We're up at Mt Rainier and we have a big hike tomorrow so I'm turning in for the night. I hope we can keep it respectable...

Maybe time to give a backup qb a nod. Dixon?

Back in time to see this latest drive and the injury to Pettek. I hope we can score A TD here to at least make it respectable.

The MSU QB has been responsible for 430 yards!?

It’s harrowing that MSUs backup QB is considerably more productive than our second year (ish) starter

The Bobcat commentator keeps saying Ulonzo "Gillam," but he thinks that UCD still has shot at the playoffs, so I can't hold it against him. Wish I could have seen more of the game, but unlike with ESPN+, I can't replay any of this game. Seems like the Ags had a decent game given they were on the road against probably the best FCS team they will face.

There is no way we had a shot at recruiting Chambers, either this year or out of high school. And he’s started more games than Hastings has, so it’s not surprising that he’s better than Hastings, who’s only started this year because the likely starter washed out, and started last year only after the first string got injured.

1-4. Expected considering the schedule. But as much as i like Hawk, how is it that Taylor turns slac into a national contender his first year, and the cats coach is national runner up in his first year? I guess its the process and not the w-L record.

I agree we didn't have a shot at Chambers and he brings a lot to the table. I guess I'm venting that I want us to get to the point where we do have the ability to go 2-deep with this level of athlete at key positions. If that's actually impossible because of recruiting limitations, then we're in deep trouble if we're hoping to build anything more than consistent 7 or 8-win seasons (even that looks like it won't be consistent).

Both MSU and Sac rely on transfers more than Davis does and I think Davis is a hard place to transfer into either as an undergraduate or graduate student.

Hawkins’ best year was his second, when the team was 10-3. Davis players just seem to not get much better through the years. It’s common for players to have their best years early and then stagnate. We’ve actually had a lot of turnover of assistant coaches.
Davis rarely has the bigger stronger team and relies on scheme to get an advantage and against good teams that have seen them before that doesn’t consistently work. They don’t play meat and potatoes football to use the Eastern Washington coach’s phrase. How much of that is recruiting versus coaching vs player development I don’t know.

I get the recruiting issue. And don’t get me wrong, i admire the education our kids get while they play sports, and slac/msu athletes are not going to pass biochemistry at UC Davis, but it sure is nice to win, wink.

Well chambers and their o-line was the difference. Line gave him plenty of time time to pass or pull it down and he is a very dangerous runner that the Aggies simply did not contain. 203 yards running from a quarterback says it all. I thought the offense looked better. Gilliam again doing all he could. Field goals were made but we needed tds. Don’t understand the short kicks unless you are guaranteed to tackle them immediately. Opening kick of second half was deep into the end zone. Why not just do that all the time? 25 yard line is better than
35+ I missed what seemed to be a big return to Aggie after we scored on second half - and were in the game - I was in the head. Then 3 plays later they were in end zone.

The short 5 yard passes aren’t bad except when that is all you do. Hardly any passes to our wide receivers. Most 20 yard plus passes are short of the receiver. We used to recruit great wide receivers because of our offensive scheme. Who will want to come play for us now?

How does Hastings throw an interception in the flat around the 20 yard line?

Why are we giving the ball to little Perez on 4th and 1?

Our defense didn’t show up to this game.

Hawk has improved the program and every year our hopes are up but we can’t seem to bust through while other teams have improved more on a shorter amount of time. Not sure what it’s going to take or who to blame. Is it the QB, the OC or the head coach?

Whatever it is, I do miss the excitement of Shredville.

I missed Q2-Q4. It looks like we battled, but 1-4 still hurts. Opening the game w a penalty no good, but it looks like we got a midrange passing game going. No spy on their QB? We were good with JM, dangerous w JM and Keelan Doss. Amazing what one impact player can do. Rex Connors another big game (10 tackles).

I'm not sure what the strategy is saying 'this is the best team ever'. Three tough BS games to open the season. We're not scoring enough points. No receptions for studs Thorpe or Babbs. Dixon only threw 2 passes vs San Diego. The Cats were reportedly susceptible to the pass.

Well that's the season folks. I would say extremely low to zero chances of playoffs at this point in time. We didn't get the benefit of the doubt with a high ranking coming into the season and we've struck out against ranked teams leading to 4 losses on the schedule when you throw in Cal. We still have Sac State and Idaho left to play; both are looking tough. So not likely to win out in my opinion.

This was the first game that I was really disappointed in the defense to be honest. Unable to stick with receivers on a largely run first team. Ron Gould levels of befuddlement in preventing Chambers from taking off with the ball. No pressure at all on Chambers in the pass game. All-in-all, not a good performance from them.

All I have to say in terms of the offense is that we are going to be absolutely screwed next season when UG34 is gone. He is the heart and soul of what little functioning offense we have this year. I was slightly up on Hastings after the last couple of weeks as he managed to not turn the ball over at the very least, but when he does start turning the ball over in games, his weaknesses become apparent in that he doesn't have the skill set to truly go out and win these games against highly ranked opponents.

I'm glad Gomez was able to go 3/3 on his field goal attempts this game, but the dude only had 1 touchback on 6 kickoff attempts. Is he being coached to kick short (huge mistake) or does he not have the leg (huge issue)? Either way there is a problem and it's costing us field position, points, and ultimately you could even argue wins as a whole.

I'm with 88, this isn't the Shredville that Hawkins boasted about in his first couple of seasons at the helm. I don't think Plough was a perfect OC, but dang were those fast paced offenses fun to watch. Changes are going to need to happen after this season and I'm not sure that Hawkins is ready to make one of the changes that I see necessary to continue to moving this program forward.

Time to lick the wounds and get ready for NAU in a couple of weeks. Pretty much playing for pride now. GO AGS!

All in all a very depressing game. I have no idea what Hawkins meant when he called this team the “best ever” Aggies team, when it’s clearly not. I would not like to be in the Hawkins household now. The team needs some shaking up and it should start with the OC and the DC and Hawkins is nearly powerless as far as his son being the OC is concerned. I know we’ve had a very tough schedule but I sense something’s off with the team. And I also do not buy the “we’re too hard to recruit to here” line. We’ve done it before, why not now? IMHO..

Agreed. It was definitely a weird way to kick off the season. I know we don't really have much media covering the team, but if a coach in a P5 conference made the claim that their team was going to be the "best in program history" and then started 1-4, they'd be fired so fast their head would be spinning.

I believe Combs has done a commendable job, and the results would be even better if our offense sustained drives and scored more TDs. This was the first time the D had a bad day.

Good morning:

“When the going gets tough, just keep chopping wood.”
“Put a rock on the gas pedal.”
“We’ve got the oven preheated, right at the temperature we want, now let’s bake it up.”
“You gotta get out of your comfort zone a little bit in life. You gotta be willing to risk a little bit in life. If you really want the good stuff. You just can’t play it safe all the time.”
“To be the man, you gotta BEAT the man.”
“Every good thing trickles down to you.”

During Coach Hawkins first year at the helm, I purposely kept his quotes on my phone. I was in awe of what he was doing with Aggies Football. We need that enthusiasm again. Cmon coach, you got this.

The veteran Speckman departed, that didn't help matters. Thank goodness for UG, and why is Babbs buried in no man's land when we don't have playmakers at WR. He doesn't seem hurt. If we were 2-3 the mood would be much different.

Yep, all of the above. One thing that was apparent to me was the cats team speed.
We’ve all said it, we’re missing the long ball, amongst other things.

I don’t know that Speckman’s philosophy, to the extent we employed it was working. I wanted it to work, but the results weren’t there. If you can’t keep defensive linemen from penetrating you can’t have much success with the ball carrier running horizontally.
Babb has got to prove himself after sitting out. The wide receiver coach didn’t watch in 2019.

We give up too many big plays to be happy with the defense. The pass plays you might chalk up to being thin at cornerback due to injury, but then there are the huge runs.
I think there is enough talent on defense that we should expect better results. We play a lot of guys, maybe they’re not all on the same page.

Bob Dunning, The Enterprise.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-uc-davis-stayed-close-but-bobcats-win-big/

Highlights, 2 minutes.

https://youtu.be/jY_X9BYpt3Q

Fake punt, great call and execution.

We can still run the table and end up 6-2 in league and make the playoffs. The others at the top are still slated to play each other and will beat each other up a bit. Idaho and Sac won’t be walkovers but I don’t expect they are as strong as Weber or Montana St.

I am not that down on the defense. They definitely weren’t ready for a mobile QB and they struggle with WR with great speed. I am not that concerned about UG’s graduation. Larison is tough, fast and can catch the ball in the flat. If Perryman had stuck around we didn’t lose Parks to injury maybe things would be different. We seem like we are right there. Our line on both sides of the ball are big so we finally have a chance to compete.

Hawk has great enthusiasm and a positive competitive outlook which is infectious. I have doubts he would demote Cody as it seems he stuck by him at Boise until it cost him his job. Maybe the QB recruit from Corona Del Mar will step up for us next year.

Dan Hawkins’ haircut quality seems to be inversely related to his coaching quality. As the barbering has gotten better the scoring has gotten worse. Too much time at the salon maybe?

Of our remaining 6 games, I think we have a decent chance of going 5-1, maybe 4-2. 6-0 just doesn’t seem likely. One game at a time, and lets see how it unfolds. But like i said going into the season, 1-4 was a distinct possibility. We need to be 5-1 from here to have a “winning” season.

Why are we giving the ball to little Perez on 4th and 1? — 88Aggie

My exact thought on a drive that was critical to stay on the game. Other thoughts from being at the game:
-great place to watch the game. Noise was louder than in the Fargo dome when we went there. Having to do silent counts all game is a definite disadvantage for the offense.
-defense looked confused at times and obviously couldn’t contain chambers. Maybe more spy or zone defense would have helped, but I doubt the outcome would have changed. Up until this game the D had played well.
-other than Gilliam who always shows up, I though Kraft and Larison looked good. In my opinion, Kraft is the best receiver the Aggies have now. I wish Babb would get more playing time. Davis was sort of a non-factor tonight. Kraft just looks like he knows what to do and is deceptively quick and fast. Hutton did a good job too. Although I have not been a fan of Hastings, I thought he did pretty well last night. His best attributes are getting rid of the ball quickly and making decent reads. The interception was puzzling - don’t think it was a misread between him and receiver, and must of been just a poorly thrown ball. There were 2 or 3 times when Hastings and receivers were on a different page. Still suffering from a lack of downfield passing.

-overall I though play calling was good. I think the play calling is built around the skills/limitations of the current offense.

MSU just had far more big plays. Lack of big plays has been an issue all year, and failing to score TDs. Ball moved well last night but obviously need to score besides FG. Gomez’ field goals had a lot of steam on them last night. Obviously kick off strategy, other than the kick-off into the end zone to start the second half was puzzling and unsuccessful. Punting was a bit better but watching warmups and game punts, still a bit of a crap shoot. So, special teams still need work.

Don’t know how they are going to sit Chambers for Mellot - he is an effective of a runner and better passer.

I made it a point to greet some of the players as the exited the field through the portal. All acknowledged and smiled/had polite responses. Made me proud to be an Aggie.

Need more Offense, period.