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CA Forever
653First win of the Plough era is in the books! Now the Aggies have to make the trip out to Cedar City to take on the Thunderbirds of Southern Utah.
The Thunderbirds come into this contest with a 1-1 record where they lost to AP #12 Utah 0-49 and just beat UTEP 27-24. A FBS win is a FBS win, but just to put into perspective UTEP is currently ranked as the 4th worst FBS in the country according to Massey. Cal after their win against Auburn is #27 in that same metric.
From what I can see it looks like SUU wants to be a run first team in terms of offense, but let's go ahead and look at their QB situation first. The Thunderbirds have had 3 players take snaps at QB so far this season; Jackson Berry - 16/28 - 129 yards - 1 INT - 0 TD, Bronson Barron - 2/8 - 49 yards - 0 INT - 1 TD, Jordan Pachot - 1/3 - 8 yards - 0 INT - 0 TD. They only had 21 passing attempts against Utah and 18 against UTEP so it just doesn't seem to be their bread and butter, but after TAMC torched us through the air they make look to make adjustments this week.
In terms of running the ball, they have 2 main guys at RB taking snaps so far. Targhee Lambson - 26 attempts - 227 yards - 2 TD and Bradeon Wissler - 19 attempts - 64 yards - 0 TD. In addition to their RBs, Jackson Berry also appears to be a dual threat guy - 19 attempts - 97 yards - 0 TD. The Thunderbirds didn't do much against a very good Utah team getting just over 100 yards total as a team in terms of rushing, but lit up UTEP with 307 gained rushing yards (268 net). This at least plays to the strength of our defense as we're currently allowing 46.5 rushing yards per game and a measly 1.6 yards per rush.
On defense, the Thunderbirds have been led so far by the linebacker Kohner Cullimore - 13 tackles - 1.5 TFL - .5 sacks - 1 FF and safety Kameron Rocha - 11 tackles - 1 TFL.Lacarea Pleasant-Johnson and Jayden Robertson each have 1 INT. Utah dropped over 500 yards of offense on the Thunderbirds while UTEP still managed over 400 despite losing. What sticks out to me in the SUU vs UTEP game was that the Miners had 122 yards of penalties and SUU had 80. That's some undisciplined football.
This will be a tough game for the Aggies. Massey is currently giving us a 62% chance of a win. I think this game will come down to how the Ags contain the run game. We've done well so far this season in that regard, but we haven't necessarily been tested heavily (Ott didn't play that much against us). The Thunderbirds are giving up yards on defense, so hopefully we can get the offense going after a shaky couple of first games. I'm not a film breakdown guy though (I'll leave that to @Aggie Pride Podcast) so it'll be interesting to see how we can best attack this team. -
DrMike
716They played us really tough at home last year (many teams play us tough in that first home game….bring back USD!)
Most interesting thing said in that clip : 41000 tickets sold for the opener! UTEP is 20-49 under the current coach yet they fill the Sun Bowl. Different world. -
AggieFinn
467My takeaways from the SUU @ UTEP film were that the Thunderbirds were vulnerable to the vertical passing game - not exactly Hastings' strong suit...and that Lambson is a problem. Has tremendous burst, is tough to see out of the backfield, packs a wallop and is a workhorse. 20 rushes for 183 yards and a long of 46 for a 9.2 yd average...and 2 scores. Sometimes coming off a career performance can be difficult as it's tough to match that effort when the next opponent aims to completely shut you down. Davis better aim to shut him down, because the Cedar City Birds do not chuck it all that often, they can be effective when they do, but the Aggie secondary and LB corps could easily pick off SUU 2 or 3 times next Saturday if things get forced for them.
SUU also held UTEP to 124 yards rushing - and I imagine they will key on Lan, and force Hastings to beat them if they manage to contain Larison to 3 or 4 yards a carry.
I will say also that playing @ SUU is not an easy contest. Not sure if Davis is chartering direct to Cedar City or if they're taking the relatively short drive from Vegas...hope the travel is minimal. The Eccles Coliseum is quite the strange little venue - surrounded by a track, and essentially nothing but Toomey bleachers on the visitors side. Things can feel a little bit like a well attended scrimmage.
QB Jackson Berry is very mobile and can break loose. #21 RB Wissler is also a tough ball carrier to pick up out of the backfield. -
AggieFinn
467For what it's worth, some recorded highlights of the SUU @ UTEP game:
https://youtu.be/yagNFl4e6vU?si=STFzE0bcAc3Xakyb
Watching a lot of this, got to say that UTEP looked really, really soft defensively. Give credit to SUU, they got after them...UTEP did have a lot of speed on offense, and they gave SUU a ton of issues downfield. -
Aggie Pride Podcast
131Scott Marsh and Scott Gordon are on tonight's podcast recapping Commerce and previewing Southern Utah. Any questions, comments, send our way! Not quite ready for the live recordings with fans but stay tuned in future weeks... -
Aggie Pride Podcast
131Southern Utah Preview and Bonus interview with Scott Marsh. It’s a long one so enjoy!
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NCagalum
258After watching the game, SUU offensive line and Lamson took it to UTEP in the second half. SUU QB was pretty nimble at avoiding the rush and made some plays with his legs. So in my opinion limiting their rushing yards and containing the QB in the pocket will be a key. SUU also did a pretty good job of pressuring their QB. They used 3 down lineman and a rush linebacker - and augmented that on occasion.
UTEP lost (from a strictly missed points case) because their kicker was awful. Missed field goals, including 2 chances at end of game and OT. -
Riveraggie
239Weekly press conference
High praise for.David.Meyer near end. As usual you have to guess what the question was.
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CA Forever
653Great episode as always, guys! I think that if we struggle to get the offense truly rolling (especially in the RZ) for the 3rd week in a row, we're going to be in for a looooong conference schedule.
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Riveraggie
239Plough said in the press conference above that the two teams gave them looks that Davis didn’t anticipate that were based on Davis’ known tendencies.
First two games, new offensive coordinator and head coach, yet tendencies are known clear enough to stymie the red zone offense, indicates the offense is predictable in the red zone
That and penalties like illegal procedure negating a touchdown. In commerce game thar was the wide receiver not knowing following a shift by other players whether he should be on the line or a step back. In summary, their red zone troubles are coaching related so fixable. Not due to lack of talented personnel.
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CA Forever
653Yeah, I listened to the presser and understand rookie HC moments, but fixable and will be fixed are two different things. I just hope we come up with something a little bit more creative than LL in the A gap against a stacked front.
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Riveraggie
239i think we expected a more diverse offense instead of what looks like the offense of five years ago minus the fly and wildcat plays.
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movielover
524I imagine we get the Wildcat threat if / when TT returns. And we can hope they were keeping the play calling purposefully vanilla for weeks 1 and 2. -
SochorField
148Echoing you guys...
We are only 2 games in.
I am remaining optimistic. Perhaps Plough's first couple games as HC he's feeling things out. Maybe not showing the Big Sky everything before conference play. With Lan, while there is something to be said for "give it to the best player on the field" because he can beat everyone out there, it would be good to see more creativity.
I am concerned about the QB position though, unfortunately. To my eye there are physical limitations that are just going to be there, and it shows in the play calling.
Good news is the defense is plenty good enough to keep us in games while the offense hopefully figures things out. -
SochorField
148Plough has mentioned chewing clock a few times. Maybe the conservative play calling reflects that?
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movielover
524Did we jump in the standings bc Cal beat Auburn? ... and obviously, 5 Auburn turnovers had a massive impact on the game.
This weekend will tell us a lot. -
NCagalum
258Southern Utah head coach remarks about UTEP. Later he spoke “glowingly” of El Paso, etc, but the guy comes across to me as a bit of a jerk and phony. I remember watching his video from last year and thought the same. He even seems cocky when he tries to be self-deprecating, which is ironic.
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BlueGoldAg
1.2kWow...big loss to our D with both Connors out. TAMC torched us with the pass...this game has me worried... -
Riveraggie
239I’m surprised we didn’t see Blake Antzoulatos, the transfer from Cal. He was relatively high on the depth chart at Cal, he started two games last year. The other reserve inside linebackers who played against TAMUC didn’t register any stats. Not saying they were noticably picked on..
Getting burned by big chunk plays while having a lead is one of the constants of UC Davis foootball. -
NCagalum
258Scott Gordon (refernce recent podcast) has really upped the announcing game. He has very good insight in my opinion. He echoed some of our concerns about the vanilla/predictable offense. One of the things he noted was the use of two backs 21 or 22 personnel last week on a few plays and added that a backfield of both Tompkins and Larison could provide multiple options to which the defense must react (all 3 in backfield could potentially pass). I also think that Miles has to be willing to run if there is a big hole in the defense. He pulled it down for about an 8 yard game last week. He’s never going to be a running quarterback but he needs to keep the defense honest. Sometimes the man coverage (with DBs back to line of scrimmage) present some easy opportunities.
I am also concerned about Rex Connor’s being out. I don’t think some of the chunk 4th quarter plays last week would have happened with him on the field. He is a real difference maker in both pass and run defense. -
BlueGoldAg
1.2k
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BlueGoldAg
1.2kBob Dunning takes the Ags by 10:
AGGIES over SOUTHERN UTAH ... A tough early season road test for an Aggie team that has shown flashes of greatness but still needs to play a complete game. Take the Ags by 10.[/quote
https://www.thewaryone.com/p/bobs-picks-pac-12-adds-four-schools?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2582284&post_id=148835583&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email] -
Riveraggie
239Not only were we missing Rex but from the middle of the third quarter we were playing inside linebackers who had likely never played a down before, Aaron Shebloski, and Nick Afato, playing in place of Porter. Porter like Rex really has a nose for the football.
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NCagalum
258I just hope all this talk about moving up to FBS is not a distraction to coaches and players this season.
The game at SUU should be a “business trip” and I think the Aggies have historically done well without the home distractions. I am a bit concerned between the settling in of this year’s team and coaches, let alone the noise about FBS.
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