Grizzlies by 28. Cue the "Montana is a good team. I don't know how we'll score enough points to win without Larrison !" posts. People graduate and people get hurt. Have fun watching and try not to get too bent out of shape folks. Unless you're betting on the game. In that case, shame on you.

What was Gould's saying when he was hit with inordinate injuries, "Next man up"?

UC Davis Football Team Statistics
...... .......... 2023 ...... 2022

PPG ...... ... 26.6 ....... 35.9
PPG-Opp .. 25.2 ........21.7
PYG ....... .. 208 ........ 295
RYG .... .. .. 173 .........191
Ttl .......... .. 381 .........486

2022 complete season

https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/football/stats/2022

2023 to date (3-2), after Cal Poly game

https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/football/stats

When the schedule was released, there were several folks here, including me, who didn't like the 4 pm start time since it can be still blistering hot here in early October and we were right to be concerned. The forecast is a high of 93 during the game which will be even hotter on the artificial turf. Not only is it tough on the players but it's particularly uncomfortable for the fans who can't find any shade in the stadium and half the stadium will be fully exposed to the sun for most of the game.

You would think that, that after having 14,742 fans at the SUU game, that we would at least match number that if not exceed it for this game against Montana. Unfortunately, some fans won't even come because of the heat and lack of shade in the stadium. Everyone on the east side of the stadium, including the students, will not only be getting baked but the sun will be directly in their eyes for most of the game.

We shouldn't be scheduling games during the heat of the day and early October can still be hot in the valley. I think it will probably be so uncomfortable for the students that many will leave early. Aggie stadium is a heat sump in hot weather and the athletics department blew it with a 4 pm start time in my opinion.

Very hot for early October come 4 pm this Saturday if the current predicted temps hold.

The record high for Sacramento in October is 104 on October 1st and 2nd, 2001. The average high for October 7th is 83.

https://climatespy.com/climate/summary/united-states/california/sacramento-executive/october

It’s been a while since I was a student and a long while at that. How do kids in the dorms eat dinner and attend a game that starts at 4 when dinner is 5-7 ? Or does everyone just not buy weekend meal plans anymore?

The last time i had lunch in the commons, i noticed they had bag lunches available to go. But looking at their website, they are open until 9 so i suspect coeds are not going hungry.

You sound like the Montana board. “That was a very good D2 team that would beat most FCS teams”.

Hawkins says Tompkins could have played if necessary in the Cal Poly game.

Shoulder issue. Ice and tape it up for the game. I love this guy and have always.

And the record high for a Davis game was the first game at current stadium. Hey, let's play a 1:00 pm game in September!

:lol: No one who was at that game will ever forget it and some folks probably still have nightmares about it!

If I recall correctly they didn’t have lights yet.

Brilliant planning. I saw a person collapse in front of me.

They really need to get their act together on the audio on these pressers. The live mic in the audience should be muted or turned off when the coach or the players are speaking. Hawk is easy to hear but the other folks don’t speak ️ into the mic which makes it hard to hear them without constantly adjusting the volume.

I agree. I'm happy that we are finally getting these pre and post-game pressers on a regular basis but the audio can be much better. We couldn't hear the questions in the first pressers and now, as you noted, it's often hard to hear the players and the mic used for the by the press for the questions is constantly making loud scratching sounds because it's rubbing against someone's lap.

These are easy fixes. Remind the players before they enter the room to bring the mic close to them and speak clearly into the mic like Hawk does and also instruct the press to turn the mic off between questions. How hard can that be?

Yes, especially as we boast about being 'elite'.

I watched the Montana - ISU game. Montana went with McDowell at QB and from my observations the offense does better with him on there because he is big and mobile and their O-line has been suspect. Vidlak, their previous starter took a bunch of sacks at NAU. McDowell has a very funny throwing motion, but does pass a bit better than what his (pushing) motion would suggest.

It will be important for the Ag defense to do what they have done most of the year and that is to play good defense. I think they can “mess” with the QB better than ISU and that will be key for an inexperienced QB like McDowell - although he is a senior transfer from central arkansas - apparently didn’t play much there. Montana has been struggling as of late on offense.

Montana planned to use their run game with a big running QB to dominate Idaho State. I dont think they had the success they were expecting, but they’ll likely try to do that again.
The Davis defense needs to carry the team this week with the offense banged up, and it’s reasonable that they can do so.
Montana has had an easy schedule to this point playing what Sagarin calculates is the 247th toughest schedule out if the 261 teams, They have not defeated any team in the top 200 in Sagarin’s rankings.

The guys on egriz are not optimistic about this game. It appears most of them, or at least a high percent, are picking the Ags.

Griz presser. Notice they give each participant a mic.
Presser

Hack City covers this game at 10:00 (they're a little clueless on the reality of UC Davis' health):

A mindless analysis. “Two teams that are insanely average” looking at stats, without considering strength of schedule.
The Oregon State game skewed the Davis stats quite a bit and also in the five games Davis has played three teams ranked higher than anyone Montana has played.
I’ll add this stat which isn’t insanely average: In five four games against FCS opponents Davis has given up a total of 334 yards rushing.

I may be slow, but I just noticed that the “media center” has flip cards that have rosters, and depth charts useful when watching the games. Of course the Davis depth charts have the well known inaccuracies noted many times.
https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/2023/9/12/media-center.aspx

That's good to know. We get to the games early and always go into the stadium and get a program before they're all gone. It seems like they never have enough of them at the football or basketball games. I've shared mine with other fans quite often because they weren't able to get one.

Being able to print these flip cards at home is a nice option to have but I doubt that most Aggie fans never knew they existed. Aggie Athletics needs to get the word out to the fans though since the flip cards are buried on the media page and most fans never visit that page.

Agreed. Outside of Oregon State defense has been very good especially against the run. Montana has the most rush attempts in the big sky and their rush per attempt average is only 3.5 yds - third worst in the league. The Aggies are by far the best defensive team Montana has faced yet.

Does ESPN now control the time for the games to start? Do they think we're attracting the east coast audience?

In the two big sky games Montana is averaging 2.5 yards per carry. In Davis’ two big sky games they allow 2.0. (Davis’ stats skewed by virtue of playing Cal Poly)

I doubt they care about the ESPN+ games.
An indication of how little advertising money is spent on these games is so many regional company adds are streamed to a region where they have no presence, and there is so much dead time without an ad.