Congrats on the Win! Hawkins got us again hahaha. I like UC Davis being good, makes sky more exciting and by far are my favorite Cali team. So keep it up, beat EWU, Poly and Weber for us so we have a shot at the playoffs!

If you want to partake in our misery:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwiDtnElAY

It was a good game! Definitely not perfect from either side, but definitely stuff to build on for next fall. Kinda bummed that part of the narrative is that Idaho was missing players due to covid, but that's just part of the reality we are in right now. Good luck to y'all the rest of the season.

Idaho claims 8 starters out, and Tre Walker had 19 tackles. Ags allowed no sacks, great job by the O line and coaching staff, and Hawkins wanted to get Miles Hastings (#2) reps. Idaho had 1,800, indoors, in attendance.

How long was our long ball attempt?

Bob Dunning

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/jitters-out-of-the-way-aggies-roll-to-spring-win/

Pondering the big questions that come to mind when watching the Tubs video above:
When Crawford throws a pass, which he does fairly often, is it a trick play?
If your team get burned by that is it not their fault?
If Davis runs the ball right up the gut play after play in the fourth quarter is it your team losing because your front seven is too good to allow that if they were in the right frame of mind, or is it because Davis is winning with a good run game?

Those guys sure dont give the Aggies any credit. “They” let us win the game.

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Normal recap, and Hawkins applauding the kids & program for dealing w Covid, getting some joy (football), and wanting to get Hastings some reps.

Weber a bigger challenge. They rolled up over 600 yards in their first game, only lost 2 FCS games last year - Montana & James Madison (Semi's).

Ok thanks

Yeah I noticed that as well. Maybe... Just maybe... Davis was the better team. We left at least 10 points off the board from interesting play calling in the redzone. This was a lot closer to being a blowout for the Aggies than the Vandals letting us win.

I'll give the guys credit, pretty good post-game analysis for being quite a few beers in!...and it's a homer show, we can all see that, if Davis were down a bunch of key guys due to COVID we'd certainly bring it up. Is what it is, Davis came in and played very solid, and Idaho just didn't do enough on the field to finish and stay in the game. This is going to be a weird spring season, lots of screwball stuff that teams are learning to deal with.

Agree. Give them credit for actually knowing their roster and having a decent handle on Davis' personnel. More than can be said for most of the conference.

Not knocking them, it’s always a question if your team got beat or lost of their own accord.
By now, I expect every team knows Crawford might throw when he gets the ball by other than a forward pass. If it works I don’t see that as something we shouldn’t get credit for.

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.

Riveraggie, I just rewatched the game (Bigskytv has replays) and Eaton was in for all but maybe 2 series. He was lined up as a defensive end (both sides) and I think in a bit of a hybrid position as he did drop back into coverage a couple of times. He looks like he has put on some weight (maybe intentional). I did see him get 1 tackle - he was at bottom of pile with a shoestring tackle so spotter did not see him. He may be getting used to a different position - he was not too effective at pass rush from that position but likely learning. Bottom line- he was in most of the game.

Aggies seem to be going with a bit bigger lineup including at linebacker. They have been rather small the past couple of years.

I just rewatched the game too. I was very distracted by little family members during the game. I will agree with everything that as been said above. I would add two things. 1) The Aggie DL is good and deep. We used 7 DL in this game and they all performed very well. They are a real strength for our defense. 2) This Lan Larson kid is absolutely one of the best Aggie recruits I have seen in years. He is TOUGH and FAST and SMART. Like Chuuba, he is PAC 12 material. How they missed them is beyond me. Weber will be very, very tough, but I like our chances. I would advise our new OC to tone down the complicated multi-directional plays for a bit until we get our legs underneath ourselves. Also, Aggie roster numbers do not match well with the guys numbers on the field at this game. Or I may be missing something. No big deal. Great win!

He is listed on the roster as being Number 5. Even the Idaho coach mentioned number 5 in his press call last week. So of course he wore 53. Chubba Maae listed as 53 wore 92. Both were listed as 53 in the depth chart.

Edit: Larison for LARSON; add rodeo guy!

Connor Airey - Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week

Re: The Tubs podcast, I've seen a couple of their shows now. Their preview show was heavily focused on how well their defense did against Eastern, how UCD didn't have many defensive stats jump out last year, it being Davis's first game, and the ? at QB for the Aggies. All very reasonable points to suggest on paper that Idaho should win the game, but all those points and then the first half seemed to serve as confirmation bias.

There were a lot of things that definitely looked in Idaho's favor, but ultimately what was missed before (in fairness, I didn't expect this either) was a) how the UCD offense basically just stayed elite with the returnees and a very good QB in the wings and b) defense had some mild improvement, especially after a few reps. And especially on point a), the podcast noted that a lot of early gains came on trick plays, but basically the only two offensive missteps int he first half for the Ags were also on necessarily risky playcalls.

This is regard the view expressed by just one of the Tubs guys about Davis moving the ball with a lot of gains coming from trick plays.
Davis had four possessions in the first half.
A drive of 71 yards, ending on the four yard line, a three and out, and a drive of 75 yards for a touchdown. Finally the 27 second possession to end the half.
Was there another “trick play” besides Crawford’s pass? What are we calling trick plays? Does this include screen passes, fly sweeps, runs by the quarterback? Perhaps they are referring to the direct snap to Gilliam, but since that didn’t work it shouldn’t be evidence of the claim that we moved the ball a lot with trick plays.
We seemed like we were trying to move the ball early without using the QBs arm. I think his third pass came with about 4 minutes left in the first half. I think we were trying to make it easy for Rodrigues to get acclimated.

I think we had a couple of misdirection plays that I personally wouldn't call trick plays, but I guess they're craftier than what you usually see out of a pro-style offense or something. The one that was fumbled for a big loss may have been developing as a WR toss as well.

Like you said, there was that direct snap to Gilliam. Also Trent Tompkins subbed in as QB for a few snaps -- it happened fast and the announcers didn't catch it immediately, so I can't remember if they were showing a wildcat look or just giving HR a breather or something.

So it's easy from a Vandal perspective to look back and recall that a disproportionate amount of Aggie snaps first half were something unorthodox, and then one of them was devastating. If you're not used to seeing the Aggies each week I guess that stands out. But you're right, we really didn't get much off them after that Crawford pass.

RE: the tubscast... the guy in the upper right corner reminds me of a drunk loudly talking to himself in a sports bar bathroom stall about dropped long balls. Pull it together, man. Not sure if I understand the allusion of “trick” plays being unfair, especially when Hawkins is known for them. TBH, we burned ourselves on complicated trick plays as well. It stinks to have starters out, though it sounded like several were on special teams, which played fine. Idk if the 9 out had COVID or were just potentially exposed, but it’s a lot and maybe should have been being more careful. Hopefully didn’t cough on our guys. But, it’s Monday, so on to the next game!

Everyone is out starters, Covid is a new normal. I can tell you most rational Vandal Fans know maybe being out players would have made up for 2-3 points not 10. Vandals lost. Aggies offense gave what our Defense gave them and at the end. we couldnt make the stop needed.

Trent Tompkins subbed in the play before the direct snap to Gilliam, .Tompkins came in after Rodrigues tried to run up the middle.
The first play Tompkins was in was a handoff to Gilliam
On the wildcat play Tompkins before the snap moved over from behind center toward the right, so Tompkins was just a decoy moving away from where the play went.
Just a bad series of plays, nothing complicated about it. After first and goal at the 6, three plays right up the middle.
In a sense, a direct snap to a running back alone in the backfield is the exact opposite of a trick play.

Athlon Sports has UC Davis at #20. https://athlonsports.com/college-football/fcs-spring-rankings-top-25-power-poll-following-week-4-2021

I think one thing maybe overlooked in the comments in this thread (maybe I missed) was the play of the offensive line. They protected Rodrigues well (and wasn’t it nice to see his nimbleness and evading a rush for a couple big plays) and blew huge holes for Gilliam and Larison in the last couple of drives. On the last TD Blake Thorpe (lined up a bit offset as a blocking tight end) was just looking for someone to block and had a hard time finding someone as they had been “previously detained”.

Stats voters put us at 23. Idaho #27, just outside, by vote count. Somewhere in the 20-25 range sounds right to me. Not sure what I'll think about next week's rankings though if we lost to Weber; still can't tell how good they really are.

Edit: Also, HERO Sports thinks UCD is the last team into the playoff field now
https://herosports.com/fcs-football-spring-3-playoff-predictions-bzbz/

Ah, thanks for lending the better eye/memory.

Honestly I'm wondering if showing that look alone was worth the two innefectual plays. Forces Weber to prepare for it, and they also have to think about the yet-unseen situation where Tompkins passes, which his HS stats suggest is definitely on the table. And since they have two weeks to get ready for Davis, anything that cuts into their practice time has some benefit I guess.

Eaton played, but Idaho kept going left all day. There may be confusion about jersey numbers. Eaton wore 53, which is assigned to Chubba, who wore 92.

Does anyone know how many FCS teams are playing this spring? It looks like some of them played a good part of their schedule in the fall. In fact, North Alabama in the Big South has played 4 games (so far?) all in the fall, whereas Kennesaw State the projected Big South playoff team played none. The whole thing is very strange this year, but what else is new?