Official attendance: 8105. That's over 3000 less than the Poly game.

I think we’ve got to give Weber credit. Their D, especially their secondary was tremendous. Their pass rushers were in Maier’s face all night. And i thought our D was good. They just didnt get a break from our O. Building year. Please beat Suc.

FWIW, last year we scored approx. 40 PPG, this year 30 PPG.

Not as dramatic in total yardage, which has gone from about 490 YPG to 420 YPG.

Babbs has playmaking ability, Harrell ran track. When TT healthy, teams can't key on Gilliam. I loved him at 235 / 245, punishing! We have talented TEs, my guess is we had to keep them home all night. (Announcers said one of their DEs will get an NFL shot.)

[Utah] Standard Examiner

"WSU stifled the prolific passing arm of senior Jake Maier to his worst career game ... Maier threw 18 of 29 for 160 yards, 68 of which came on a final garbage-time drive..."

Coach Hill: "Coverage was outstanding, the safeties did a phenomenal job disguising...."

"In the end, Weber outgained UC Davis 450 yards to 204...."

"The lopsided first half saw WSU run a whopping 54 offensive plays to only 18 for UC Davis...."

"WSU started to pin its ears back defensively in the fourth, forcing Maier into several bad passes with a relentless rush from the defensive line. Linebacker Noah Vaea nearly recorded two interceptions in the frame, narrowly dropping each, and Heckard nearly had another one...."

" “We had 92 offensive plays to their 46. You talk about coming in and executing a game plan, I can’t be more proud of these coaches,” Hill said. “I’ve got great assistants and I’ve got great players who executed this game plan almost perfectly.”

WSU was playing without one of their top wide receivers.

Weber and Sac, undefeated in FCS, play in Sac next week.

https://www.standard.net/sports/weber-state/weber-state-football-no-wildcats-stifle-no-uc-davis-for/article_6f330290-8eac-5d44-bb48-e393aed325c0.html

I think we do need to talk about Plough actually being on the hot seat. Yeah Weber's defense was good but it felt like there was no attempt to take risks with the play calls or change things up. Think of all the things we used to do that were not present this game:

No double passes (you're telling me Crawford's the only WR who can throw?)
No fly sweeps
No wildcat snaps
No RBs other than Gilliam
Virtually no long passes

Our favorite play seemed to be to run straight up the gut with our small back and it worked once.

Unfortunately some of the play calling was reminiscent of Gould. We were like 3rd and 29 on our own 10 and we run up the middle? BTW, Gillium is getting all the work bc he’s about all we have left in that position. TT remains banged up, not sure where Spencer was last night.

You are absolutely right about giving WSU a lot of credit for shutting down the Aggie offense the way they did. We have some talented weapons on offense and Weber slammed the door shut on us. They had an outstanding game plan and we were unable to adjust and respond to it.

I think the game was so lopsided mainly because of their outstanding game plan and execution and a combination of us not being able to execute anything that was disruptive at all to their defense. Whether that was poor execution on our part or a poor game plan by our coaches or something of both, I don't know, but they made our offense look awful.

I don't ever remember seeing an Aggie offense so thoroughly dominated by an FCS team. Hats off to WSU. They are proof positive that an explosive offense is not the only way to be a Top 5 FCS team.

Quotes from the Davis Enterprise article:

“They’re a big, strong, fast, physical, well-coached team and you have to give them credit for how they played,” said Aggie coach Dan Hawkins of Weber State. “They do enough things to throw you off-balance a little bit, plus we had so few plays in the first half that we didn’t really have many chances to get things going.”

Said Weber State coach Jay Hill, whose team is well on its way to a third straight championship, “We expected a very good team and they were. We put pressure on them early, but they hung in there. When it looked like we were going to pull away, we never could. That’s the sign of a very well-coached team. That was a team that had all of our focus and attention because of how good they are and how good they’ve been. But we executed.”

Added Hill, “I think we have the three best defensive linemen — defensive ends Adam Rodriquez and Jonah Williams and tackle Jared Schiess — in the conference. Those guys are big-time players. When our coverage is where it needs to be, like it was today, we’ve got a chance to give quarterbacks fits, and we did. For us to come here and play the way we did was huge.”

“I’ve never been prouder of these guys,” he said. “They battled and they stayed in it and they kept competing. People think Aggie Pride is all about winning. It’s not. It’s about how you live your life. Tonight we showed Aggie Pride.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/aggies-shut-down-by-front-running-weber-state/

An apt comparison. I would go so far as to say what we saw was an inferior version of the Gould offense due to less depth and variety at RB and no FB home to block.

Also, I'm concerned that UG is literally the only one running. Do we not even have any FBs or TEs on the roster who can just plunge forward (because that's apparently our only running play)? Or do what UCLA did a few years back and start combing the defense for people who played two ways in high school.

UG is good if you put him in a position to succeed but having him play every snap and run it right at the best D on the conference every other play isn't how you do that. At least he got rest because the offense was almost never on the field.

Obligatory credit to our defense, they were given a near impossible task and still managed to keep the game within reach for three quarters.

Bye week next week...

It's possible we sacrificed depth at RB to load up at other positions. I did a quickie comparison vs our opponent a week or 2 back which showed we had 4 more players at TE, WR, and QB. Unfortunate TT and Facey injured.

Adding TT might have helped, but Weber is beastly. Don't forget: 3 turnovers.

Many of your thoughts, fly sweeps, deep passes, likely impossible with a dominant defensive front. Maybe more quick slants, screens, dinks to the TE, and a hurry up tempo might help.

I do agree Crawford passing is no longer a surprise. Outside of our fake punt last week, where is our deception. Weber even upped us there with the Philly Surprise by a 3rd string QB & other plays. Where is our Philly or Hide the Midget trickery?

Buckle up. Portland State no slouch.

I'm hoping that Thomas takes a medical redshirt for this season given that our playoff hopes are all but gone. It would be nice to have him back and healthy for 2 more years.

Have any insiders heard how Facey performed in practice?

We lack physicality, plain and simple.

Need the x's and o's to add up to a schematic advantage, but we really looked vanilla on Saturday...you can't bully Weber, can't out-scheme 'em, so what do we have? I don't doubt the spirit and fight of our players, we just don't look like a crisp team executing at an elite level.

Pretend. Two less turnovers, and no keeper for a 21 yd gain on the fake punt. Defense gets more recoup time, and offense has more reps.

Three big changes with no physicality requirement. Closer game, but I still think our O game plan comes up short. We only started moving the ball when they went to a 4 man front.

Shout out to DL Bryce Rogers for 11 tackles, 9 solo, and 1 Sack! DB Jordan Perryman had 9 tackles, 8 solo! Youngsters Eaton and Venable 5 each, and transfer LBs Hansen and Scharetg also chipped in.

Remember last winter we were recruiting a running back who took a late offer from Fresno, so the fact that we don’t have many running back NLI signees on our roster doesn’t mean they haven’t tried to recruit any, but they haven’t succeeded. Going from memory we have only four running backs that were offered scholarships out of high school, Gilliam, Thomas, Spencer ( recruited as wide receiver, converted this year to RB) and Figueroa, a true freshman we’ve never seen.
Recruiting two useable running backs in three recruiting years is obviously insufficient.

So it looks like our season boils down to hoping Weber beats Sac next week, and because in rivalry games "you throw out all the numbers," we beat them in the season finale, thereby possibly denying them a first round bye in the playoffs.

From what little I recall in psych classes, the lowest point isn't when you hit the bottom, it's when you hit the bottom, start to improve, and then backslide and head towards the bottom again. That's kind of how I feel right now. However I will blame it all on the wind and call it some variation on a seasonal affective disorder (and in so doing prove that I recall even less about psych than I thought.)

Can't pretend, all those things happened.

347 - Av Yds per Game Weber allows
204 - Yards we gained

I believe Kraft has played under 5 games, so maybe its an option for noth TT and Kraft to redshirt?

Have to win 2 of 3 to reach .500. The Causeway Classic could be epic, and those metal stands freak me out when they only have 10,000 there!

We'll have to play a whole lot better to stay in the game with Sac. They're for real this year and Hornet Stadium will be bursting with Hornet fans. The Buzz is on in Sac...

I think the Montana State game will be a big one. We’ve lost five in a row to them. We’re still establishing ourselves in the league and regardless of the playoffs it’s important to beat the teams who’ve historically have had our number.

Our schedule next year?

Nevada & San Jose State away, both 4-4 (Spartans will want payback)
At Weber, thank goodness their DL graduates.
Three open dates.

Saw our Fg guy O'rourke had 1500 yds passing at nearby rocklin high. Could we look to him for some relief at QB?

We have a good line of QBs. We need RBs for one. O’Rourke took over at the FGs when we were struggling at that position.

Do we know of any troubles on the O line? I know Redshirt Frosh Jordan Ford saw time.

I don't know, maybe someone has a handle on that.

Ford started all games after Conner Pettek was injured.
Ford first started against NDSU, replacing Will Martin. Martin then went back to center after Pettek was injured in that game.

anygivensaturday.com poll after week 9

AGS Poll Results - WEEK 9 - 2019 SEASON

10/28/2019

Rank Team: Total Points First Place Votes

1 North Dakota State Bison 2198 87
2 James Madison Dukes 2104 1
3 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 1958
4 Weber State Wildcats 1939
5 Sac State Hornets 1894
6 Montana Grizzlies 1675
7 Northern Iowa Panthers 1558
8 Illinois State Redbirds 1533
9 Kennesaw State Owls 1467
10 Central Arkansas Bears 1381
11 Villanova Wildcats 1311
12 Furman Paladins 1216
13 Stony Brook Seawolves 933
14T Dartmouth Big Green 886
14T Princeton Tigers 886
16 Montana State Bobcats 712
17 Central Connecticut State Blue Devils 660
18 Wofford Terriers 563
19 Southeast Missouri State Redhawks 538
20 North Carolina A&T Aggies 477
21 North Dakota Fighting Hawks 417
22 Florida A&M Rattlers 387
23 Towson Tigers 248
24 Austin Peay Governors 213
25 Albany Great Danes 202

ORV:

26 Youngstown State Penguins 173
27 Sam Houston State Bearkats 162
28 Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks 154
29 Nicholls State Colonels 135
30 The Citadel Bulldogs 102
31 Southern Illinois Salukis 89
32 New Hampshire Wildcats 74
33 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 68
34 UC Davis Aggies 66
35 Elon Phoenix 55
36 San Diego Toreros 34
37 Southeastern Louisiana Lions 26
38 Yale Bulldogs 19
39 Chattanooga Mocs 15
40 Campbell Fighting Camels 14

Most Significant Win: Stony Brook Seawolves
Most Significant Loss: Villanova Wildcats

Interestingly, the massyratings.com has us ranked 12th with our SOS ranked 3rd overall and predicting 1.30 estimated wins in our remaining games and 1.70 estimated loses.

Key

Ch = change in ranking since previous update
Rating = overall assessment of the team's performance to this point in the season
Power = estimated team strength going forward (used to make predictions)
Offense = ability to score points
Defense = ability to prevent the opponent from scoring
HA = estimated home advantage
SchP = strength of schedule for games played so far
SchF = strength of schedule for all games, including those currently scheduled
E[W]-E[L] = expected wins and losses for remaining schedule

Rankings are listed in parenthesis beside the ratings.

Click on the chart below to expand it.

I think Richardson was out last game. I think the OL has been a constant shuffle this year.

last year, we were seemingly injury free. OL was pretty much intact all year, and they improved weekly. no so this year. we started thin in some areas, and injuries are hitting all areas. seems to be having a real impact. i like the 'next man up' idea...BUT....at some point those next men aren't as good as the guys before, and they limit us to what we can do. i've seen us running alot of 2 TE sets this year, i think as a concession to OL injuries. RB's are beat up (except Ulonzo who is a stud). We got down to Nicko Harris as an emergency at SUU.....he played well.....then got hurt this week at practice between drills! New emergency got hurt on the 2nd half kickoff (which is probably why we fair caught every kick in the 2nd half!). we had a TON of guys in tee-shirts on Saturday. Maybe we can get some folks back during the bye week. these guys need a shot in the arm for the home stretch.