Fun trip especially with the win :). My wife has a lot of family in the area, and a nephew plays for PSU, so we got a lot of ribbing over dinner last night. Traffic and freeways drove me nuts. Enjoyed the tailgate with the regular gang, Dr. and Mrs. Mike andAggie Finn and his dad. Aggie turn out was decent. Enjoy the win today. 2 big regular season games left.

Shocker. First half Highlights from Aggie athletics? ... BTW, PSU announcer says we got a few starters back from injury ... one name is Center Connor Pettek.

https://youtu.be/IQj2MX5lQoI

BTW, Babbs took a toss (like a lateral) and a reverse, both for solid gains. Thorpe a nice catch incl 15-17 yards after the catch.

Not sure where B Jamison was the first part of the season, but we need the Heat he brings. Great game.

Congrats to the O Line for creating some YUUUGE holes.

As you stated, it's not easy to play in such a dismal environment. Add in some drizzle, fog and cold and it gets even worse. SUU is another venue that can be a potential letdown environment for the visiting team. I was worried about how the Ags would respond to the conditions at PSU but they certainly came mentally ready to play. I think the additional week of rest and time to prepare must have helped us as well.

The hold against Eaton that you mentioned was so blatant that I yelled about it immediately and I was just watching the game on my computer... my wife promptly closed the door to the den on me then! The game would have been a much bigger blowout if we would not have dropped those big gainer passes and if the ball would have bounced our way on a couple of the 6 fumbles we forced. What are the odds that a team will fumble 6 times in a game and only lose one of them?

I hope we can carry the momentum into the Montana State game on Saturday. Hopefully, we'll have a great crowd too since will be senior day as well.

Nick Amoah #73 has started the last two games at left tackle. Not sure if it’s because of an injury or if he worked his way up the depth chart, but it’s nice to see a local Davis kid doing good. And he’s an aerospace engineer major...gotta love UC Davis!

Davis High is on roll right now too with their best team in 25 years. They won the Delta League Championship this year after being 0-10 two years ago and won their first round playoff game last night and are now 10-1 while advancing to the second round of the playoffs. I wonder if there are any potential Aggies on the team?

Blue Devils were seeded a bit lower than expected, but won their first-round game at home Friday night. Play #3 Inderkum at their field this week.

Their resurgence has been spectacular, and caused me to pay attention from afar. They were looking to drop the program, with the recent attention to head injuries, and with Davis being
Davis. Former Aggie assistant Steve Smyte returned as coach; he had been eased out in 2012 by administration, but took the high road and burned no bridges/aired no dirty laundry. His individual efforts are a wonderful demonstration of how much difference one coach can make, although you'll never ever hear him say that. His approach to the student as a complete person and member of the community, not just a football player, is Aggie Pride through and through. He was also at Boise as an assistant a while back, but I think it was after Hawk. (I've met Steve once, but I do not know him personally).

Here's an overview of Smyte: https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/gallaudet-football-tab-do-not-publish-08-13/

And his bio on the DSHS website: https://dshs.djusd.net/athletics/fall_sports/Blue_Devils

I don't know which of the kids are potential recruits, one of their two quarterbacks has offers from Whittier and Occidental (doesn't really have an arm for college, imho), and the best player is committed to Colorado. I assume some will be Aggies soon.

I apologize if this is in the wrong place, or otherwise inappropriate, please remove or let me know if so. But I do have a lot of love and pride for my old school. If you mess with the Blue Devils, you get the horns!

edit: fix a link

Great post, Howard.

that non-call on intnetional grounding was totally perplexing. No receiver in same area code and not past the line of scrimmage. Portland State announcers were even wondering how it couldn’t be. Saw the hold on Pluto replay. Nearly took his neck off of if talking about the same hold (it was TD pass). Aggies had enough big plays to overcome those.

Both of those calls were blatantly wrong.

so one of the blue devils qb is Luke Carrell, whose dad Scott is a faculty adviser for UCD athletics ( and an Econ professor). And his older brother Zach plays baseball at UCD (or at least he committed to UCD coming out of hs). After following a lot of tough seasons while both my kids went there it sure is nice to see them get some success

back in 80 we played Northridge at Devonshire Downs, a former horse track converted to football field. Only other ‘stadium’ I’ve seen with one set of bleachers. And why Portland choses to sit opposite the bleachers is baffling, weird to have their cheerleaders standing behind our team. Weird environment

Merced native becomes fourth UC Davis student-athlete, second football player to win CSM National Player of the Week

DAVIS, Calif. -- UC Davis running back Ulonzo Gilliam, Jr. claimed Madness National Offensive Player of the Week and Madness Big Sky Conference Player of the Week distinction from College Sports Madness, the outlet announced Sunday. Gilliam becomes the first Aggie to win the overall national award since Jake Maier snared the same on October 15 last season.

The Merced, Calif. product rushed for 242 yards and two touchdowns while adding four receptions for another 13 ticks in Saturday's 45-28 victory over Portland State. The performance hit three significant milestones for Gilliam: it marked the first 200-yard rushing game of his collegiate career, put him over the 1,000-yard threshold for the season (1,055) and made him the ninth Aggie to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a career (2,031).

More here: https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/11/10/football-gilliam-snares-national-weekly-honors.aspx?path=football

Thanks for posting, Howard.

We sort of found ourselves in the heart of the PSU fan section during the game. Me, PopsFinn who played some LT in the early 70's, PopsFinn's teammate who played LG right next to him, and another one of his teammates who brought his grandson to the game.

One of the ladies in Vik gear couldn't stand the fact that we were sitting there and asked us why we were. We gently explained to her that we didn't care about her feelings, and Pops managed to rub it in with the fact that most of the guys behind her played football for UC Davis and were going to be as loud as they wanted to be. Well that went over well all game.

When Gilliam broke that huge run in the 3rd quarter I couldn't help but yell, "HE'S ONLY A SOPHOMORE!"

I'm glad that the Aggies got themselves back on track after the tough loss to Weber State and the bye week. I just want to see these guys lay it all on the line these last two games, especially since Montana State and Sac State will have their respective playoff hopes at stake. :grin:

As will we!

We have a chance to finish really strong and beating Sac is a must!

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/11/11/football-eaton-earns-second-big-sky-weekly-nod.aspx

I feel bad for Portland State -- that is a horrid place to play home games. Hope that project with Lincoln High School downtown gets the funding. I don't ever want to watch the Aggies play in Hillsboro like that again.

$65 Mill a huge price tag. Sounds like they need to come up with a junior version.