With all this hype I am very glad that this is an away game. The aggies will go into an unfriendly stadium and will have to shed all the emotion from the PSU game and start new. Whereas Weber will be very excited and driven emotionally to win. We need to be cool, cold and calculating for this game, especially at QB. If we do that we can win.
I don't have a sub, but ooof looks like Stanford is turning on him already. He really did have a lot of success at Cal with running backs. I wonder if he changed coaching philosophies for the worse somewhere along the line.
I was no fan of Gould as a head coach, but that is really misplaced anger to call out Gould for stanfords slide this year. That's on the coordinators, HC and the fact that you're dealing with a group of 18-22 year olds.
Yeah I was just looking at the stats from their games. Running is just about the only thing they have going for them. Now I kinda want to read the article to see what their point it.
Bryce Love is I think second to Penny in yards this season and outperformed Penny carry-for-carry and basically carried Stanford in the game on Saturday. I would definitely put him in the conversation for the best back in the country and some of that credit has to go to Gould.
I don't know if Stanford fans expected him to call plays or what but he is doing literally the most that could be expected of him in an RB coach role.
He seems to be an excellent RB coach
... though I never understood from a strategy perspective giving ManZan 95 percent of the handoffs, too predictable. Turay was a STUD as a RB or receiver, was proven, yet was used 100% for blocking. Too predictable. Even an unselfish player wants a change of pace. Turay sure seemed happy when his number was finally called the last game of the year.
To my untrained eye, Gould seems like a very algorithmic coach, in the sense that if something is technically optimal in an average situation then he'll do it 100% of the time. Ex:
"Manzanares is the best back, therefore he will carry the ball every time he is able to."
"The least risky option on 4th down is to punt or kick, so we will do that every time."
In fairness to him though, David Shaw basically coaches the exact same way and has been wildly successful and praised while doing so. I think the difference is that Shaw has had solid and sometimes prodigal talent to work with -- you can afford to be predictable when Christian McCaffrey is in the backfield.
Ron Gould's method is appropriate if you have the talent for it. Think of Woody Hayes if you are old enough. Ohio state could win almost always over less talented teams. But their style precluded winning against a more talented team, like In the Rose Bowl. You have to be multidimensional to pull of an upset. Also need luck and if you don't take chances you don't leave room for luck.
Gould had the perspective of a position coach where proper technique was the way to succeed, I think he assumed if you took care of the ball and avoided penalties you would win your share. So we won time of possession, Opposing coaches praised our ability to line up correctly. We weren't heavily penalized etc, But strategy was limited, Gould did not find a way to utilize good athletes on the team like Turay or Silvera. At this level you need to find ways to use your talent.
there was a big story in the East Bay Times (Mercury News in the south bay) about what's wrong with Stanford. running game issues was one thing. most of Love's yards are on big plays, so they haven't been able to do the old tried and true 'grind them down' offensive approach. they put that on the OL. funny that they mentioned 'time of possession' as an indicator that things are out of whack on the Farm! i think they had the ball for 18:00 against SDSU. that's crazy for a Stanford offense.
I'd come up, however, my roommate needs a pickup at the airport Saturday morning around 10:30, going to forego the trek to Davis. So, this thing is online with Pluto?
Yep. I have the app on my ipad and will need to airplay to the appletv. I couldnt figure out how to get the app on my smart tv or directly onto apple tv. Will try to get my son to look at it before the game, or go to the grad
that's too bad about Layton. He was starting to look more comfortable and productive. I was afraid it was something serious (Achilles). Best of luck in his recovery.
This doesn't have anything to do with the Weber state game, but I was listening to the Dan Patrick show this morning when Dan said he was flipping through DirectTV last night and settled on the Portland St. - UC Davis replay. One of his producers asked if he was rooting for "his" Vikings, but he said he was pulling for UC Davis. They then talked a few minutes about Ken O'Brien being from UCD, them moved off the topic. Kind of cool to hear a national sports talk show even mention UCD. Granted it was in the context of "I was so bored that I watched an FCS replay", but still...
1. Tehran Thomas takes Layton's spot. He was listed at 5'11" 208 in high school. We listed him at 230#s, and he is still there. Sounds like a potential beast.
2. Hawk referenced the amazing catch Moore made last week, and he said that is NOTHING compared to some of his grabs in practice.
3. Three of our to receivers are Sophs - Preece, Moore, and Cummins. Hats of to Pat McCann and his scouting skills.
Hawkins must have recognized that Coach Creighton was doing a good job recruiting despite the team doing poorly as he managed to keep his job in the transition. I haven't paid a lot of attention to if we are using Preece at all as a blocking TE or not, but he sure made an impact in the PSU game as a receiver.
Creighton's responsibilities seem to have grown under Hawkins. He's the special teams coach in addition to tight ends and I assume he still has a big part in recruiting. Good that he was retained.
Are the Aggies good again? It sure seems that way. After a 38-17 loss to a now-ranked San Diego State squad, Davis has blown out San Diego (which qualified for the playoffs last year) and Portland State. They are leading the conference in passing with QB Jake Maier averaging 314 yards per game. New head coach Dan Hawkins deserves credit, but so does new OC Tim Plough, who helped turn NAU QB Case Cookus into the National Freshman of the Year in 2015.
They also have us ranked 4th in the Big Sky Power Rankings:
1. Southern Utah
2. Weber State
3. North Dakota
4. UC Davis
5. Idaho State
6. Eastern Washington
7. Montana
8. Northern Colorado
9. Portland State
10. Sacramento State
11. Cal Poly
12. Montana State
13. NAU