If they want to contend Nationally, they have to beat South Dakota State

Summation of things that didn’t go the ags’ way (not all of which were controllable, like the interception call) led this to be a somewhat less competitive game than it could have been, but still frustrating. Kicking concerns me, and I thought I saw Hastings staring down receivers too much from the nosebleeds. Also do we just not have the speed at WR to throw deep at all? It’s a bit conspicuous that the go to people both in long situations and special team ball handling positions seem to be RBs/TT

For the positives, I liked the majority of playcalling and the general commitment by coaches to stick to game plan and personnel . We were in this game at the start of the fourth even without particularly lucky breaks, and that’s something. (I’m not going to call UG’s run a lucky break, you need your best player and senior captain to make explosive plays to win big games). Some good wrinkles thrown in with three different people capable of passing all in the same packages.

Im of the opinion that BSC defenses will generally not have the manpower to stuff the wildcat snaps the way a PAC team can. I’m thinking there will be more low risk but med/high reward options on the table once conference starts, which will be a relief because we might be going for a lot of fourth downs and 2 pt conversions.

Another thing of note. we're still not able to or Cody isn't willing to run up tempo with this offense. When Dan first came to Davis up tempo was our bread and butter and now it's almost non-existent. Is it simply that Maier was able to run it and every QB since has not or has there been some major philosophical change?

we’ll, needless to say, the Ags will have to score more than iowa did. I just don’t think there is a realistic chance. I hope I am wrong. I think a realistic expectation of this team is to slide into the playoffs by hook or crook.

good point. I think Maier was able to run it because he had real command of the offense. I dont think we have a qb to do it effectively - too much staring down and pre- programmed short throws. Sometimes I think the goal is completion percentage.

I think that was a Tim Plough feature. He did no huddle as his signature thing at Northern Arizona,. Why it left with him is a open question but maybe inexperienced QB is a factor.

I did not see Chubba in the game. Or Suanni. Seems like they went more with a 3-4 with more rangy speed guys on the line. Was I missing something?

Judging by the box score we started off with a 3-3-5 defense, without any of the big guys we commonly played last year, like Chubba Maea. Chubba did make it into participant list, but he sometimes was used on special teams, but Suani, Toki, Ambagtsheer did not make the listing.

I agree. 2 of these teams were coached by Bob Biggs. I think he is under-ratted.

Definitely. When they were making the transition to D1, he didn’t even have the full complement of scholarships. In that transition period we had some solid teams, but had some horrific travel schedules. He was a great QB too.

My rookie take on our potential playmakers:
1. UG
2. LL
3. TT
4. Babbs - legit WR
5. Castles
6. Thorpe

Babbs might be able to get deep. He can turn a 5 yd toss into a 25 yd gain. I changed from the east to west side to avoid the sun, and believe I heard the PA announcer call his name late (pass attempt).

FWIW, Kal fans not happy about their line play (i.e., complimenting ours).

Kal board comment: "Offense was way better once they benched Rohme and Moore.... If they had just started with Ott [Frosh RB] and sessions, we wouldn't have gotten off to such an awful start"

Chas Davis is 6'3".

I agree - where's the uptempo.

Georgia slaughtered Oregon apparently w an amazing offense. Maybe our crew should watch the tape during breakfast tomorrow.

Babbs: Caught 4 passes against Eastern Washington.

2019: "...Ranked 3rd on team in receptions (46), 2nd in receiving yards (563)... Tied for 6th in the Big Sky at 5.2 catches per game... Enjoyed best outing at Portland State (11/9), posting 10-for-168 receiving with TDs in the first (26 yds), second (5 yds) and fourth (23 yds) quarters... That yardage total was a team season high and the best single-game performance by an Aggie not named Keelan Doss since Chris Carter logged 190 vs. Montana in 2009"

UC Davis Marching Band - no show.

Plough had his growing pains, but he came up in the Biggs system, which was an extension of the Sochor system, Davis' best offense, EVER, was in 2018 with Plough at the helm with Hawkins at the wing....that obviously got blown up when Plough took over Boise's offense. Now it's up to the Hawkins Clan to formulate and teach the execution.

In Hawkins We Trust.

I will say, encouraged by the defense. Valiant Blue Force.

A F****** Disgrace. This administration can kiss a duck.

Aggie band-uh spirit crushed by administrators. It’s not the Aggie band-uh anymore it’s the UC Davis band with a change in uniforms as well as names. Stupid. Baby out with bath water.

I think the last game at Kal 60-80 band members still showed... before school being in session.

3 years ago the band was also a no show. Even pre end of band-uh the university started to be more regulated on travel and thus crushed the band traveling to away games. It was hot in the stadium today, so can't be too discouraged by attendance.

Was at the hot ass game and

1) apply pressure, run no huddle at much as possible

2) use your assets: Gilliam, Castles

Also, thought it was funny that Kal fans treated us like we were Notre Dame or Ohio State. Actually, with even less respect.

Positives from this game:
-O and D line did well. Improvement over prior years where we were undersized
-we moved the ball on offense. Total yardage good
-No jet sweep
-lots of heart and good depth

Hastings makes good plays, hope he can stop the horrible forced passes and learn when to fire it in there vs loft it.

Would like to see Larison more involved

Would have helped if Perryman stuck around for his last year. We missed him

Should have kicked that field goal early and went up 10-0 on a Pac-12 team. Why was that not good enough for Hawkins?

We had one or two almost interceptions for touchdowns. We get those and avoid our own interceptions and this could have been a close game.

I am most impressed by our line which gives me hope for this season. Go Ags. I am fired up for the next game.

"Should have kicked that field goal early and went up 10-0 on a Pac-12 team. Why was that not good enough for Hawkins?"

I believe Hawk said something like, "You don't beat a Pac 12 school kicking field goals."

I don't think anyone here argues for the Ron Gould FG obsession. But you get a FG and an extra point, and that's an easy 4 point swing. A FG lifts players spirits. Tack on a pick 6, and we're smelling a major upset.

We were 3 of 5 on 4th down?

South Dakota played Iowa tough. Their defense is strong but offense is suspect. Will be tough for Hastings to get the ball off. He needs to make quicker decisions. He also threw a lot of late passes.

It seemed like we ran tempo some percentage of the time -- admittedly some of that was 2-minute offenses at the end of each half -- but there definitely wasn't that unrelenting speed of the first couple of years. If I was paying more attention maybe I would have noticed a pattern where Hastings was only running a no-huddle offenses after prolonged breaks or something where multiple plays were hashed out on the sidelines.

I noticed Cal started picking up the pace against us to great effect mid game.

Hawk got in the SJSU HC head when he said he was going to go to Doss over, and over, again. I was minutes late getting into the stadium and we had already scored 14? But even w JM and Doss, the pace settled down.

Just now regrouping after spending the day at Cal yesterday. Great turnout at the alumni tailgate and seeing old friends. Enjoyed hanging with Dr and Mrs Mike. $45 to park, ouch!
I thought Hasting’s did OK, although it would have been interesting to see Dixon get some snaps. And when Thompson is in, Cal had that figured out every time with the wildcat. Every other opponent will as well.
The guys played Cal tough. Hastings is lucky he only has 2 pics. Easily could have been 4 or 5. But he was throwing into coverage at every toss. Credit Cal. Their secondary was tenacious and they had real good speed, like that pic in the endzone when the Cal defender raced over to grab the pic. That was a razor sharp pass.
The Cal QB started off slow. Heck, how many 3 and outs did we get early? But then he got his mojo going. He’s going to be a really good QB for them. And the RB, #6, that dude has some real speed.
I see tons of potential for this team. Too bad were going from the frying pan to the fire.

they had minus one yard in the first quarter on three possessions. That frosh RB kicked started their offense. Cal has more playmakers on offense than I can remember in some time and their defense is stout.

A few plays here and there and it’s closer. Motion on 3rd and 1 turned into a change of possession in their zone. That acrobatic catch (in bounds) on a well defended pass got them the late FG and real momentum. Great roll on a lousy punt flipped the field and put them in position for their 2nd score.

DBs are a concern and the kick game is a concern

I think the two of you pretty much summed it up nicely.

Cal made the big plays when the needed them and that was because of the speed and athleticism of the players that made those plays. Like Mike said, Cal has a lot of offensive playmakers. They made a couple of critical plays that stopped the Aggie momentum and, once they turned the tide, they were hard to stop. The breaks went primarily Cal's way too. That 65 yard punt was huge.

In general, I liked what I saw from the Aggies regardless of the disappointing final score. We really held our own against their size, speed and athleticism. I was impressed with our O line and I thought Hastings shows a lot of promise. Cal's D made things challenging for him and he made some mistakes but, overall, he looked poised and threw some accurate bullets into a few small creases in the defense.

I hope we didn't get too banged up. The injury to Jake Parks is a big concern and I saw several other players leave the game with injuries. Hopefully, our depth will be a big plus for us this year. We'll need to be deep with the brutal schedule we have. Things don't get any easier next week at SDSU. The Jacks defense completely shut down Iowa. They're corn-fed big, aggressive and strong.

From the Davis Enterprise:

Starting with excellent field position at the Cal 34, the Aggies moved quickly into the red zone before facing a critical fourth-and-1 at the Cal 9.

However, Trent Tompkins attempted to pick up the first down on the right side of Cal’s defensive line but was stopped for a two-yard loss by safety Daniel Scott in what turned out to be a dramatic shift in momentum.

Hawkins said afterward that there was no thought of going for a field goal and a potential 10-0 lead in that situation.

“Against a team like Cal, you’re not going to win by kicking a field goal in the red zone,” he said.

“It’s a tough road, for sure, but this is the level where we want to be and it’s the level where we are, and the cool thing is that we’re in the fight,” Hawkins noted.

“Every game comes down to a few plays, so we’ll learn from this game, flush it and move on. Nobody in South Dakota cares about what happened here today.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-aggies-were-prepared-but-bears-post-victory/

For guys at the game, any observations regarding the defensive line personnel? According to box score we started the game in a 3-3-5, and either didn’t play or played very sparingly the guys listed in the nose guard position on the depth chart. Result was that they held Cal to less rushing yards and yards per carry than the average opponent last year. The box score lists two guys who are new in the starting role on the line Noa Masui and Evan Bearden. Neither did much statistically but that doesn’t always tell the story.