that this will be an easy game by any margin. They return veterans at QB, RB, and OL but they lost their starters at WR. They also lost Jonathan Petersen, the FCS all time leader in sacks, at DL which should hurt their pass rush immensely. It will be a battle, but I think we can start this season 2-0.
Portland State looked respectable in losing to bad FBS teams, whereas we won against a bad FBS team. There’s a big difference.
It will be interesting to see what happens with San Jose this season, They were obviously not prepared for our offense. I think players had that attitude the media covering their team had that we were just a tune up
San Diego beat Division 2 Western New Mexico 38-9 in their first game of the season. Western New Mexico finished 4-7 last season which included a loss to San Diego as well.
Anthony Lawrence tossed for 254 yards and 3 TDs and the team added, by committee, 167 rushing yards. Lawrence's big target was Michael Bandy who hauled in 8 passes for 111 yards and 2 TDs (50 of those 111 came on 1 completion). USD's defense still allowed 300 yards of offense to a below average D2 school.
I hope we have it in hand by the 3rd quarter.
Clean up some issues, kicking game.
Would love to see QB #2 get many reps.
Would love to see 2nd / 3rd string get reps.
Withhold some plays for Stanford.
No injuries.
"Paul Creighton Retweeted
"JSerra Football
JSerra Football@JSerra_Football
Class of 2018
@_jakeparks_
gets the start at right guard for @UCDfootball as a true freshman! His work ethic and leadership are second to none. Not surprised to see him already on the field at the next level. #PR1DE"
USD is good enough that we might not get 2nd stringers in the game. I'm right there with you though. If we are controlling the game late, it would be nice to rotate guys in. That being said, we really REALLY can't get ahead of ourselves on this. Gotta show up first.
Who would have picked the Ags to win with three esentially riokie offensive linemen, although Richardson played in one game last year, and also playing without Logan Montgomery and Tehran Thomas?
We're the #26 team (first "receiving votes") in the STATS FCS poll; a win over SD should put the Ags firmly in the top 25. Somewhat questionable rankings of some 0-1 teams above us.