Sac Bee: UC Davis football beats Idaho as Rodrigues sparkles in quarterback debut

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article249753003.html

The spelling of Rodrigues' name at the very start of the article made me question reality

Along w Larrison.

Let’s give some credit to the young coordinators. Great adjustments at the half. Nice we got adjusted to game speed we really took charge.

Good scheme on d and lots of young guys playing well. Had a tough time on third down in the first half but there's a lot of potential on that defense. Good mix of size, length and athleticism. Cody called a better game in the second half aside from the botched reverse. He's got enough talent to work with that they shouldn't be overly reliant on trick plays and that inside flip to the tight end.

I watched the Pluto feed with the Idaho broadcasters but tuned into KHTK stream for pregame and post game radio show. They mentioned they were broadcasting from “Scott Marsh Studios”, so I’m guessing they were doing the call remotely from Scott’s house? At any rate, DK didn’t sound well and was slow getting his words out. Hope he’s doing ok. Wonder if Scott and DK will be on the call for the home games or if the TV station will have different talent.

Didn't get to hear their call, but Marsh posted this, they set up across the room from each other at home
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMFu1r-JFcO/?igshid=nudfzw1w7p0p

What is that circular desk light?

I believe it's a home-office lamp that deliberately smooths out shadows on your face for video conferencing, feel like I've heard someone talking about them

I think Chubba Maae was the most surprising player for those of us not involved with the team. A true freshman starting and playing a large percentage of the snaps. Even with Idaho dominating time of possession they left him in there which attests to his endurance as he weighs 360lb. Had five tackles.
Another freshman with a surprising amount of playing time was Teddy Buchanan. Freshmen linebackers historically don’t play much, and he is listed with 5 solo tackles. A third freshman Jackson Cloyd had three total tackles in his first collegiate game. So that’s three Freshmen making 13 tackles total.
But did anyone mention Idaho played freshmen?

I'm glad the Idaho announcers did acknowledge the rust factor for Davis, but they (as well as the Idaho boards and podcast I've been glancing at) really focused on people being out for Idaho without mentioning the whole 25-person restrictions for the Ags. COVID affects everyone this season, in some way or the other. You don't get to say "well let's just remove this specific COVID-related factor and ONLY this factor and then talk about what the score would have looked like"

Am I reading the UCD website right and understand the rules right that we get three more seasons with Hunter Rodrigues including this weird one? Per the department he's listed as a JR, which I assume means he was eligble for three seasons after a single year at ARC, and then one of his seasons counted as a redshirt year due to low number of appearances.

So that's 2021S -- no hit to eligibility
2021F -- Jr year
2022 -- Sr year

Did Nick Eaton play? The box score on website says he started as #5 but I don’t think anyone saw him.
He had no stats.

I think that’s right.

I've been peeking at their board all week and they had people initially predicting a huge blowout for the Vandals and now saying that if they had certain players that they would have 100% won the game. I think some of their fans were feeling themselves a little too much after the EWU win. Not to be hypocritical I think we will have a VERY tough time with Weber. They are legit. You are correct though. Every single team is dealing with the ramifications of covid.

Thanks, I totally forgot when HR came to campus and I thought for sure this was his final year there for a second.

I think consensus was Eaton didn't play, certainly his name was never mentioned on the Vandal broadcast

Yeah we're unfortunately in for a tough time next week. Though Idaho State might be pretty bad, Weber still handled them easily.

Chubba was awesome. Davis historically has not played a lot of true freshman on D and for him to play nearly the whole game with that size is impressive. He was a very good player at Long Beach Poly and had some MWC offers. An inch taller and he'd be at Cal. Cloyd played well also, but he's a second year guy that was originally a PWO at Oregon State. Good to have a healthy Trimble back.

We were loving Chubba at our house. Dude has a motor for being his size and was consistently eating up multiple o linemen. That dude is going to be a force in the Big Sky.

There is a lot of room for growth with this team. We have to improve on defense but we should expect to with the young guys playing. Eaton is a major force that we didn’t have today.
This may be the deepest offensive talent we’ve ever had, we're just figuring out how to use it. Now that the coaches have seen how Rodrigues can play in game conditions I think they’ll be more aggressive throwing the ball early. In today’s game we weren’t utilizing our wideouts enough until the two minute drill near end of first half. Few teams can cover our receivers if we have a QB who can make the throws and find the open man.

https://twitter.com/coachedeaton/status/1368394442814541824?s=21 Eaton was there but did he play snaps?

i was at the game. eaton was active and played snaps. Cloyd was just the preferred option today.

Wow that is a surprising revelation given Eaton's performance last season. They must really like what they are seeing from Cloyd. I guess it goes to the mantra of always compete.

What are your thoughts on Hawk Jr's debut as playcaller? That first half was rough, but he did seem to adjust which is something that Plough did not do last year.

He's listed as DL ... maybe less opportunities for tackles?

He wasn't on the field much after the first series. I was only watching on a mobile device but looked like they flipped to the 4-2-5 (good move), which means you have the two tackles and your ends are really hybrid outside linebackers depending on personnel grouping. The UCLA transfer, Smalley, played a bit but it seems like the young guys + Trimble and Airey are the best group.

Great win. My wife and I went to the game and sat with the Aggie fans. Rough first snap for Rodrigues, rough first half for the team. But great half time adjustments, and I feel great about this team. The incomplete on the right sideline was right in front of me, and it hit the ground. I was jumping in the air celebrating and then saw it bounce. But everything else went right.

The last time the Aggies played here was '97 Homecoming, and I was at that game too. Saw old Aggie friends before the game, watched us stay competitive for a while and then get blown out. This was so much better. Very effective running game, Rodrigues was great, and the defense adjusted.

We are both Aggie undergrads and are also Vandals. It was a little strange being in the Kibbie Dome and rooting against the Vandals, but the Ags are always first for me. There was a nice moment during halftime. The kickers came out early to practice, and the punters took a moment to slap hands and chat. I posted a picture of that on Facebook, and one of my friends replied "That's because no one else will talk to them." The Dome is a pretty good place to kick, glad our guy came around as the game went on.

Eaton needs to play. He was not just good, he was great. I can see trying him in the “ rush” position, but if that means he’s off the field for most plays it’s a mistake.

for home games, radio is Greg Wong and DK. TV is Scott Marsh and Scott Barry.


I’m guessing doing these remote broadcasts are a challenge. Marsh has several under his belt from basketball