Kevin Blue and Dan Hawkins are the two best things to happen for the football program in a long long time. Hawkins has an infectious energy in how he conducts himself and how he recruits. Looking at Hero Sports the recruits we have for this upcoming class is again looking like one of the strongest in the Big Sky with several guys being up there on their national commit list. I would love to see Davis become the west coast NDSU, but we still have a long ways to go before that is the case... that being said, look at where we were at just 2 years ago.

If I were an Aggie fan I would aspire for them to become the Stanford of the FCS. High quality football from true student athletes. Admission rate at NDSU is 94%, you don't want UCD associated with that :wink:

I was talking about the success on field. I would love for the Aggies to be the favorites for the national championship year in and year out. Stanford is good, but they aren't Alabama. I don't think Davis or Hawkins have patience for academic laxity.

True that Stanford isn't Alabama but on any given Saturday they have the talent to knock them off. Generally speaking, Stanford get's the most talented true student athletes.

I get what you're saying, maybe be known as the Duke/Vanderbilt/Northwestern of the west?

Demographics a bit different - enrollment ~12,000, state population ~750,000 and of course it is where "everyone is above average" - so yield will be higher.

Game notes for both teams and the Big Sky are up:

Aggies: https://ucdavisaggies.com/documents/2018/10/16/10_20_at_Cal_Poly_Game_Notes.pdf

Mustangs: https://ucdavisaggies.com/documents/2018/10/16/WeeklyRelease7.pdf

Big Sky: https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/bigskyconf.com/documents/2018/10/15/2018_BSC_Weekly_Notebook_10_15.pdf

through Oct. 13
Scoring Offense: UCD 2nd in big sky 7th in nation (out of 125) 40.8
CPSU 11th in big sky 78th in nation 25. (Idaho State 1st BS at 41.3)

Scoring Defense: UCD 5th in big sky 69th in nation 30.5
CPSU 12th in big sky 106th in nation 38.8 (Weber 1st BS as 21.7)

Time of possession: UCD 9th in big sky 96th in nation 28.06 min.
CPSU. 1st in big sky and 4th in nation 34.41 min.

Last stat for random scatter discussion.

Cal Poly has faced two of the better defenses in the FCS in NDSU and Weber State. I would say both are better than any defense the Aggies have faced with the exception of Stanford.

Not to be a buzz kill but despite being the highest(I'm not positive)paid head coach in the BSC at $275K, it's highly possible Hawkins get's snapped up by another program. Cal Poly has lost several good coaches the past few years to better opportunities. I fully expect that to happen with Jay Hill over at Weber State.

He could, but the man bleeds Aggie blue and gold. I think it would take a whole lot for him to leave.

When I first read your post I was skeptical. However, with an acceptance rate of 38% at Davis, 17% at Cal and 5% at Stanford, UCD could appeal to the FBS caliber player that values education but doesn't quite have the grades for Cal or Stanford.

its not about grades...its just a matter of qualifying. meet the minimum acceptance qualifications (i think its 3.0 in UC required classes) and you are eligible to play at Davis, Berkeley and UCLA.

same is true at Poly....meet the CSU minimum, and they can get you on campus there, the same as at Sac.

highly possible Hawkins get's snapped up by another program. — Polydad

I doubt it. Hawkins looks like he's having the time of his life building this program back and impacting kids at a school he is emotionally attached to. We all know its pretty special to do what you love, at a place you love. He's probably made good money over the years and is comfortable.

It doesn't get much better that that.

i think the more likely scenario is that Plough gets snapped up. I really don't see Dan leaving for another program, especially with the momentum that is being built from Mrak Hall on down to the football program.

Correct, and rates have to do with capacity and number of applications. Stanford doesn’t have to do much marketing to get a whole lot of applicants so acceptance rate is going to be low.

Another wrinkle with the academic stats is that schools may have to accept 2 to yield 1, etc.

Let's bake it up on Saturday man.

#Horseshoe

I know that student athletes don't have to meet the same standards as non athletes when it comes to admissions. Are you telling me that a player that barely qualifies to get into Sac State can also get past admissions at Cal Poly? Are we talking in theory or reality?

I have no specific cases of who gets in or not; just know that kids have to be qualifiers to have their cases brought to admissions. and that should be it. if a school is holding their athletic departments to higher standards than qualifying, that's an institutional decision that can't be too popular with the program! this isn't a case of letting in a non-qualifier.

Cal Poly football can not get a player in that meets the minimum CSU standard. They can get players in that are below the Cal Poly standard, but it is still way, way above the CSU standard. The problem is even if we or Davis could get in a player that meets the minimum CSU standard they would not be able to compete in the classroom and would more than likely flunk out.

How is the cal poly standard different than CSU?

Coach Walsh claims Cal Poly competes for the same players with Davis, not Sac State and I’m pretty sure that’s due to admissions. I suspect that not all players that Hawkins wants that qualify get past UC Davis admissions

Well, just finalized my plans for the poly trip and EWU. The amount i paid for a round trip airline ticket to Spokane i had to choke up for a middle of the road hotel room in SLO. Hotels were booked up for the weekend. There must be another event in town this weekend. BTW, there is a non stop SWA flight out of SMF to Spokane.

Lodging in SLO is stupid expensive. I stay 10 minutes away in Pismo Beach it’s expensive there too but it’s beautiful and you get more bang for your buck IMO

Any idea if the CAAA is planning a group trip to EWU?

Certain majors like engineering are so difficult at CP that the chances of success while putting in all the hours football demands is slim. I’ve heard coaches strongly discourage and possibly even prohibit players from certain majors. Can you shine any light on this topic SloStang?

↪agalum Any idea if the CAAA is planning a group trip to EWU?

I looked at their website before i booked my flight and didn’t see anything. I have been watching the flights for several weeks hoping the rate would go down, but they were only going up so i jumped today. Explored a bunch of options such as OAK, Stockton, etc. Best deal i found was out of SMF.

I’m going to Montana, passed on EWU. Might rethink that depending on the next copy of games

are you going to slo?

Regarding the admissions thing -- there probably is a cutoff below the average for non-athletics incoming students, but it's all apples to oranges when you think about it. Picture a high school senior who didn't have the hottest grades but was also a music prodigy who spent several hours a day practicing and wrote a convincing essay about it -- he probably would get strong consideration, and that situation really isn't much different than a football player who racks up a ton of extracurricular hours and probably had a lot more personal contact with the school than the average applicant.

Like somebody mentioned, yield is another important consideration for college admissions, especially since US News ranks based on lower admission rates. It's not abnormal for colleges to preferentially admit students who have a higher probability of actually enrolling (though public schools might be more limited in what tactics they can use), so in that case one can see how a recruit who's already verbally committed again trumps a random applicant who's applying to a bunch of schools.

Then there's a host of other factors, like requirements for different majors, out-of-state vs in-state, local context admissions (doing well at one's high school, regardless of how competitive it is), etc. And then there's the essay wildcard. While some athletes certainly are in impacted majors, also many of them aren't, and that will also play a role.

Anyway, the point is that the whole system is holistic to the point of being arbitrary. So there probably is a cutoff lower than the average admission stats, but that doesn't actually mean that the athletes are less qualified or that they're unattractive candidates by standard admissions schools of thought.