1:30 left.

Even BIGGER statement win than what I predicted! Rough 3rd quarter, but overall dominating win over a playoff team from last year.

USD has second string in.

Three running plays and that's all she wrote.

This game shows that we can’t get too confident and sleep on any team. We need to bring it every time!

RF Cam Trimble 4 tackles, Ocansey 4, and true Freshman Cade Peacock 3 tackles and 1 INT.

Good win. Maier seemed a little off, surprised USD was able to inhibit Doss. Quite surprised we waited that long to go to TT, and gave him so few touches. Lite backs like Modise and Ulonzo may get lit up at Stanford.

I’ll write tomorrow after a good night’s sleep at the Hyatt ( 3 1/2 games and a 7:00 kickoff makes for too late to drive home)

Couple quick non-football observations:

1) biggest home opener crowd in quite some time. A ton of kids running the field at halftime. Expect more in two weeks

2) game experience was much better than I’m the past. More food trucks. I thought the sideline announcer was a good addition. Fun night at the Ag!

When was the last time we were 2-0?

My takeaways:
-Defense had ability to really shut teams down, like they did for first half.
-momentum can change real fast. USD scored 21 pts to retake lead in like 2 minutes.
-Vincent White’s a BEAST pick-6
-O’Rourke looked better than Blair, so good change at K position by Hawk.

My observations

- Big improvement in the defense from SJSU. USD is supposed to be talented offensively, but the defense completely shut them down outside of that bad stretch in the 3rd quarter. Rebounded nicely by getting 2 huge interceptions.

- While Ulonzo Gilliam didn't put up huge numbers in term of yards, he still put up 3 TDs which is tough to argue with. Thomas looked very good in limited snaps. I would maybe like to see a more balance number of snaps between them.

- Maier looked really uncomfortable tonight. USD was applying pressure, but Jake was overthrowing/underthrowing receivers tonight like I haven't seen him do before. We need to clean up the passing game going forward. I remember a couple drops that definitely should have been catches.

- What's up with not going to Doss? Tough to tell when watching on tv but was the coverage on him that spectacular? Doss is the bread and butter of our offense and I'm surprised we didn't try to get it to him more considering the offense didn't look fantastic in the first half.

- I'll take the big win over a team that was in the playoffs the last couple seasons, but this game showed we have some things to clean up before we hit big sky competition. Stanford up next and then Idaho. I still think we have a decent chance to start 3-1.

2004 per the broadcast last night. Wow, that was the beginning of my senior year.

Regarding Doss' limited output, I was at the game and it looked like USD planned to keep him covered with more than one guy, sometimes three. That left openings for other guys on the Aggie offense to step up. So even though Keelan didn't put up numbers last night, he still kinda had that "Steph Curry effect" where he drew the defenders' attention, immeasurably affected the opponent's defense, and left them exposed elsewhere.

That said, there were a couple of dropped passes that should've been taken to the endzone. One thing I like about Maier (and maybe it's Plough too) is that he's not afraid to go for the big play. In fact, I think when things get stagnant, when your run game isn't working or the screen passes go nowhere, that's when it's even more needed. And he has the actual physical ability to do it. Rough numbers but it was against a playoff caliber team.

Good crowd last night for opening day... You win, people show up.

Ahh that answers my question about Doss. Tough to see all of the coverages on tv especially when there aren't a ton of replays.

They doubled Doss and I think that’s why we tried to go long so often. One long TD was dropped, a couple others were broken up by really good defensive plays. Thought we’d exploit the middle of the field more because of how they doubled the outside but I guess the streak is the hot call.

It’s that much attention it’s no wonder that hook and lateral worked so well. That was the call/play of the game. Led to the TD after they took the lead and gave us some momentum.

As for the defense, I thought they struggled. USD seemed to have guys open all night, and they ran decently. We got no pressure on their QB. USD was in the hole the whole first half with mistakes and penalties, and played VERY conservatively. When they got back to their game plan on the third, they sliced and diced us for two easy drives.

It was kinda fun seeing USD run the old west coast offense.

Their coach

“As far as I’m concerned,” said Lindsey, “we played for 10 minutes and they owned the other 50.”
I think the injury to Jaylin White caused a lack of focus for a bit. How is he?

Do you think this is an embarrassing loss for San Diego?

We are going to get ours next week...a slice of humble pie.

I will always remain hopeful, but next week is almost assuredly a loss. Big difference is that UCD and USD are both FCS ranked anywhere from the mid 20's to mid 30's. Stanford is well... Stanford.

USD seemed to move the ball well to start the game, then repeatedly shot themselves in the foot.

Ulonzo was averaging around 1.7 yards a carry, Thomas had 2 carries for 40 yards, and we stuck to the plan. Did Maier take a beating? Harrell shines.

Looked like a solid crowd, we stepped it up when challenged, but next Saturday is another level.

The stars have to align just right for Davis to beat a PAC 12 team.
For example
1) the PAC 12 team is not that good, having an off year. 2005 Stanford was poorly coached, and certainly not one of the better teams.
2) Davis needs to be solid on D. The 2005 team had just held a FCS playoff team of that year to a under 2 touchdown score. Stanford couldn’t run on us.
3) Luck ... Stanford QB left game after hurting his hand.
Those stars don’t align this year with the exception of possibly luck, TBD

Couple other things about 2005

1) we scrimmaged them in the prior spring, some kind of joint practice. You think Fred and Foster made some notes?
2) they played at Ann Arbor the prior week. Big trip, lots of sightseeing, and then fly back cross country. A little let down coming back to, especially
3) since they had no crowd. Students hadn’t returned, fans were sparse

That Stanford wasn’t terrible, they finished 5-6, 4-4 in PAC 12. They lost an OT game to UCLA, squandering a lead of something like 27-3. They win that one, and they might have been a bowl team.

yep, and they discovered after they played us that they had an unstoppable whale of a fullback, unfortunately his career was shortened by injury.

NCAA FCS Stats

Aggie Total Offense, #5 (Sac #3, EWU #1).
Aggie Total Defense, #75. So far, improvement.

Dunning article has nice quotes from the USD coach. They focused on shutting Doss and Preece down.

Davis Enterprise show Logan Montgomery to illustrate Fred ARP stickerin article. Mystery why Montgomery not playing. Behind a few freshmen.
Montgomery was solid for us last year as a frosh

Is there a post game video with Hawkins? Link anyone?

Here you go, agalum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmwirSWr6W4

thanks!

So we actually ran a successful hook and ladder? How many yards did that play get us? I can't remember the last time we tried one of those.

I wasn't able to attend or even watch the game due to a previous commitment to a great dinner party with some old friends. I did manage to sneak off and saw how close the game was in the 3rd so I was surprised when I saw the final score.

Here's the post-game interview with Nas Anesi also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhgwhBfr3I4

It was a single hook. Short pass to Doss (iirc) who flipped it to Crawford(?) coming around the corner behind him. Crawford took the corner at full speed...was really well executed.