LOL. They've got awfully short memories if this is the worst team in recent memory.
8-5 in 2022
A combined 27-19 with 1 playoff appearance from 2015-2018.

Today was definitely a Prove It game and the Aggies most definitely did and then some. If they even lost a tight game I would have been sold on them being a solid team.

Montana St appears to be a next level Prove It game. If we go toe to toe with them, even if we lose, it's going to tell us a lot about this team.

Right up there. What a game.

I wasn’t around during the D2 days but imo it was the biggest win in program history given all the context/implications:

- The game itself: Did not just win, but won comfortably, in a very hostile environment, where all 3 phases showed up in a big way
- The season: Even losing to MSU and beating sac gives us a resume for top 4 seed.
- The program: Take the above 2 things and add a national television audience, and handily defeating not just another top 10 team this season but also one of the most successful programs in FCS. The win is huge for the momentum of our season but also for the momentum of our program. And another solid performance under the brightest lights by Lan could only have helped his draft stock, which is also ultimately good for the program.
- The record books: Establishes a new win streak for # of undefeated games in D1.

It’s hard to think of another game that comes close. Maybe our home playoff game in 2018 or the 2005 Stanford win.

I’ve been very interested this season in following other fan podcasts and forums, and the general consensus has been that UCD is good but not really that great (the Tubs guys still think Idaho would beat UCD if they played again, and a lot of Big Sky fans treat our PSU game as a loss). The team has had to prove itself over and over again and maybe after this game it will finally get the respect it deserves. To me, this game was the definition of a statement win: our coaching staff, players, and program announcing to the rest of FCS that UCD football is on the rise.

With all due respect…the biggest victory in progrum history was upsetting Stanford while still transitioning to D1.

But a natty would top that.

Biggs mentored Plough as a coach, he and Moroski let Plough call plays when Plough was 25 years old. Plough owes his coaching career to Biggs.

The season: Even losing to MSU and beating sac gives us a resume for top 4 seed. — Kerberos

Probably depends on how we lose to MSU and if/how South Dakota loses to North Dakota St to end the year. But I would think regardless of how the Montana St game goes, if we beat Sac we're getting a bye.

This is a big win for all the reasons you mention, but it is far from the biggest upset, that has to be the Stanford game.
This game Davis’ defense really stepped up. They’ve gotten a lot of credit for the last two years, but mostly for drive stopping plays, not for a complete game, like this one where they held the score down, yield little yardage, forced turnovers and turnovers on downs. Won the physical battle.

I thought the program winning @ Tulsa was also pretty special.

Do you think they've clinched at least a home game in Round 1? Is it safe to assume they'd bid for it?

Plough press availability after game[
https://406mtsports.com/uc-davis-coach-tim-plough-on-30-14-win-at-montana/video_743bfbd6-3f45-597c-8cd1-605e042f5a73.html

i don’t think bidding is involved. Sixteen team are seeded top eight get a bye, next eight get a home game.

“Whenever you play at Montana, you know no one’s going to be here in the third quarter."

Ooph, bit of a burn on the Griz fans.

The CBS-televised 1982 semifinal playoff game at The Toom vs North Dakota State was amazing. 12,700, standing room only, capacity 10,500. I think we still had a dirt track, and the field was likely in mud bowl condition. The Bison players seemed massive, nothing like NCAC competition.

Our Ken O'Brien-led team was 11-0 and the Bison were 12-0. The winner went to Texas to play for a national championship.

Kenny went down w an injury early in the second half, and our defense had to carry the day. There were three stops inside the 30, including the last red zone series with under 30 seconds in front of the overflowing student section as time expired.

why is that the case?

I would guess yes. We might lose to Sac but they’re not going to blow us out so the worst case 9-3 scenario is blown out by MSU and a tight loss to Sac. But we’d still have two wins over Idaho and Montana and two of the losses are to an FBS team and a top-2 team in FCS. I would think that’s a good enough resume to at least get a 16 seed which would be a home game.

Isn't Montana on the Playoff committee? They would want to make themselves appear better by having the Ags seeded, right?

Montana’s AD was until recently. This year the big sky rep is the sac state AD.

maybe I read it wrong. I interpreted it to mean the fans left early.

Quotes from Bobby Hauck:

"We played well at times and when we took the lead at 14-13 we felt pretty good about it and that's when they went and got the score to go up 20-14," head coach Bobby Hauck said. "We were really good out of the gate, I thought we played extremely well in the first quarter. I do think that Davis played their best game of the year. They came in here and took the win from us, and it's disappointing not to get the win tonight. We were excited to play this game, and it didn't go our way."

"The defense was really solid throughout," Hauck said. "We had a couple of guys get loose on us in man coverage where we lost them in man, and it happened on the two touchdowns and on a couple of third downs. We just didn't hold up in man coverage well enough."

"They really controlled it up front, and we didn't handle them very well," Hauck said. "They were playing some heavy boxes, and we just didn't handle them up front very well. When we decided that we weren't having much success doing that, I thought our quarterbacks struggled to see coverage. I didn't think either of our young fellas saw coverage very well and had some confusion on what they were getting in the back end."

"That was a big game. It's going to take a few days to get over that one," Hauck said. "We put a lot into it, the guys were excited to go play them and when you come up short, if you care, it's hard on you. It's hard on these guys because they care about winning and losing. It will take us a couple of days, but it turns into a really big game for us next weekend here against Portland State."

https://gogriz.com/news/2024/11/10/football-griz-drop-ranked-matchup-to-uc-davis

Great photo gallery of game here:

https://gogriz.com/galleries/football/fb-montana-vs-uc-davis-11-09-24-/4663

Not sure if it’s still the case, but when 6th, Finn and I made the trip to Missoula in 08 they allowed exit for halftime and re-entry afterwards.

Stanford was definitely the bigger upset but I don’t know if it advanced the program all that much. We were a below average Division 1AA team stuck in neutral for most if not all years from 2005 until when Hawk took over. The jury is obviously still out for how this season will shape up, how Plough will be able to build on its success, and what role this win has in all that but it just seems like in the larger context, this win has the chance to matter a lot more for the trajectory of Aggie football than the Stanford win did. Here’s hoping, at least.

We were average during the Biggs transition into FCS, and we funded only half of the scholarship limits? So Biggs did a tremendous job.

Then the wandering-eye AD took a year to land a new HC, botched hiring Hawkins, and hired a career position coach. That was a disaster.

Biggs shared on the podcast how the Hayward miracle win really solidified the team’s identity and philosophy in a way that launched the 37 year winning season streak. Every win helps your season but some do a lot more for your program than others do. That’s the metric I’m trying to apply here (without the benefit of foresight) but I completely agree that by other equally valid metrics the Stanford game was probably the greatest win in Aggie history.

yeah that’s not a knock on Biggs. He accomplished so much with far fewer resources than most others would have been able.

Davis was not below average 1AA team in most of the Biggs era. 2006 they were ranked half the season and beat Montana State on the road 45-0. In 2008 they lost to a ranked Montana team by five points in Montana
They played in a conference which often has 3 of the 5 teams ranked.North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Cal Poly were all ranked teams. They beat San Jose State in 2010. They did hover around .500 but with a tough schedule.

People are still talking about beating Stanford 20 years later and even among non sports fans.