NCAA team stats, which mean little now with limited action, has our offense #1 and defense #20 out of about 33.

Sensing foul play with Tehran, since I’ve heard no reference to injury anywhere. Didn’t look at SJSU game to see if he was suited up, but suspect some sort of disciplinary thing if he wasn’t. Kid was listed No.1 in depth going in. But, hey, I’ll cut him slack. Gilliam is real deal.

I believe the radio announcers thought he was on the sidelines suited up. But as usual they left room for doubt; one thing you can say about the radio team is they aren’t too informative. Maybe someone at the game looked for him?

Like the local writers, homers. I get part of it. I believe Hawk likes to keep a tight lid, understandable. There was an article on the defensive unit that appeared to be the first of several, some position changes were revealed, and then the team review stopped.

I understand the partisanship.
It would have been nice to hear the starting lineup, and some commentary there on,
Maybe it was in a portion not streamed but I had to wait until the final stats were posted to see who played; if they didn’t touch the ball or make a tackle they weren’t noted. Exactly what does our color commenter from UCLA bring to the broadcast?

he was suited up on the sideline; i thought it was mentioned here that the radio guys indicated he wasn't at 100%.

I listened to the entire stream and they may have speculated that but they didn’t say it, it was more along the lines of them thinking they see his number on the sidelines.
His status is obviously a noteworthy issue.
I would have liked them to note the three first time starters on the offensive line and comment on how the line was doing with the new starters

This would be a great question for Hawk tonight. Last year they let us send in questions via FB. I tuned in late last week so not sure if that format continues.

http://khtk.com/event/uc-davis-football-hosts-san-diego/

Offensive coordinator for USD expected to leave for Michigan

http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=21-0752669371075139471-4

And USD has some fireworks. Note the 35 yard FG. Can we do that?
http://www.espn.com/college-football/recap?gameId=401030604

Article on their QB
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-usdfoot-anthony-lawrence-20180829-story.html

I sent in a question early 2 times, one time it was half asked, late, the other ignored. They seem to focus on the easy star players... 1 question I had, if I recall, was about non-star 5'9" DB Erron Duncan. Had 8 tackles against SD State as a redshirt freshman. Hawk said his numbers (physical, testing?) were off the charts.

I think Tehran may have been slightly banged up from what I read too. They said not 100%. I am sure they want him 100% when we start against the Big Sky teams. Why risk any form of reinjury? A fully healthy squad is what you want when you start conference play. You need to win conference games to make the palyoffs. Beating FBS teams is nice, but they are not the teams that yopu MUST beat. So, why risk Tehran if he is not 100%? But, don't let the other team know he is not playing. That makes another issue for the opposition that they need to prepare for.

yeah probably that and they apparently love Gilliam.
So after puttting up good rushing numbers against Sac last year and San Jose this year, do you think we’ve got a good running game? Hopefully this will again be the case against San Diego.

USD scares me a bit. They get REALLY up for Big Sky teams, and have beaten two of them the past two years in the playoffs. They have a talented QB and some solid skill players. They throttled NAU last year on defense, getting big sack after big sack. We need to start fast on offense, no special team mishaps, and get some early stops on defense.

this is a big game. Win this and a 3-1 September looks very possible.

Dr. Mike, already conceding the Stanford game?

Never know the stars could be aligned just right, again!

Actually, I think the rush game depends more on the line than the back. The back just needs to make good decisions, after he gets through the line. Either way a mediocre back gets 3-4 yards and a very good back can get tons of yards.
I actually like drawing the defensive line one way, and let them take themselves out of the play if they are not letting you get holes opened for your back. The more success they are having stopping the run, the more agressive they get. Thus, making them susceptible to counters, and screens.

we seem to have two very good backs judging from small samples of work.
We also seem to have some young linemen who have won starting jobs in the offensive line. Not sure about the Sac game last year as far as whether having a big lead made then soft against the run but we had three backs put up a lot of yardage, This week against a supposedly good line, if we accept their opinion of themselves in the pregame hype, we had success on running plays. So it will be interesting to see what happens this week.

Duncan had huge game vs SJSU. Led the Aggies in tackles I believe is what the Enterprise article said

I actually think we are much better all around than last year. Hawkins has found guys who believe in themselves and each other. The idea that others have trust in your talent increases the overall talent level of a player. I know, I was a basketball player. Though I didn't look like one, but could shoot lights out. It's funny how people get an opinion of you, before they even see you play. The lack of confidence in a player is detrimental to his performance. If there is confidence in a player, it can make all the difference in the world. I played on a team where they pretty much had me ride the bench (they lacked conficence in me from the get go). I asked for a release, signed with another team, and played against my old team and scored 43 points. Why? Strictly confidence in me, gave me the confidence to go out and shoot 27 footers. Something I never would have done on my first team, because of the distance, and if I missed I would surely hear about it. The team I played with later said if you are open shoot. Well, I was open a lot when I played against my old team. This confidence, that players and coaches have in each other, increases their ability to excel. So, it's funny how much a good coach and good teammates can make everyone better. This is what I am seeing in this group. They all know they will do their best for each other. Something I did not see with Gould's teams. The players seem to have fun under Hawkins, because he gives them a chance to win. Under Gould down 20 points late 3rd quarter and all we do is run up the gut. Did the players fveel likje Gould had faith in them to pull out a win? No!
That is why he was unsuccessful. He did not play to win. He played to try and keep a job.

I think Gould had an outlook that was something along the lines of if you execute well and you’re the better team you’ll win. Problem was we weren’t often the better team. You have to win some where you’re not the better team so you can become a place where better players want to go. No upsets under Gould. His style is more suited to Stanford.
If Gilliam and Thomas are as good as they show promise of being, Hawkins in his first year got a better haul of running backs than Gould did in any of his freshmen recruiting classes.

Stanford was making the same mistake against SDSU. Kept pounding the ball with no results. Started to look kinda familiar :(

The difference is recognizing the run game is not going work and "taking" what the defense is "giving" you. MAKE AN ADJUSTMENT.

SDSU clearly had a stop Love game plan so Stanford went airborne and targeted the least experienced DB with back shoulder passes time and time again.

Then their WR changed it up with double moves and into to endzone they went.

A Gould team would just keep running the ball and not make ANY adjustment.

Gould got us Joshua Kelley and Manzanares, Doss, Olave, Duncan and others. But his game plans were predictable, not fun, he would not go for the victory (SLO punt), and he lost the team. We had an exodus of top defensive talent.

Gould was known as a recruiter at Cal, so I'm not surprised he was able to bring in talent. It was just painfully obvious that he didn't belong as a head coach at the D1 level. He tried to force a gameplan that wasn't going to work with our personnel. Hawkins walked in and said, "we have a team that can be successful throwing the ball" and while we didn't get a winning season, we were much more competitive and exciting to watch.

I think Gould lucked into Manzanares,a jc transfer summer walk-on.
But I find it interesting that while you would expect Gould to excel in recruiting running backs, our best two freshmen RB recruits may be in last year’s class, Hawkins’ first.

Nas Anesi is brimming with confidence in an Enterprise article:

First things first for UCD linebacker Anesi

Excerpt: “I love getting to play against a team like Stanford, but we know we have to concentrate on this week’s opponent first,” notes Anesi, a 6-1, 230-pound junior who prepped at football powerhouse St. John Bosco in Bellflower.

“Our coaches believe we can beat an FBS team (in addition to San Jose State) and so do I. It’s just another step for us. We have some athletes here who can match Stanford’s athletes. We definitely have some great talent around here.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/first-things-first-for-ucd-linebacker-anesi/

Hawkins immediately recognized we needed a QB, and they locked one down. Gould was handcuffed with Wright and Lacy. Hawk seems to prefer being overloaded at QB, I wish Biggs did the same, unless we think Maier was luck.

But is our defense really better?

Well, the defense did do pretty well against an FBS team in the first half. In the second half our game plan changed a bit. This allowed SJSU to get more chances to close the gap. This allowed SJSU to close on Davis. But, Hawkins managed the clock fairly well to get the victory. We scored pretty much whenever they scored to keep the distance from getting too close. If UCD had kept up the second half as the first half we surely would have had many more passing yards.

i would say that second half was a combo of some sloppy play (dropped passes, passes tossed behind the receiver) and Hawk going very conservative. But got to give SJ some credit for changing up their gameplan in the second half which includes the third QB who was better then the first two. I would like to buy their coach a beer for putting in the first two QBs.