The Ags are ranked #7 in the FCS Coaches Poll.



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

Bringing back a tradition!

Unfortunately, I'll miss this one since we'll be in Paris. I'll have to watch the game on replay since the start would be 1 a.m. Paris time.

SochorField and I will be in Paris Week 2

Email said the tickets are $40. Unless my TeamAggie gets me access, I'll skip -> i'm WAY past the days of being able to drink $40 in beer, except possibly at a Giants game (2 beers?).

Here is the report on the Secondary from the Davis Enterprise. The headline says Kicking Game Lineman Competitive but the article doesn’t mention linemen, just Ridley and the Secondary.

“Plough talked about the Aggies’ defense, in the secondary where several players are vying to playing time when opponents have the football. The bulk of the players on the 2024 UCD team graduated.

“It’s hard to single out one guy in that secondary,” Plough said.
The coach thanked his staff for building up the players to cover an opponents’ passing game and running backs who bust through an offensive line and are looking for room to run.

“Feels like we’ve gone out and got some great players,” Plough said.”

Then they talk about Rex. No other DB named.
It seems easier to get classified information than to get a non all-american player’s name from a newspaper covering camp.

Any hope for the traditional position preview series on the team site? It’s that time of year.

Those days are over for me too!

“Lunches With The Ball Coach” Returns Monthly At Sudwerks

DAVIS, Calif. – Over the coming months, UC Davis football head coach Tim Plough will be spending an afternoon hosting "Lunches with the Ball Coach" at Sudwerks and fans can join him and special guests to learn more about the ins-and-outs of Aggie football.

"This is another chance for our Davis Community members and alumni to come and hear directly from myself on program updates and the inner workings of what we are doing," said Plough. "This program has always thrived on the support of the community and I enjoyed building strong ties with the Davis community, when we did this back during the winter. I'm excited to get back out to Sudwerks and meet everyone that has helped us put together a special program."

The first "Lunches with the Ball Coach" will be held on Thursday, Aug. 14 at 12 p.m. Please email Senior Associate Athletics Director, Sports Administration & Development Josh Flushman at jeflushmanatucdavisdotedu to register for this Thursday's event. Following scheduled lunches will be held on Sept. 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 13 and Dec. 11.

Each event costs $20 and fans are asked to pre-register by following this link or by emailing Flushman. Coach Plough and the Aggies can't wait to see the Davis community at Sudwerks every month through the season.

UC Davis opens 2025 on Aug. 23 in Montogmery, Ala., when they face No. 12 Mercer in the 2025 FCS Kickoff Classic. That game is set to kickoff at 4 p.m. PT and will be aired on ESPN and can be heard on Sactown Sports 1140. The Aggies open UC Davis Health Stadium on Sept. 20 when Southern Utah visits Davis for a 7 p.m. kick.[/quote

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2025/8/12/football-lunches-with-the-ball-coach-returns-monthly-at-sudwerks.aspx]

Bee write Joe Davidson hot take!
https://youtube.com/shorts/UGFkuQKxDVw?si=5dsm74RgVhdn5S6R

Joe is mistaken, it didn’t take the Aggies years to have a winning record, they were 6-5 in 2005 and 2006

Khalani Riddick rated as the number 12 FCS safety, Rex Connors number 1.
Now it would be nice to know whether Riddick is playing safety here at Davis. Is he, Batson, or someone else going to start alongside Rex?
https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2025/8/15/football-rex-connors-named-top-returning-fcs-safety-by-hero-sports.aspx

Depth chart should be out soon, right?

Sounds like Plough has to get all these guys in the starting line-up somehow. Seems like there is lots of talents there. Batson is a giant at S with playing experience at Boston College. As well as Josiah Allen @ corner from UTEP. Great problem to have.

I'd like to see you take a stab at a mock defensive starting lineup!

Batson 6'4"... fast enough to cover top receivers?

I know he had some trouble seeing the field in his career because of leg injury, that might've messed up his window to play more often, played in 7 games last year - speed to cover? Certainly length to match up with tight ends

Certainly was fast enough before he got hurt to start a bunch of games, make a lot of tackles and multiple interceptions in the ACC. Hopefully he's fully recovered by this point.

Batson reportedly had an upper body jnjury. He was great until he got injured, which finished him for that year. He came back the following but he had been replaced and maybe not 100%. Supposedly 100% now.
He was a free safety.

My guess, uninformed, and almost surely wrong is that our lineup looks like this 3-3-5
DL Carrade ?
NG Porter ( porter can reportedly play anywhere on the D-line, so we could play a bigger nose guard if desired)
DE Psyk
LB Porter Connors
LB Rutchena
Rush Goligoski ?
Boundary Safety Rex
Field Safety Batson
Nickel Riddick
Corner Allen
Other corner lots of candidates but i’ll guess Ty Richardson the transfer from Tufts.

This was waaaaay harder than I thought it would be- Riveraggie, I now understand your uncertainty about the defense. A lot of unknowns.

DL Carrillo/Carrade (?)
DL Psyk
DL D. Porter

LB P Connors
LB Rutchena
LB/End (?) Goligoski

CB Josiah Allen
CB Richardson
CB Stanley/Fowler (?)

S Rex
S Riddick

^ posted at pretty much the same time as Riveraggie...great minds think alike.....

I meant Allen, so i edited my post.

I thought maybe either Stanley/Fowler would start because they both played pretty significantly last year. I can see Batson starting for sure....all three of them definitely playing a lot

Preview. Weird that they only name Psyk, Rutchena and Ty Richardson out of our grad transfers.
Davis wouldn’t be a top 15 preseason team without players that don’t get a mention in this video, Derrell Porter, Riddick, Batson, and Allen.

It would be interesting to know if the coaches doing these previews are so lackadaisical about the effort that they do it off the cuff and leave out the transfer safeties and nose guard or whether that part of their response ended up cut out, or whether the transfers looked so unimpressive that they aren’t worth mentioning. I’m leaning towards lackadaisical.

I'd guess its editing (?)

Or first game subterfuge.

Bingo.

From study I want to believe that this Aggie front line is one of the best in history. Not overly huge but very strong intelligent and extremely mobile. But I have never really understood the concept of the 3 man front. I know that many teams have used it and still do but I still don’t get it. Please help me understand. All other aspects of the defense looks pretty solid to me. Your views appreciated.

I'd say a 3 man front allows for more flexibility and speed on defense.
3 linemen, 2 LB and 5 Defensive backs + a "rover" like Goligoski for instance who can drop into coverage as a LB or move up and rush on any given play.

Ex-Aggies, or pro ballers / coaches feel free to educate!

The idea behind having a three man line is you have moved a player off the line of scrimmage so he is harder to block and can move laterally. Teams started to go that route when there were a lot of option offenses in the 70’s. It was effective against the run.
The “new” approach is the 3-3-5, which removes a player from the traditional front seven, and provides a fifth defensive back. They went to that to counter the numerous receivers in spread offenses, they have five DBs to cover 5 potential receivers.
They can play one of the linebackers at or near the line of scrimmage, as essentially a defensive end, so in effect they can have four linemen if they want. It is harder for the offense to anticipate what the defense is going to do, which is probably the key thing. Lots of players can potentially blitz.