In all likelihood this is a playoff play in game for us.
It's also a rivalry game.
Where our rival is undefeated.

LET'S EFFING GO!

Hey, hey, hey... I'm an east coaster and it was my bedtime! :rofl:

It's time for the Causeway Classic folks! The Aggies are headed across the causeway to take on the #2 ranked 10-0 Hornets and it could not be a bigger game for us in terms of getting into the post season. Sac State will absolutely foaming at the mouth to complete the perfect regular season and to keep the concrete slab in Sacramento for the 3rd straight year.

On offense, Sac State is scoring 43 points per game while averaging 256.7 rushing yards per game with 29 TDs on the ground and 229.9 passing yards per game with 23 TDs through the air. Any team nearing 500 yards of offense per game is going to be tough to slow down and they can punch you in so many different ways it just makes them incredibly difficult to play against.

The Hornets have returned to their 2 QB system featuring Sr QB Jake Dunniway and Sr QB Asher O'Hara. Dunniway is their more pass heavy QB and has completed 134/222 (60.36%) passing attempts for 1698 yardswith 16 TDs and 9 INTs. O'Hara is their true dual threat QB who has completed 55/72 (76.39%) passing attempts for 575 yards with 7 TDs and 0 INTs. As mentioned, O'Hara is their 2nd best rusher with 159 rushing attempts for 781 yards (4.7 avg) with 17 TDs.

The Sac State running attack features maybe the best running back in the conference in So RB Cameron Skattebo. He currently has 150 attempts for 1161 yards (7.7 avg) with 5 TDs. He runs like a tank and is incredibly difficult to bring down. He's been held under 100 yards only 3 times this season. Jr RB Marcus Fulcher has also gotten some touches with 55 attempts for 344 yards (6.1 avg) and 6 TDs.

The Hornets have 2 main receiving threats that we will have to keep an eye on. Jr TE Marshel Martin leads the team in receiving with 40 receptions for 538 yards with 8 TDs. Sr WR Pierre Williams has 34 receptions for 500 yards with 6 TDs. There's a sharp dip in yards production after that, but they do have a total of 7 guys with double digit receptions this season so they can still spread the ball around if it's required.

On defense, Sac State is only allowing 21.90 points per game and limit their opponents to 128.1 rushing yards per game and 239.9 passing yards per game. Strangely enough, the team that dropped the most points on Sac this season was... Utah Tech with 33. The only other team to drop 30 on them was Weber. So while our offense has been a juggernaut lately, they will absolutely be tested in this one.

The Hornets are led on defense by Sr LB Armon Bailey who has 71 total tackles with 12.5 TFLs, 6 sacks, 4 PBUs, and 2 forced fumbles. They have also gotten significant production from Sr DB Marte Mapu who is 2nd on the team in tackles with 57 total with 4.5 TFLs, 1 sack, 2 INTs, and 1 forced fumble. They have decent depth and can rotate a lot of guys in and out so they rarely slow down on defense.

The Aggies and Hornets have 4 common opponents over this season in Cal Poly, Northern Colorado, Idaho, and Weber State. The Hornets obviously went 4-0 against those opponents where they beat the snot out of Cal Poly and Northern Colorado as expected and had very narrow wins over Idaho and Weber, beat both of them by a FG. We had the close loss to Weber and just had the fairly convincing win over Idaho.

All-in-all, do I think that the Aggies can head over to Sacramento and play spoiler to the Hornets perfect season while simultaneously locking themselves into a playoff spot? My heart says "HELL YES THEY CAN" while my brain says "sure, it's definitely a possibility". Massey is giving the Aggies a 32% chance of pulling out the win which feels about right to me honestly. Weird things happen in rivalry games, so I don't see why we can't get the W!

GO AGS!

I'm going to piggyback of CA Forever's great write up, as I've been typing this for a while and don't want to give it up, sorry for repeat information.

Watching Sac play, they are very impressive. Rigorous tempo on offense, with senior QB Dunniway making good throws and good decisions, and typically doesn't have to wait 4 seconds to do it. They've got a nice WR in #84 Pierre Williams, also a senior. Other weapons come out of the backfield, sophomore #4 Cameron Skattebo, the Big Sky's leading rusher by 12 yards ahead of Ulonzo Gilliam, Skattebo averages 7.7 yards per rush and has put up those numbers with 33 less carries than Gilliam. Also a huge weapon in the red zone and beyond is QB2 #10 Asher O'Hara, an Illinois native and transfer from Middle Tennessee State, this is O'Hara's last season of college football. The Hornets average 43 points per game this year, a narrow second behind Montana State. Sac has only punted the football 23 times all season.

Defensively, they get it done. The Hornets are the 4th ranked defense in the Big Sky giving up 21.9 pts/game just behind UC Davis at 21.2 points per game. I've noticed this Texas transfer Linebacker #46 Ayodele Adeoye. A product of St. Louis, and the Longhorn system, but has also been ejected from two games this season. Most notably for knocking out Montana QB Lucas Johnson three weeks ago in a tightly contested home game vs. the Griz. Sac has 8 picks on the year to UC Davis' 12, but, like the Aggies, they've returned 2 of those picks for touchdowns.

I think this will be a good game. It should be a huge crowd, I bought a ticket in hopes I can break away from my Saturday commitment, which will get more and more likely as the end of the week approaches ;-) - but the general admission tickets are being sold off by 3rd parties for $35 as of right now. The setup reminds me of when I was going to school at Davis, and the big showdown with Sac at the end of the year was must see stuff. In 2022, this game is must see stuff and will no doubt be broadcast locally in the Sac/Yolo Valley.

Complete Sac @ Portland State game from yesterday:


Montana @ Sac game:


Sac @ Weber State last week:


Idaho @ Sac:

I can't remember a Causeway Classic with this much meaning in recent memory at least. One team going for an undefeated season in one of the toughest conferences in FCS while the other pretty much has to win in order to make the playoffs.

Skattebo is going to do damage as he has against pretty much every single opponent this season, but I think the key to this game is going to be limiting Asher O'Hara. I would say that we've done... just okay... against really mobile QBs. We can't completely sell out and stack the box against him every play because he can still get you with his arm, but we have to be diligent in making sure that we're at the very least spying him. If we can do that we might be able to keep Dunniway in the game for more snaps and while I wouldn't call him a bad QB or anything he is in the bottom half of the conference in completion percentage and interceptions thrown.

Speaking of interceptions thrown, turnovers in general could play a huge role in this game. Davis is one of the best teams in the country in terms of turnover margin sitting at +12 while Sac is mediocre at best in margin at -1. Not saying they can't force turnovers or anything, but they also aren't the best team in terms of ball security. Hastings has really improved his ball security this season which has definitely been a factor in our play in the 2nd half of the season.

Feels like there are two offenses the Aggies will be preparing for...and yeah, you watch the replays, the huge chunk plays are what sets Sac off, from O'Hara, Fulcher and Skattebo.

I would like to add another comment about hornet fans. Some of them probably think Duck Favis is a dish you can order at a French restaurant.

Finn, the J street website has GA tickets for $20.

Not a student anymore but I always looked forward to the student bus ride on Unitrans to the Causeway. Are they still doing that? I always loved the tailgate atmosphere when it was at Sac. The trash talk in the parking lot was always great. A Sac fan once tried to get me to do their lame Stingers up but his friend saw I was clearly wearing Ags gear. I hated their portable bleachers on the Davis side.

High up in their bleachers never feels completely safe.

Or walking out of their stadium at night.

But on a 1 to 10 threat scale, is it ....??

Davis - 0
Sac - 4
Fresno - 12

Where's Reno?

I've noticed this Texas transfer Linebacker #46 Ayodele Adeoye. A product of St. Louis, and the Longhorn system, but has also been ejected from two games this season. Most notably for knocking out Montana QB Lucas Johnson three weeks ago in a tightly contested home game vs. the Griz. — AggieFinn

Adeoye was ejected for targeting on the hit that took out the Montana QB Lucas Johnson. It was one of the most egregious targeting hits I've seen since they began really clamping down on players making hits with the crown of their helmets.

Sac State had Johnson stood up and not moving forward. Adeoye hesitated and then lowered his head and launched forward and high with the crown of his helmet directly into Johnson's face mask. Johnson's head snapped back and he was visibly knocked woozy by the hit. It was a dangerous hit against a defenseless player that didn't happen in a bang-bang fashion and, in my book, that's a dirty hit. Adeoye was again ejected for targeting in the Weber State game two weeks later.

My families experience at local schools
Davis--0
Stanford-0
Cal-3
Sac State-3
Fresno-10
Went to the UCD Fresno game my pre-teen daughters and myself were called out. It WAS very ugly!

What happened?

Someone I know went to the Fresno game in 2009 or maybe it was 2010 and someone told her 'You may be smarter than us but we're better at football than you.'

Fresno is garbage. I haven't been to a Fresno State home game but I have gone to see the Fresno Grizzlies baseball games a couple of times and they were pretty bad. Not a single nice person at the game. Just a bunch of dumb rednecks out to drink. There's a reason why the Grizzlies were dropped from Triple-A to Low-A-no MLB team wanted to partner with them. Colorado only brought their Low-A team to Fresno because they lost at affiliate musical chairs.

Fresno has a really crappy downtown too. Not just crappy..it's like SF without any of the attractions. I was in Visalia-think it was in August-so I was getting Fresnno news on the TV. Some guy just got off the bus (near Fresno City College I think) coming home from work and was immediately stabbed. In the back of the neck I think

My understanding is that the local jails fill up quickly on Friday nights... drinking, then fights galore.

Troy Taylor 20-1 in Big Sky games, with the one loss to #3 Weber in 2019.

Troy Taylor vs Dan Hawkins

2019 - 27-17 Sac (19,000 attendance)
2021 - 27-7 .. Sac

Yeah, its time for Dan to beat Troy!

Just find this on SI--https://www.si.com/college/cal/news/troy-taylor-cal . Another distraction for the Hornets.

The buzz around Sac State is that they are expecting a record crowd of over 20,000. We live in Sac and are tempted to go and support the Ags but we will probably sit this one out and watch it on TV. Our experiences at the games in Sac have not been the best.

I've attended a lot of the Causeways including nearly every one at home since 1972 and many in Sac. Unfortunately, I really have not liked the vibe around the parking lot at Hornet Stadium. Too many times it was just too drunken, too rowdy, too loud and just didn't feel friendly in general. I don't mind a bit of friendly rivalry and poking fun when it's done in a welcoming manner but that's not what my experience has been when the game is at Sac.

Don't get me wrong, the majority of the Sac fans were not like that but there were a whole lot that were. I've never seen that level of rowdy behavior from the Aggie fans when the game has been in Davis though.

Interestingly, I think the rivalry has actually tamed down quite a bit since the D2 years when the Aggies dominated the Hornets for such a long time. Sac felt looked down upon and dismissed by the Aggie fans and the students would trade some pretty hostile, demeaning barbs with each other at the games. It seemed like there was a true "hatred" between the programs back then. Now, I think that there is much more mutual respect between the programs since Sac has emerged as one of the best FCS programs in the nation.

A bunch of Sac fans sat around us at the last Causeway in Davis and, believe me, it was not fun. The guy right beside me was loud and obnoxious and took delight in goading and mocking the Aggie fans while Sac was dominating us on the field. He would even pat me on the back or nudge me when Skattebo would break some tackles for another big gainer and would say things like: "I told you that the Aggies wouldn't be able to stop him. He's a beast." It was bad enough watching us getting thumped let alone having this guy boasting loudly the whole game while he slurped down yet another beer.

I think we'll sit this one out...maybe I've got Causeway PTSD... :yikes:

The great thing about GA tickets, is you can move around...yes Causeway is packed with annoying Sac fans, yes, folks are drunk - it's the crazy nature of the rivalry, when it's good you just have to revel in it. Now the question is, will the Aggie offense be able to get after Sac? In recent history, the Aggies have trouble moving the ball on Sac, which tells me Taylor takes pride in shutting down the Aggie game plan. What are the 'Wrinkles', where will the execution threshold hit a brick wall that meshes with predictability? One thing I always appreciated about Biggs, he wasn't scared to install some new stuff for the special games. Feels like Gamblin' Dan needs to get the guys ready to throw some curveballs.

I’ve had my share of drunken idiots make wise cracks making my way to the stadium. The worse year was when my kids were little, dressed in their aggie gear, as we walked passed their tailgate area the idiots were using every profane word in the book directed at us. At little kids! With rare exception, i just park across the street on the south side and bypass the jerks.

Are folks getting their tickets directly from the slak site? Tickets are not yet listed on the UCD site.

Does Sac rest some players? Especially if Montana beats MSU? Have a top 4 seed wrapped up. 10th straight week of football

NCAA FCS Statistics 2022

Rushing Offense

Sac - #4 - 256 ypg
UCD - #23 - 196 ypg

Rushing Defense

Sac - #34 - 128 ypg
UCD - #62 - 158 ypg (close, give our schedule)

Sac will put everyone on the line to stop UG so Hastings has to be able to complete his passes. Also Larison and Tompkins really have to step up to take the pressure off of UG.

He's been completing them at an 80% rate the past 4 weeks

Might they even put a spy on him?