Hawk says, "I shouldn't have gone for it, that's on me...and high praise for Jake." You also see just how special Jake is in this interview.

NCagalum Davis is not a "sports town" and the majority of students could care less about Aggie Athletics. A good portion of the fans that show up at the football games are holdovers from the D2 days. Putting a lot of fans in the seats is a tough sell at UCD and in the community.

Yep, totally agree. This team just hasn't had any backbone all season. They should have easily handled a mediocre MSU team. Onward to Suc. This loss is how I felt after loosing to S. Alabama.

Great job by the defense slowing down a tough rushing offense. Now we know Firozi was lost for the season on the OL, best wishes.

We didn't have our potent offense this year, scoring is down from 39 PPG to 29 PPG, and even the 29 PPG is deceiving given big point totals vs San Diego and Lehigh. Part of that a tougher schedule, losing Doss, and 2 key WR injuries. Where were Harrell and Vaughn tonight? You're not gonna win big games scoring 20 points or less. Points in big games:

Cal - 13, incl. a gimmie on the opening drive
NDSU - 16
Montana - 20
North Dakota - 36
Weber - 20
MSU - 17

A couple hundred MSU fans made more noise than our crowd, and embarrassed (?) us into cheering.

Zander, our defense has been solid this year, especially losing two top LBs and the increased level of competition.

Our defense has been better than expected given the circumstances, I'll give you that, but that partly reflects how low our expectations are now.

We gave up 35 points to San Diego, 36 to Weber (which despite being great isn't known for their offense), and 38 to UND. While the D played better games elsewhere on the schedule, I would say the unit is inconsistent at best.

Playing strictly for pride now. Sac is in the playoffs for sure and barring a complete flop against us they will get a first round bye. Can't see a letdown happening with a Troy Taylor coached team. Weber State's loss gave them a little extra to play for. With basketball and football this could be a long week.

There were Davis receivers embarrassingly open behind MSU's defensive backs; balls were never thrown in those instances. It's almost as if Davis doesn't have any press box spotters. Does the Big Sky prohibit discussion between the press box and sideline coaches? Strange!

fire plough. terrible play calls have led to 2-3 losses this season

We need an OC like that guy at Dartmouth.

Our Total Defense, FCS ranking is #99, I think Sac is #24. But likely a complex situation. I believe our Defense at times has had to stay on the field a long time due to our drop off in 3rd down completion rate / stalled drives. My guess is our lack of QB pressure is one key, leaving our DBs to really have to cover for extended periods. Increase the pressure, more TOs, shorter drives.

We win the North Dakota and MSU games, we're then 7-4 and likely in the playoffs.

I love Maier. I have had some veteran Ags suggest Maier doesn't throw the deep ball, so that shortens the field for us, and isn't mobile. A mobile QB like Rodriguez would really add options. Spring ball should be interesting, 4-5 QBs battling.

With all due respect ml, sometimes you have to throw your receivers open. If our receivers are beating their defenders off the line, why not throw it early and let them adjust to the ball in-flight. That's a coaching adjustment - in my opinion. Easy to play what-ifs after the fact... I totally agree that next spring should prove quite interesting.

You're saying chuck it, and let em go get it? ... at least the attempt would keep them honest. Perfect option for 2nd & short?

I believe Harrell ran track here his first year. High school numbers - Jared Harrell, 100 Meters, 10.72 (2.2) 2016.

That's precisely what I'm saying. Saw others do it to us with reasonable success. Speed kills (metaphorically of course). If nothing else, it envolks FEAR in DBs which can lead to coverage mistakes.

I'd be interested to see what Daft could do with the Aggie offense without Ron Gould running the show...

look at Dartmouth's stats:

Passing : 194 yards/game (212 in nation)
Rushing : 182 yards/games (84 in nation)

vs. Princeton (big showdown), the passing stats were 5-11 for 68 yards. woody hayes would be proud! heck, Gould would be proud

Ate you saying the Ivy League is soft!? :grin:

In a sense we saw that already in 2012 when he was co-offensive coordinator under Biggs

So was Plough terrible last year too? I think it is too simple to blame the coaches. What was “interesting” this year is that there were visions of last year with marching down the field effortlessly with tempo, but just too many instances of not. Deep balls were not as plentiful, but I think pass protection (and opposition this year) had a part to play. Also the merry-go-round of receivers due to injuries. Last year Meier had an amazing relationShip with Doss and relied heavily on him. This year it was Crawford initially then he got injured at UND. I believe if Crawford has not been injured the Ags would have won that game.

So maybe coaching adjustments were lacking this year. Thomas out virtually all year hurt too. For all of the static about Maier-he is going to be very hard to replace.

Losing our three top receivers (1 planned) huge, but I still don't know why we don't go deep.

It's great that Hawk appreciates Maier, but its a massive leap to put him ahead of O'Brien, Moroski, and JT O'Sullivan.

I'd put him right up there with them and remember, that although they all eventually went pro, none of them played against the level of competition that Maier has during their D2 years. There's a world of difference between the size and speed of the D1 teams and the teams they played against in the D2 Far Western Conference.

Tough to compare. Far more loaded today at WR and TE, more speed and athleticism at those positions, and the game is different in some ways, far bigger support system. We have 1 solid win this year? O'Brien and his team went 12-0 with Kenny, upset DI UOP, beat #6 Northern Michigan and #2 power North Dakota State. Outscored opponents 405–164.

How are we evaluating these guys, as college players or pro prospects?
If as college players Maier is right up there.
As a physically gifted player you have to go with O’Brien, which is why he was drafted in the first round.

I was simply comparing Maier to the other great Aggie QB's at the college level. O'Brien is certainly the most accomplished QB we've ever had considering his pro career, but I believe, given what Maier has done in 3 years at the D1 level, he deserves to be ranked right up with all of our great D2 QB's. Again, he has proven himself against a consistent diet of D1 size and speed and that's says a lot about his accomplishments.

On the basis of what he’s done to elevate the program he has to rank up there with Bob Biggs as a quarterback.
Biggs really started the winning tradition at the D2 level, hopefully that might be said of Maier at the D1 level.

Sochor started the winning at the DII level -- he did it for almost two decades from '70 to '88

Biggs was his, Socher’s first QB, that’s the context under discussion. Biggs was the QB for the miracle win, took the team to the Boardwalk bowl in Atlantic City, and passed for 400 yards there.
Prior to Biggs QB we were not a conference power, his era started the string of championships.

Actually we have had many QBs who continued the winning at UCD. Biggs, Speck, Moroski, Obrien,
Khari, Daft, O'Sullivan, Bridewell, etc. I am sure I am missing some. But, Sochor (and staff) were the ones who found most of the QBs who were overlooked by the larger schools.
Khari and Daft were such good QBs, I only thought that if they threw the ball an Aggie would catch it (or not). They were very accurate passers. Much like Maier. Also, we have had a few great receivers in our days, but O' Sullivan had the best trio. These guys would catch it and in 2-3 plays they would score. We lost a playoff game to a school, who will go nameless ,as we had about a 28 point lead, and we scored often and fast Our the D was totally exhausted from being on the field for most of the game. And, we then went to the run game to run the clock, and started getting 3 and outs. They came back to beat us something like 53-48.

Don't forget, O'Brien found us ... more than once. That shows you the advantage of being a hot program, and a UC. Too bad Santa Clara and St. Mary's dropped football.

The Aggie

"UC Davis managed only 23 total yards and zero first downs in a lifeless fourth quarter, which officially put its playoff hopes to bed.

"Outside of one touchdown drive halfway through the third quarter, the Aggies recorded only one first down in the entire second half. This put all the pressure on a defense that was on the field for 21 minutes. "

https://theaggie.org/2019/11/19/aggies-lament-missed-opportunities-in-home-finale-loss/

Montana Sports

""We always talk about dragging them into deep water. We do what we do and don’t panic and keep fighting," said Choate, whose Bobcats held Maier without a passing touchdown and limited the Aggies to a 2-of-14 performance on third downs and an 0-for-3 effort on fourth downs. “(The defense) rose up at the most opportune times, whether that was in the red zone, on our money downs, and then obviously having (three) fourth-down stops was big, big, big in this game.”

And I had forgotten about our blocked FG.

https://www.montanasports.com/sports/big-sky-conference/montana-state-bobcats/montana-state-bobcats-earn-really-good-team-win-at-uc-davis

Maier was the right QB at the right time to help lead the program back to respectability. Doesn't belong on Mount Rushmore but his contributions should not be forgotten...