One important note from Plough’s press conference was setting “realistic” expectations for this game. Said Cal pays us to play them, as we all know. Definitely tempering our expectations.

Memorial Stadium looking nice today. I work close ;)
Always a great place to watch a game.

What section are Aggies being routed to? End zone?

Last I remember it was a South End Zone type thing.

I was also surprised at how hot it got in the full sun even though the air temperature was mild. Bring your sun screen!

A bowl team that went 6-7 last season, Cal hopes its Heisman Trophy candidate, running back Jaydn Ott, can get a jump-start on the competition against a UC Davis squad that went 7-4 last year. Ott topped 150 rushing yards five times last season en route to 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Ott’s 92.2 rushing yards per game rank second in the nation among returning backs. The junior begins the season with 2,202 career rushing yards; only one Golden Bear — J.J. Arrington with 2,452 in 2003-04 — had a higher total in his first two years in Berkeley.

UC Davis, which has earned Nos. 17 and 18 national rankings in preseason FCS polls, returns a star running back of its own in senior Lan Larison, the preseason Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year.

The Idaho native rushed for 1,101 yards and 13 touchdowns in just eight games last season, going for 255 against Eastern Washington and later 264 against Idaho State.

“There’s a lot that Lan still has to show,” Aggies coach Kevin Burke said of his All-American candidate. “He is becoming a more versatile player for us.”

Fifth-year senior Miles Hastings, a veteran of 34 games and more than 6,000 career passing yards at UC Davis, returns at quarterback.

Whole article here: https://www.nationalfootballpost.com/college-football/jaydn-ott-and-cal-usher-in-acc-era-against-uc-davis/

The oddsmakers currently list Cal as a 20.5 point favorite. If that margin holds or gets bigger, I'd bet on the Ags to beat the spread.

The depth chart released in the Game Notes , listed behind Porter Connors is a name only appearing once before in these discussions.
That was when I posted a year ago:

The roster has a freshman, class of 2023, linebacker, Aaron Shebloski, a walk on, committed in May.
He has a link to a video on his twitter page of him doing 3000 pushups in a day when he was 16. Has a lot of personality.

Pretty impressive for a redshirt freshman walk-on to be high in the depth chart.

The 20.5 point spread is just about the same as the last match between Cal and the Aggies in 2022, won by the Bears 34-13. I think the closest UCD ever got was in 2019 when it was 27-13. I'd be happy with something like that this time.

Correct

I would love to be able to predict a win here, but I'm going to have to go win the Bears winning something like 38-17. I'm looking for at least respectable offensive production with no turnovers and mistakes. I just think Ott is going to be too much for our defense to handle especially with several new guys in the front 7.

Who did Bob pick? I don’t get his articles anymore.

I subscribe to Bob's "The Wary One" column. Here's his pick from today's article:

UC DAVIS AGGIES over CALIFORNIA ... In recent years, the upstart Aggies have taken down the likes of Stanford, Tulsa and San Jose State, but they've had 11 shots at the Golden Bears and failed every time. Take the Ags by 2.

https://www.thewaryone.com

after catching up on Tulsa King, I’m REALLY GLAD I skipped that trip!

I'm going to predict an upset: UCD 28, Cal 27. Why? Just in case I can get credit for being the first one to predict it. If I'm wrong, no one will remember, but if I'm right...

No one will care!

Few are sleeping in Bear town tonight. Even the thought of a loss to us makes their collection skin sweat with anxiety and fear of the unknown repercussions. Turn in sleep. Girl friends sobbing on their shoulders. Coach likely to be terminated. Cheer leaders vanquished to ours. On the other hand we will be sleeping very well. Unless of course Berkeley tries to steal our Chancellor which is actually very possible. Anyway you call it, it’s just really a game for the kids to play. For fun!

Cal is paying the Aggies $675,000 for the game. Not a bad payday win or lose.

Apparently as of yesterday ticket sales for the game were abysmal. So bad, that possibly football staff put out an emergency call, and free tickets were offered to the public today, one day before kickoff.

Bear Backers aren't happy with their AD or marketing staff.

FOOTBALL SEASON IS BACK! GO AGS! BEAT THE BEARS!

CAAA and our athletics have been sold out. Are you referring to Cal fans?

If the players listed first on the Davis depth chart do indeed start, the three interior offensive line players will all be new.
Left guard will be the Stony Brook transfer Jace Rodriguez who played tackle at Stony Brook.
Center will be Zaire Collier who saw no action last year as a freshman. He may have walked on as he was set to play at a JC, but joined Davis in May of last year. 247 had him rated as a 3 star though.
Right Guard is the transfer from San Diego State. It will be interesting to see how that works out against a tough opponent.

Yes. They've re-activated free tickets online, code us nextleveldavis.

How many tickets did we sell?

Looks like Mendoza is getting the start for the Bears, but saw reports that Rogers is also going to get playing time.

Cal's OL is gigantic. I don't think we'll be able to get much of a push against that kind of size disadvantage. I'm assuming that we'll try and use our speed to get outside of the tackles with the run and throw swing passes in the flats and let our RB's and receivers try and create something in open space. Of course, Cal probably has the LB and DB speed to cover that as well.

It's going to be a an uphill battle for. We'll need to play smart, limit our mistakes and penalties and take advantage of any Cal mistakes.

Traffic to Cal was minimal. Go Ags!

Standard OL size. There are bigger guys in the FCS.

The big question to me is qb play. I really thought the key to this season was Plough finding a mobile qb in the portal. Since that did not happen, he really has to rise the level of play of Hastings. The pocket isn’t going to be perfect, especially today. If he doesn’t see it he really needs to play smart and throw the ball away. Forced balls and attempted scrambles killed the team last year. Going to be a long day if he needs a clean pocket and massive separation out of the receivers today.

Hi friends it's been a second! If I don't have ACC is there basically no way to watch this?

It's on ESPN+

Thank you!

Although, ESPN+ is having a technical glich right now