I never thought Cal would fire Wilcox, but Wilcox just fired his offensive coordinator, Bill Musgrave, after the offense struggled. Thus they will be looking for a proven play caller and Taylor might be just their guy. For Taylor, it would be a stepping stone to a big time head coaching job.

From the Bee article regarding the fake punt:

On fourth-and-11, McGough was ready to punt with just under 10 minutes to play, saw a rush coming his way and then took off for a 20-yard gain that led to O’Hara’s last score. “It was not a planned fake,” Taylor said with a laugh. “I wasn’t looking, and I turn and my Australian punter is running with the ball. When he first practiced fakes, he held the ball but didn’t have his hand over the point of the ball. He’s gotten better with that.” Said Dunniway, “You see what he can do in practice and think, ‘That’d be cool’ if he did it in a game,’ and I look over and the dude is running for 30 yards. We really needed it.”

On going 11-0:

“To go 11-0, that’s not easy, but these guys continue to work, to stay focused,” Taylor said. “They don’t look in the rear-view mirror, don’t look too far ahead, and that’s easy to say, but not easy to do. What they’ve done since we’ve been here, especially this year, is really quite remarkable.”

Regarding how physical the Sac defense hits:

“It’s a ruthless thing — fly to the ball,” is how Bailey described his game and that of his defense. Said Dunniway of some of Bailey’s hits, “I was watching the video board and thought, “If someone hit me like that ... I don’t know what I’d do. We have Ash making highlights, guys on defense, it’s fun to watch.”

Regarding the crowd of 23,073:

Unbelievable crowd today,” Taylor said. “It’s what I imagine we could have here.”

Hawkins:

“I told our guys we’re a playoff team,” he said. “You never want to turn in gear. It’s a sad thing when you do.”

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/article268749287.html#storylink=cpy

Did we mess up on the fake punt defense? Is the punter supposed to be covered on every punt no matter what?

No expert here, but Aggie Finn might have a thought on this. And it was cool spending the day with an old friend. He rode the train from the bay area and i picked him up in Davis.

Best pause I could get. The ball was spotted at the 42 which means the 32 is the line to gain. Pretty clear that the knee is down and the knee is well beyond the 32. The ball is directly above the knee therefore that should be a first down.

Would it have mattered? Probably not.

Would it have been nice to get a shot at the end zone for the win? Abso-effing-lutely.

Also we would have had a shot had 20 seconds not inexplicably run off after Sac got their false start penalty on the prior drive.

Well I’m proud of these guys. They played hard and didn’t give it away. While not the result we want, we did make a big jump forward and we’re competitive against the top FCS teams. We were missing a consistent long pass threat that would have opened the field more for the rest of our game. Hats off to Sac St and I hope they do the Big Sky proud in the playoffs. And if we get lucky and get in, then we have another chance.

1. Our defense had a solid year.
2. Our passing game struggles against legit teams. I like the West Coast offense, but we at least need a midrange game to stretch the field.
3. MH completed 58% of his pass attempts, Sac 70%.
4. The fake punt was a back breaker
5. Lost as to why Lance Babbs didn't get more PT this year, and I would have given Jeremiah Chukwudobe carries with the 1s vs Idaho. I don't think his electric run the week prior was an accident. I think that was a missed opportunity for another playmaker who has some size. We need playmakers who weigh more than 175 pounds.
6. This team was deep, but I wouldn't say it's the best in program history.
7. The stadium seemed over capacity, where was the fire Marshall? Solid UC Davis fan turnout.
8. Only 2 young ladies checking tickets at my gate. Ridiculous. Hundreds in two long lines waiting over 25 minutes to enter.
9. While most Sac fans were fine, saw at least four "FUCD" thirts, and one disgusting student sign.
10. Josh Gale, what a big time play.

Quotes from the Enterprise article:

Hawkins:

“It was a great game. A great battle between two great teams, but they made more plays than we did,” said Aggie head coach Dan Hawkins.

“I told our guys afterward I love them. I love them a lot. But most games and most seasons are made by a few plays that decide which side of the ledger you’ll end up on.”

“We’re definitely a playoff team, but I don’t know if we’ll get there,” Hawkins said
.
“That’s all out of our control. We may be the No. 5 team in the nation and we played the top four, but you have to prove it on the field.”

Taylor:

Asked if UC Davis should receive a playoff opportunity, Sacramento State head coach Troy Taylor didn’t hesitate
.
“Absolutely,” he said. “No question about it. If you look at their body of work, they should be included. It would have been easy for them to schedule three easy games to start the season, but they didn’t do that. They didn’t have to play Cal and South Dakota State to start the season. They should not be punished for playing a tough schedule.”

“That’s a really good football team we played,” said Taylor, who was gracious in victory.

“They were very poised and playing with a lot of swagger and confidence. We’d get ahead and they’d just come back and continue to compete. Davis had been lighting people up recently, scoring an incredible amount of points. I was really proud of how our defense was able to hold them to 21 points.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-uc-davis-fall-in-great-causeway-classic-to-hornets/

Easy to dislike Sac State, but Montana's coach could learn some things from Troy Taylor. He's classy in addition to his coaching skill.

@Toke69 They also fired their OL coach, McClure who was just as overmatched. Pretty much every game except possibily USC and Stanford, the OL was dominated by the DL. Remember when the Ags played at Cal. UCD's line pushed around Cal's despite the size and sublevel difference.

your photo confirms my initial reaction of “first down - stop the clock until ball reset”. Don’t recall but I doubt side judge was very close and just easier to let the clock runout. Once that happened I don’t know if you can do anything about it.

Regarding Cal and coaching prospects: as if the Bears didn't have enough money issues, they are one of the victims of the FTX crypto-currency collapse. Ten year, $17.5M deal evaporates in bankruptcy filing.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/cal-athletics-faces-aftermath-of-cryptos-ftx-collapse

Whoops.

If the Regents cancel the Big 10 deal with UCLA, which, I think is fairly accurate, cal will be in much better financial condition than now.

That is exactly why I never invested in fake money. It is worthless as you have nothing material
that has value. I would tell any young person use the Dow dividend theory and you will retire well

Anybody know how Castles is? He took a big hit and never returned. Hopefully he is ok.

Castles, Gilliam and King all went out with injuries. I don't think any of them returned.

Man, watching that last 45 seconds or so was painful.

Sac chewed up almost 4 minutes on the last drive. No spike at 13 seconds... ugh. The collision w 212# RB Marcus Fulcher hobbled King. Their WR making clutch catches at the end, in traffic, is 6'2".

This gives them the chance to sell the name again. Could be a good thing, if they sold off any of the crypto. I hope they cashed out at least some of it.

Sac is ranked #11 in attendance after the regular season and that number could go up after the playoff games. The Aggies were #30 this year.




https://herosports.com/fcs-football-2022-attendance-leaders-bzbz/

Man, no reason Davis shouldn't be in the Top 20, just fill it up every home game. Get them in the seats!

football is just not on the culture for students and most alums. Even when the stadium is full it seems as if the students are just there socially and not serious about the game. It is a sort of of a west coast thing. Think reasonable expectations are to push student attendance since they are already on campus. Alums and others are going to be spread out and I suspect not many are coming beyond a 1 - 1.5 hour drive. The city of Davis is not exactly a sports hot bed. Winning is obviously important with a tepid fam base.

Noticeable is how many HBCUs are in the top of the attendance ranking. It is more of a family and alum thing with all the attendant social functions and bands.

I’m assuming the numbers reported are tickets sold, not gate clicks. Curious what the redemption rate of tickets is because on TV we certainly didn’t look to be averaging 9000+. I’ve gone to games in the south. Students leave early there too if the game isn’t interesting. They are just usually in an end zone section so the cameras don’t catch it. Compared to the south (or Montana), Davis has low engagement from townies who are local but not alumni. Places like Baton Rouge, Tallahassee, Gainesville, etc come to a standstill on game day with everyone in town in the stadium (or partying in the parking lot if no ticket), or watching at a bar or house party.

I totally refuse to accept that. Something creative has to be done to get students in the stands. Hate to be cheap, but what sells? a) sex b) winning c) booze for the 21 and ups, food for the Freshman and Sophs.

The bike give aways seemed popular.
I was in Texas in early October driving through a remote little town on Friday night. Passing the local HS, you would have thought they were giving away money. Big traffic jam and all parking full for a Friday night football game. They love their football down there like the Montanas.

I did said push student attendance. But the fact is still it’s a hard push in Northern California. Cal and Stanford attendance is abysmal. It’ll never be like Montana or Montana State but maybe an average of 12,000 (however that is measured) is attainable.

Soccer attendance may increase.

I’m sympathetic to the arguments about football not being as big in West Coast culture compared to Montana or the South. Having said that, Sac State has basically the same cultural environment and apparently is drawing an average of 15k per game. So while I’m under no delusion that we’ll one day draw 25k like in Montana or Texas, 15k should be a realistic goal for us.

Their tailgate parties didn't look like ours, same for the end zones.