After an explosive win against Southern Utah the Aggies welcome the Wildcats of Weber State to Davis as Big Sky Conference play starts this upcoming weekend. Weber comes into this contest with a 2-2 record - L 10-45 @ James Madison, L 3-48 @ Arizona, W 42-41 @ McNeese, W 38-24 vs Butler. The Wildcats are averaging 305.2 yards of offense per game, while allowing 449.8 yards per game. It's tough to know where the Wildcats really stand because they have 2 blowout losses to FBS teams, but their wins are against a now 1-3 McNeese and a Pioneer team.
Players to watch
- QB Jackson Gilkey - The Wildcat offense runs through the 6'2 215 sophomore and it's safe to say that so far this season he has STRUGGLED as a passer. Through 4 games, Gilkey has completed 48% of his passes for 555 yards. He's thrown 4 passing TDs while having already thrown 9 INTs... woof. He is a mobile QB and has rushed 206 yards with 1 rushing TD.
- RB Davion Godley - The sophomore RB had extremely modest games against James Madison, Arizona, and McNeese, but EXPLODED for 193 yards and a TD against Butler. With how the Aggies looked in run defense against Southern Utah, I would expect the Wildcats to be dialing up a lot of touches for Godley.
- WR Jayleen Record - The Wildcats leading receiver so far 10 receptions for 135 yards and 1 TD. Similarly to the Aggies, the Wildcats have not been a pass heavy team so none of their receivers have eye popping stats so far.
- LB Mayson Hitchens - Hitchens leads the Wildcat defense with 26 total tackles with 2.5 tackles for loss.
- DB Angel King - King is 2nd in total tackles with 23 and leads the team with 2 INTs.
For what it's worth, Massey is currently giving the Aggies a 72% chance of winning. If we get a good crowd and force their QB into making some bad decisions (which he has been prone to this season) then I think the Ags have a decently good shot at winning.
I fear we may have lost Winston Williams. He went out of the game with a right leg injury and was in street clothes with a leg brace in the second half. I hoping for the best but that injury looked serious...
I agee. I can't think of an Aggie game that had more explosive plays on offensive and special team (and expletive on that damned pouch kick!). this team has weapons all around. I fear we lost Williams but Dixon and Simpson are more than enough.
A big question for me is do we repeat the pattern of past years, attendance-wise? Big "Back to School Day" attendance followed by disappointing attendance the following home game:
2022
San Diego 14,394 (Welcome Back Week)
#12 Weber St. 8,822
2023
Eastern 14,724 (Back to School Day)
#13 Montana 9,576 (Homecoming)
2024
Utah Tech 14,832 (Back to School Day)
#5 Idaho 8,921
2025
Southern Utah 17,217 (Back to School Night)
Weber St. 9,000? (Ag Day)
There has to be a way to get the students to show up for more than 1 game a year.
Another question for me is the defense. I know the season is young.....
Against teams not named Washington, the Aggies are scoring 40.5 pts. a game w/ 483 ypg.
The defense is allowing 29 ppg. and 436 ypg.
In 2024 it was 23.1 ppg. and 361 ypg. (this included Cal who we held to 281 yards).
My observation is, its taking the defense a longer time this year to figure things and start making stops.....In the Utah Tech and SUU games it was well into the 3rd quarter, at least. This is likely attributed to lots of new/young guys. And it'll get better as the season goes.
Not really a speed issue, but I think this "alligator roll" tackling style getting popularized is overused at times. Sometimes you need to bring your center mass and feet to the party vs leaving your feet and trying to grab legs.
I don’t know if it is a speed issue, but if it is it may be because players put on too much weight. Linebacker is one area where almost every player adds significant weight. Porter was listed as a DB two years ago at 210 lbs, he is now listed at 220 Rutchena weighed 220 when he started several games for Cal as a freshman, he is now listed at 240.
Porter was rotating in. This year they seem to play more people on defense than last year. Now the question is who steps into the rotation in place of Mayo, and how much does he play.
Saw that as well at the Corner position. Seems #11 is the fixture, very talented but seems like they are trying to figure out who can play opposite as #3 did not play (maybe injured?)
Thinking on this further, tackling is one of those things where it's mostly reliant on positioning (being in the right place at the right time) to create optimal tackling angles. I wonder if a lot of new faces and rotations is a bigger factor here. Might smooth out as season goes, assuming it's not a skill issue. I trust the staff has great tackle-teaching methods.
#3 Ty Richardson injured in some way is my guess. . He is the D3 All American from Tufts. His brother was playing this week for USC, as a starting wide receiver. The announcers noted they don’t often say “a graduate of Tufts”
I hadn’t noticed Richardson was not playing. His place was taken by the transfer from Liberty
Allen made a impressive tackle against Washington, one of those low tackles where the ball carrier somersaults. Allen is kind of a bowling ball.
Marquis Bell started according to box score. I noticed him playing a lot.
I don’t know why this color is labeled aqua. The color aqua is about equally green and blue. Remember the bumper stickers “Keep Tahoe Blue”…..the point is to not turn it green.
Great breakdown, thanks for your work with that. With regard to the Weber stats vs. Butler, they are the equivalent of the University of San Diego (basketball schools with non-scholarship football). Weber's run game vs. Butler is less indicative of a strong rushing attack than it is the discrepancy between a Big Sky front vs. a Pioneer front 7 or 8. If I were betting, I would guess that Weber tries to follow the Southern Utah blueprint IF the personnel matches.