Back at the hotel and enjoying this thread a lot. Sucks that the feed was so bad! Really a roller coaster of a game, especially after dragging the family out to St George and down 7-24 at one point. But the comeback made it worth it.

Temperature was in the 90s but it didn’t really feel that hot. But that’s from a fan who was sitting in the stands and not playing on the field. Still, it did feel like Davis evening temperature so I would imagine the heat shouldn’t have had much of an impact on the team. Humidity wasn’t noticeable.

Proud of the way the team rallied and got it done!

After what happened to me in 1971 I never give up on the Aggie football team. For those newer to this chat group, I left the Cal State Hayward game with the Aggies down by 15 with a few minutes to go so I missed Bob Biggs leading a 16 point comeback in the final two minutes. What I almost gave up on tonight was ESPN+

We definitely were thrilled with the result. It was pretty tense. Back in Vegas for the night, going to enjoy the rest of this weekend.

Crappy feed. It sounds like after two games:

- our O line / RB are struggling
- QB play is inconsistent, protection poor?
- Pinnick was sacked six times
- defense good

Pinnick - 21-31, 253, 3 TDs, 1 INT
Rushing - Fisher 110 yds, Perez 49 yds
Nine different WRs get a reception
True Frosh 5'10" Tyler pass-me-a-Hennessy had 3 catches for 11 yards; top SoCal player stayed home
320# OL Zaire Collier had one reception - TE work?

Connor brothers combine for 25 tackles
Grad transfers Riddick, Rutchena, Richardson, Psyk and Batson (6'5" DB?) combine for 22 tackles
Multi-year problem - no sacks for our D
Two big plays turned the tide

UW beats Colorado State 38 - 21, tied 14-14 at the half.

I wouldn’t mind seeing them try Harper. Pinnick makes a lot of awful throws and poor decisions. Forcing balls to guys with too much coverage, hand offs to guys he can see will be immediately tackled, short passes to guys in the backfield that are covered. Feels like his inexperience is showing as he feels it necessary to complete the play as called no matter what. The more pressure on him the worse his decision making, same as in the Mercer game.

I managed to stay awake to the end of the game, but a pretty miserable viewing experience. Not sure if the problem was on ESPN or Utah Tech's side, but to have a feed that is pretty much unwatchable for a large part of half the game in 2025 is pretty crazy.

Obviously I'm happy that we were able to pull out the win, but unless Utah Tech goes on to have an amazing season this was still a fairly rough performance. The OL was doing Pinnick no favors with their protection (especially in the beginning of the game), but he also will need to learn when to learn when to appropriately get rid of the ball; too many negative yard plays overall either on misreads in play action or trying to get too fancy in the backfield. Awesome that Fisher broke 100 yards and his early TD was pretty impressive speed.

Defense played as well as you could have hoped given how often they were on the field. The Connors never disappoint and it was good to see some of the new guys with impact plays. Shoutout to Cofield on the outside getting a huge interception with a return as a true freshman. I'm also glad that Ridley finally got FG conversion, but concerns that we've had 2 FGs blocked through the Mercer and UT games.

I figured that there would be growing pains with a new QB, no Lan Larison, and a young WR corps, but they still have a whoooole lot to work out before conference play because Big Sky teams will chew us up if we play like we did in the first half tonight. At the end of the day, a win is a win and I'm glad the guys didn't give up. GO AGS!

The recording of the game is corrupted, looking like French Impressionist art.. Probably a inadequate internet connection from the school. French Impressionist style

I don’t want to hang everything on Pinnick, but he seems to force plays when they are falling apart. Tagging on what CAforever said, maybe its a maturing process. Mercer had him figured out in the second half. UT came in with game film and used their edge rushers to keep pressure on him. Our D got it together in the second half. We didn’t have the benefit of seeing what their offense could do before the game.

Very impressive comeback. This game will be used for future growth.

We have to get our TEs in the game plan. Special teams continues to struggle.

The only cringe-inducing pass I remember from Pinnack was the bomb that turned into a PI. We had a guy wide open (I think, picture was blurry!) but he throw deep into 3 defenders. Got lucky there.

Last year, offense and Hastings struggled early in the year especially against defenses that they hadn’t expected (Portland was the weird mid season overall). I think the OL comes around and both the run game and pass protection picks up. If so, there’s speed and weapons out there!

I remain unconvinced that we don’t need a dedicated QB coach. Plough can’t mentor QBs, especially during a game, the offensive coordinator/qb coach never played the position. We spent the last two years talking about how Miles Hastings struggled when Cody Hawkins left, and Miles was a fourth year in 2023.

I hate the FG line rushing out of the huddle and up to the line. Just get up there, get set and block. Instead, we risk easy FGs because someday we may pull a trick out of special teams.

The whole ‘line run out of huddle and quick snap’ has been a pet peeve for years. A tesm is moving down the field nicely then gets a crucial fourth and inches….and change what they have been doing to try to catch the D off guard. Of course, the OL usually gets a lousy push off the ball and they fail. The FG team feels that way to me.

Good point about Miles early in the season last year. Pinnick has so many talents. Once he adjusts to various defensive schemes, he will take us a long way.

Ok, I'll bring them into the conversation...Pinnick looks better than Rashada so far...

Personnel wise we seem to have positive answers from all the new guys getting playing time.
Pinnick, Vargas, Fisher, Porotesano, Dobbins, Jones, Cofield, all had very little experience, but they look good.
The defense looks talented, just needs to cut down on big plays and costly penalties, not surprising given the player turnover.
We haven’t seen AJ Hasson. Could he be the PJ who Plough said was injured during camp?

WHAT HEAD COACH TIM PLOUGH HAD TO SAY

"First thing I need to do is applaud Utah Tech, their coach has done a great job with that program, and they have improved a lot. Defensively today they gave us fits, playing an entirely new defense that took us time to prepare for. But that doesn't surprise us since they have a great defensive staff. And I thought that our defense did a great job of keeping us in the game in the first half. Our team showed a lot of fight to be able to come back and win a football game, and that's something you're looking for as a coach. And I was proud with how the team finished and responded, showing a lot of Aggie Pride tonight to finish the game. Now we focus on getting better and playing four quarters as we turn our attention to the next game."

The 17-point comeback is the biggest comeback for the Aggies since erasing an 18-point deficit at Montana in 2018

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2025/8/30/football-no-8-uc-davis-scores-24-unanswered-to-comeback-in-season-opener-at-utah-tech.aspx

Before everyone goes into panic mode, last year against Utah Tech we scored 32 points! Offenses and young QB’s usually struggle early in seasons. By week 6 Pinnick will be a star mark my words and this offense will regularly put up 40.. he’s played 2 amazing halfs. Dont get me wrong I like Grant but you have a freshman star and we’re complaining that he isn’t playing perfect football. He’s literally showing flashes of things that no QB has in the past 10 years at Davis, especially Miles..

Winston Williams needs to cut down on his penalties, I count at least 3 in 2 games

Mercer lost to Presbyterian, so maybe we have played two weak teams close. Makes me nervous about the year.

PJ is the wide receiver Laviel Pickett. Aj Hasson js healthy and serves as the sixth man at the moment.

this pass could have been ruled uncatchable as it was overthrown. The PI was a push in the back (not really) and should have been a no call.

we, of course, couldn’t see it but their announcers seemed to think it was valid -> contact early and often.

I kinda liked their announce crew but those guys were doomsayers as soon as we scored our second TD. When it got to 24-21, they had it over. Even when they got the ball down 7 with 2:00 , they were talking moral victories. I guess that’s what 11 losses does. I’m sure Scott Marsh had nights like that during the end of the Gould era.

Last week Plough was talking about how this game presented unique challenges.
1. Road trip to remote location, late kick, hot (these things are pretty standard though)
2. Utah Tech had film on us. We had nothing current on them.
3. Utah Tech entirely new defense (no idea what it’d look like
There may have been a couple other things…

He was correct. We looked like we were trying to evaluate and sort things out in the first half and come up with a plan at halftime. I think the staff knew there was a high probability we’d been down at half.

The staff was successful game-planning at halftime. Fantastic coaching job, I’d say.

The hard times.

I was listening to the radio stream for the Gould era. Marsh wasn’t so much doom and gloom, instead they would just stop talking about the game so DK could wax poetic about random Aggie and 49ers players from 40 years ago.

Williams has had two rough games. He struggled early last year in the run game and has missed a bunch of assignments last week. They’re playing a lot of two TE and getting very little production. Plough has blinders for some of these guys and somehow continues to miss the obvious, which is Fisher is the best weapon he has on offense.

Yeah I’m not stressing that much about that game. Pinnick grew as a player through it, important for a bit of adversity to happen, especially if you can have it happen early in the season. Was at the game last year and felt similar vibes watching it (obviously without needing a huge comeback). Utah tech and these early games seem to just provide some great time to get energy levels regulated and the players into the season mindset. Pinnick cleaned it up, but at the beginning seemed to not be throwing the ball away as much as the Mercer game. Just some general goofy penalties that were unnecessary too. Really think this team should warm up as the season continues.

maybe Williams has taken the pre-season accolades to his head and the personal foul penalties are likely frustration that things aren’t going his way. I have always thought that since his appearance late in the season last year, that Ian Simpson was the better weapon. He was just nasty (in a good way) last year but also has had issues with keeping his cool after the whistle. I believe Josh Gale had graduated and with his lack of playing time last year - understand his transferring but I have always thought he was our most productive and talented receiving tight end.

I kinda liked their announce crew but those guys were doomsayers as soon as we scored our second TD

I finally realized that the lead announcer did games for Weber State televised games a few years ago and more recently for a few televised Utah States games. He had a different sidekick (straight man) and I enjoyed listening to them as a comedy routine within a football game. The Utah Tech sidekick was not into nuance so the comedy was limited. I did like the comment about the academy award attempt for a personal foul by the Utah Tech player and the interpretation of the refs response “get out of here”.