Week 2: University of San Diego @ UC Davis
  • CA Forever
    863
    The Toreros had a great season in 2016-17 where they finished 10-2 and made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs where they lost to North Dakota State. Offensively, their go to players were RB Jonah Hodges who rushed for 1500 yards, QB Anthony Lawrence who passed for 3000 yards, WR Brian Riley who hauled in almost 1000 yards, and TE Ross Dwelley who was a big red zone target with 10 touchdowns. Defensively, S Colton Giorgi led the team in tackles with 69 and DE Jon Petersen had 23 tackles for losses, 12.5 sacks, and forced 4 fumbles.

    The 2017-18 Toreros return some of their star players. Anthony Lawrence once again is taking the snaps at QB and Dwelley is back for another season. On the other side of the ball, Colton Giorgi and Jon Petersen are bolstering the defense. They will be without Hodges and Riley, both of which are big losses for them on offense.

    In their first game of the season, they beat Western New Mexico 34-20 but the score doesn't tell the whole story. WNM out gained the Toreros 506 to 339 yards. 464 of WNM's 506 yards were passing so USD's pass defense is looking a little suspect considering WNM is a division 2 school and one that went 3-8 last season at that. The big issue here was that WNM fumbled and turned over the ball 4 times. So really, USD looks beatable as long as you can hang on to the ball. Should be a fun game, hopefully we can open up offensively on them.
    CA Forever Options
  • PortlandAggie
    185
    Anyone else notice they took down the sticker decals? Picture from UC Davis Football twitter account ga6k669cll2adwn6.jpg
    PortlandAggie Options
  • movielover
    627
    ↪PortlandAggie
    Whaaattt???? ... really?
    movielover Options
  • PortlandAggie
    185
    Could be an old photo but I believe the stickers were on before the new field.
    PortlandAggie Options
  • movielover
    627
    Coach says they return their whole O line, TEs, and QB. Offense farther along than D.
    movielover Options
  • CA Forever
    863
    ↪movielover
    I would hope that's the case. Like I mentioned above, they let a D2 team drop 500 yards on em. Like, there have been some D2 games where we didn't perform well either, but in recent times that's just because we've been bad. I hope Maier and Doss can take advantage of their secondary. Maybe we will see more from the run game against a likely slower team than SDSU. We do have to watch out for there TE though. TD magnet in the red zone.
    CA Forever Options
  • movielover
    627
    ↪CA Forever
    I hope we get about 5 WRs dialed in against the Toreros... we can't depend on just 1 guy. Same for the RBs. My guess is we had to keep our TE and FB home given the formidable strengths of SDSU to protect Maier.

    I'm guessing we open up the offense this week?
    movielover Options
  • CA Forever
    863
    ↪movielover
    You're right about spreading the ball around. Maier also seemed to be targeting Cummins and Montgomery. They have a very disruptive DE in Petersen so we will have to keep him in check, but I definitely think we open up the playbook in this one.
    CA Forever Options
  • ucdboyd
    43
    ↪PortlandAggie
    The signs/decals were there during the scrimmage few weeks back. Hoping that is an old photo because color does make whole stadium look better.
    g4fc7ymjqk3lxe0h.jpg
    ucdboyd Options
  • CA Forever
    863
    Maybe they are putting new wraps up? I agree that they were a nice addition to an otherwise kind of bleak looking stadium.
    CA Forever Options
  • movielover
    627
    The USD coach seems to be a quite, confident veteran.
    movielover Options
  • PortlandAggie
    185
    ↪ucdboyd
    Cool, thanks. Let's hope it was an old photo.
    PortlandAggie Options
  • CA Forever
    863
    Anyone know if there is going to be an online stream of this game? I haven't been able to find anything, but it's 2017. It's pretty sad if we have 0 stream of the game at all.
    CA Forever Options
  • movielover
    627
    ↪CA Forever
    Probably bundled with the game highlights we don't produce for social media and recruiting after every game... but our opponents do.
    movielover Options
  • DrMike
    977
    USD has always seemed to have a good QB and at least one good receiver. We'll need to figure out a way of getting pressure on the QB without exposing our DB's to long passes. Not to replay the same old broken record, but this is one where we need to play a clean game. No turnovers, no big plays and eliminate the 15-yard penalties we had last Saturday. Have to get better in the kicking game, also. We had one long punt, the rest were less than 40 yards. Whelen had much more leg on the kickoffs, so maybe we'll see him more.
    DrMike Options
  • The Big Easy
    16
    ↪CA Forever
    This Saturday http://pluto.tv/

    http://pluto.tv/watch/big-sky-conference
    The Big Easy Options
  • The Big Easy
    16
    USD Coach Dale Lindsey
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgH6PWp8Odk[/url]
    The Big Easy Options
  • CA Forever
    863
    USD's game notes and depth chart.

    http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/usd/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2017-18/release/release_20170905aaa.pdf
    CA Forever Options
  • Aggie57
    4
    Good article today about kicking game at SDS. It was clear Hawk was not going to kick to these returners and used the pooch kick and directional punting to avoid the big return. Smart coaching. The second half kickoffs were downwind and SDS lined up for the pooch and Whelen knocked it over their heads. Net punting average by Blair was 40 yards, one of the best in the Big Sky last week. Will be interesting to see what the special teams plan is this week against a team our own size.
    http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/aggies-played-it-smart-in-kicking-game/
    Aggie57 Options
  • movielover
    627
    SDSU Coach said yesterday the 2 sacks we got were where players were beat 1 on 1. Great against a top 40 team.

    We should be bigger than USD.

    It would have been interesting if we scored on that first drive.
    movielover Options
  • CA Forever
    863
    ↪movielover
    Looking at their depth chart, it looks like they actually have decent size on the line. I guarantee they are less athletic that SDSU. With how we performed against the Aztec reserves, as long as we hold onto the ball I think this is a winnable game. Turnovers saved USD last week.
    CA Forever Options
  • 69aggie
    400
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the last time USD came to davis Harbaugh was the coach and I think it was the first year we played in the new stadium. The visiting team was in front of the aggie pack. The toreros had a great QB, but forget his name. Game was close. Pack was all over their QB from the sidelines with clever chants. Harbaugh was incensed and screamed at the crowd. His QB got really upset started into the stands to take on the pack. He was restrained by fellow players to the delight of the Aggie fans. Chaos loomed. I think we won, but I have never liked Harbaugh ever since that game and I am a devoted 49er fan. Rumor had it that the referees told our AD to move the visitor team to the other side of the field or they would not return and I think that happened. Is it still the case?
    69aggie Options
  • PortlandAggie
    185
    ↪69aggie
    I was at that game, and I recall the same events. We won on a last second TD pass, something like 25-35 yard pass.
    PortlandAggie Options
  • BlueGoldAg
    1.5k
    ↪69aggie
    Wow...I think we can rest assured that Harbaugh will never be an Aggie fan!
    BlueGoldAg Options
  • movielover
    627
    ↪69aggie
    Harbaugh is the anti Chris Peterson. The Stanford college newspaper wrote a book about the team and H. How did he turn them around? Part of it was a team meeting where he evaluated players on a Powerpoint presentation where he labeled players warrior, count on me, average, and bus rider/steak eater. Few got the top two.... and Walt Harris had players do 100 yard bear crawls if they got a penalty!... so O lineman would let the QB get killed, instead of get a holding call.
    movielover Options
  • DrMike
    977
    ↪PortlandAggie
    Harbaugh was the coach when they played us at Toomey. They came in undefeated and were treating it like a bowl game. He probably spent more time on the field, then most of the kids who were suited up!

    He was gone the next year when we beat them in the last seconds at Aggie Stadium. Josh Johnson, still in the NFL in think, led them down for a TD with about 90 seconds to go; Matt Engel led an incredibly quick drive to beat them.
    DrMike Options
  • DrMike
    977
    from the archives:

    "Nov. 17, 2007


    DAVIS, Calif. - Senior quarterback Matt Engle hit Brandon Rice on an 18-yard touchdown with nine seconds remaining in regulation to lift UC Davis to a 49-46 win over San Diego in a non-conference collegiate football game at Aggie Stadium Saturday afternoon. Engle finished the day with a career-high 409 passing yards and three touchdown strikes. "

    Harbaugh was at Stanford 2007-2010.
    DrMike Options
  • movielover
    627
    ↪DrMike
    Was he preening on the field?
    movielover Options
  • DrMike
    977
    more like exploding. he was more hot-headed on the sidelines back then.

    speaking of sidelines, prowling the USD sidelines that day was Marshawn Lynch -> Josh Johnson's cousin.
    DrMike Options
  • movielover
    627
    I would hope in this stage of our evolution we could handle a non scholarship team with no major issues. We should have a big edge on talent, depth, and coaching.
    movielover Options
  • PortlandAggie
    185
    ↪movielover
    USD is considered a "non scholarship" university but they get around that by giving financial aid to student athletes. You say 'tomato', I say 'tomato'.
    PortlandAggie Options
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