In each FCS game this year Davis has had a lead going into the 4th quarter and have seen the opponent generate lots of yardage and cut into but not erase the lead.
The Davis play calling changes in the final quarter to where they are more interested in the time expiring than scoring or giving up points. TAMC, Southern Utah, Utah Tech, and Idaho all dramatically out-gained and outscored Davis in the final quarter. But Davis would have played differently if the score was different.

Good observation.

Its true. It seems contrary to HC talking about staying aggressive and playing the win the game.

UC Davis, Mercer join top-10 of Stan Becton's Week 6 Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll ballot

"8. UC Davis (4-1) | Previous Ranking: 14 (Where I ranked them: 11)

"Welcome to the top 10 UC Davis. I've had UC Davis just outside of the top 10 since the preseason because I needed the Aggies to show me on-field evidence of them being a top-10 team. A win over Idaho was just that.

"9. Idaho (3-2) | Previous Ranking: 4 (Where I ranked them: 1)"

"Just last week I thought Idaho was the No. 1 team in the country. The Vandals were only a two-point conversion and overtime away from remaining at the top of my rankings. However, Idaho lost. Nonetheless, I still think its resume with an FBS win and two ranked wins should keep it a top-10 team."

https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2024-09-29/uc-davis-mercer-join-top-10-stan-bectons-week-6-stats-perform-fcs-top-25-poll-ballot

Not surprised that Idaho is still top 10. Rating algorithms that use points differentials and where the game was played will leave Idaho higher than Davis as Davis had home field advantage which is worth a couple of points.

CBS Sports still had Idaho at #4 and UCD at #11.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/rankings/fcs-coaches-poll/

Podcast featuring Scott Marsh and Tim Plough regarding the game against Idaho

Congrove Computer Rankings has us at #13.

https://www.collegefootballpoll.com/fcs/rankings/

STATS poll has us also at #13, with Idaho now at #7.

https://egriz.com/threads/stats-poll-guesses-sept-29.94615/

That through 9/23 and hasn't been updated yet.

okay, I need help with the reported attendence so anyone who has been to all home games weigh in.

TAMC : 8743
Utah Tech : 14832
Idaho: 8921

There is no way there were 6000 less there Saturday compared to Utah Tech. East side was similarly full, grass similar, west side had more pockets of empty. But 6000? My guess would have been around 11000 and that the 14832 was a generous upcount with the orientation kids. So a pretty good crowd, not great.

And there is NO WAY there were only 200 more than TAMC. Something is screwy.

I have two different theories --

One is that the number is some formula like regular tickets sold or distributed and student tickets claimed or scanned. Meaning there is some sort of floor reflecting season/corporate/staff ticket counts that UCDH Stadium can't go lower than regardless of how few students or one-time fans show up, but there's a potential for spikes like for Orientation. In order for this theory to work there would have to have been some sort of ticket special or giveaways at the TAMC game (I wasn't able to make it) to make up for the lack of student attendance though.

The other theory is that maybe the Running of the First Year students weren't counted either due to the process of lining them up or an error. That could account for a few-thousand swing and put this weekend's attendance above 10K which also looked right to me.

“ There is no way there were 6000 less there Saturday compared to Utah Tech. East side was similarly full, grass similar, west side had more pockets of empty. But 6000? My guess would have been around 11000 and that the 14832 was a generous upcount with the orientation kids. So a pretty good crowd, not great.”

Absolutely. I was scratching my head when i saw the numbers reported for Idaho. I’ll ask Wednesday at the lunch with coach.

The Stats poll link is a guess,.

I can't see a 6,000 difference either.....maybe 4,000. Way fewer students in the grass and student sections. When I walked around several times, the view from the east side showed a lot of empty pockets on the west side.

Overall, the attendance drop is real (and frustrating)....see my previous whining about Californians and football.

Dead-silent student section on the opening Idaho drive is hard to watch. I mean, those boys were operating in silence.

@ 11:30 Aggie legend Jon Grant #12 with the quick shoutout. Love to hear it.

I am an avid fan and live close, yet I do not go to many games in person. Watching on TV is much more convenient, and that is on me. I can afford to go, and I am available to go.
However, watching the Idaho game on TV I noticed a sea of blue empty seats in the Team Aggie area. Aren't these seats already purchased and paid for? Where are these people? Are these seats available somewhere without being Team Aggie? I used to have Team Aggie season tickets at the Toom, but I have been priced out.

Also, at 7:22 in the first quarter, there was a timeout for something, as Idaho was driving and about to shut the door with a 2nd early score, the Aggies were in a giant huddle on the sidelines trying to regroup. Except for #19, who was too busy dancing to the piped-in music to pay any attention. I know who wears that # on offense, but I have not taken the time to see if there is a 19 on defense. I was disappointed.

I agree it was smaller than UT, but the reported from is 60% of that crowd.

The west side hasn’t been highly populated all season. Many game to game fill ins with parents or just people buying online. Part of the problem is that random fans rush down and yell in our ears ‘why didn’t we kick the damned field goal?!?!’. We need tighter security (that was you, correct?)

Was at the game Saturday. Great to see the Aggies pull out a win! Eck’s arrogance cost him crucial points. Aggies need to work on closing out games better. Don’t make it so exciting in the final minutes of the 4th qtr!

Nice seeing the freshman storm the field. The rally group need to coach them up to be loud on crucial times. Would have been easy to drown out the small Vandal contingent just North of them. Let’s dispense the star wars march on third down. It’s getting annoying.
Go Ags!

lol no idea what you are talking about...that sounds delightful though ;)

To me it seemed like at least 10,000 in attendance vs. Idaho.

part of me understands the logic and it’s hard to argue that regardless of score the Ags did win the three games they were supposed to and one they weren’t… but…

Given the historical context of being left at the altar two years in a row, there’s a case that we really need to shoot for blowing out any team we can. The committee won’t give us credit for SoS, competitive games at the top, or head to head, so in my mind the most doable path to the playoffs is racking up the passing stats making the committee feel, maybe subconsciously, that a 7 or 8 win glass cannon Shredville is just a can’t-miss phenomenon.

I honestly thought that would be this team’s identity and was a bit surprised it wasn’t, though I do like the defensive prowess.

You can see the result in the polls, where Davis just moved up a few spots. Computer rankings are going to look at the point differential, and that Davis was the home team, and conclude Davis wasn’t the better team, so leave them behind Idaho. The human opinion polls will be more likely to put Davis ahead of Idaho but not by much
Defensive prowess isn’t what comes to mind when a team gives up 150 to 175 yards and much of a lead in the fourth quarter, which Davis has done in every FCS game except Utah Tech, who they held to only 100. That would be 400 to 700 yards on a per game basis. They are a better defensive team than that, so that partly due to taking the foot off the gas on offense and playing soft coverage. It also reflects that Davis doesn’t believe it can run to close out a game, like most good teams do.

I don’t mind the new rankings at this point in the season at all! Underdogs always perform better because they are trying to prove their a better team than the critics say. Example: Idaho game. Late season is a different story because it definitely effects the playoffs.

There is no way there were 6000 less there Saturday compared to Utah Tech. — DrMike

I 100% agree, Mike, something is indeed screwy with the attendance number for the Idaho game. The east side stands looked to be slightly less the Utah Tech game and the end zones were quite a bit less full. The west side stands had quite of few barren holes too. Even so, there's no way that the total attendance was 6,000 less.

My guess is that that the Student Run somehow didn't get counted accurately or even counted at all. Team Aggie members aren't getting accurately counted either. The people who scan the tickets at the gate didn't even ask to scan our Team Aggie tags; they just motioned us through. So the Team Aggie fans aren't getting counted accurately either.

I walked around the stadium at halftime and the food trucks and food venues were doing a good business with long lines at most of them. There was a line at the merch store too. It sure looked didn't look like there were 6,000 less in attendance that's for sure.

What I saw was dated 9/30 and had the Ags at 4-1.

The NCAA FCS ranking has UC Davis at #9, Idaho at #10. Something called "Hero Sports" has the same. Massey also has the Ags at #9, but Idaho at #4. There are so many of these polls. Which one is the "official" one or is there such a thing?

The two polls on the NCAA site, the coaches poll and the FCS Stat-perform poll.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/afca-fcs-coaches-poll

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/stats-perform-fcs-top-25

With breakdown by former Montana and Pro football player, Samuel Akem