Mayo is healthy, just cramps during the game

Richardson dealing with an ankle sprain, 18 and 9 both getting reps in relief

Hear hear! They record these press conferences at such low volume that i need a silent room to be able to catch most of it when played on an IPAD.

Butler averaged 5,0 yards per rush against Weber,203 yards total so that bodes well.

Thanks for the facts. Facts are hard to come by, usually we are attempting to read goat entrails.

Too much size is not the problem at LB…8 is not real good diagnosing and 31 at edge just gets dominated against the run when he’s on the play side. Expect to see a heavy dose of power until the Ags show they can line up and make some basic run fits. 9 last year cleaned a lot of things up.

While we may need work on run defense, we should also acknowledge the great job they did - 6 TFL, 5 sacks, and 1 INT. I can't recall the last game we got 5 sacks, maybe Biggs last year?

If I talk to anybody in PR or Admin. going forward I'm making that a main point. It's junior varsity technical stuff.

Looking at Weber-Butler highlights (with a little Weber-McNeese sprinkled in), I don't know if it's my computer or that the Wildcats look slow. The QB is skilled, big TE, but overall team speed on O doesn't impress. Butler, with zero scholarships, has several drives in the 4th quarter to take the lead and can't get it done. One Weber TD is on a gimmick where they lined the Offensive Tackle up in the slot and hit the TE on a pop pass from the OT's spot. 52 of the Tailback's 195 yards came on a run late in the 4th where he can't outrun the Butler secondary. Defensively, they look light. Aggies ROLL in this one.

David Meyer was really good last year and so was Bains. Tacking against SUU left a lot to be desired. Last year the Aggies were very good at tackling. Better pass rush so far this year but don’t want that at the expense of rush defense. Most of the poor tackling seemed to come at the edge and secondary against SUU from what I saw/remember.

We do have a lot of new faces on D and we seem to be playing more people. As long as we keep winning, developing depth, and staying healthy, i think we have the opportunity for a deeper playoff run.

But I do agree, it is difficult to see our D give up so many yards on the ground.

from the press conference and from my eyeball test, there was an emphasis on getting to the QB -> it seemed like we were blitzing more in the first half than i can remember use doing. that led to some pickups on 3rd downs that extended drives and kept the defense on the field a long time. i think that led to them getting worn down which led to poor tackling. SUU seemed to attack the edges, especially in the second half, and got big gain after big gain.

That being said, we held them to 7 non-garbage time points in the 2nd half.

There are 23 players listed on the defensive depth chart for the Weber game, 11 of them are new to the program, 4 of those are true freshmen. Having some growing pains.

9 last year cleaned a lot of things up. — LeFan

Meyer was a game changer.

Shout out to the Poly transfer David Meyer, who in his lone UC Davis season accomplished all of the following at Inside Linebacker:
- 2024 Buck Buchanan Award Finalist
- 2024 Walter Camp FCS All-American
- 2024 AFCA FCS All-American
- 2024 FCS Football Central All-American
- 2024 STATS Perform FCS All-American
- 2024 First Team Big Sky All-Conference
- Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week (Sept. 9, 2024)
- Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week (Nov. 5, 2024)
- FCS Nation National Defensive Player of the Week (Nov. 5, 2024)

...and was a key member in a defense that made it to the FCS Quaterfinals.

Program record - 64 solo tackles (in a season).

Rex Connors has the school record from last year
School Record Holde- Single Season Solo Tackles (74)
David Meyer had (drumroll) …... 73

I see he got the All Big Sky Academic team 2023 award that they gave to someone else because of the jersey number mix up. Better late than never.

Meyer's Instagram - "UC Davis record holder".
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDSvjjfzO0q/?igsh=MWlqenI1OGZyeTNwag==

Note the date. Season not ended. David set the record, then Rex exceeded it.

Aggie Pride: AUCDFBP on Spotify Link

YouTube this week vs. Weber State with Big Sky Producer Meghan Robinson: Link

In the Big Sky, Weber is #11 in run defense, allowing 227 yards per game. I'm no genius, but I'd take a guess at our game plan Saturday involves many carries.

The Aggies are #9 in passing yards per game (185 yards per game). As Pinnick gets more comfortable in the pass game, the run game will only get better.

I think the deep/medium passing will pick up. We had one drive Saturday where he missed 3 wide open passes in a row when we had really good field position; hit one of those and the drive continues and maybe we score again. Other than that sequence, i thought he was accurate and made good decisions. He hasn't hit the long ball, but on most of them the receiver has been well covered (maybe TOO well covered!).

Out of conference big sky stats are near meaningless because some teams are playing Lincoln while other play Oregon
In the two games against FCS competition, McNeese and Butler Weber gave up 7.8 yards per carry and 5.0 yards per carry respectively. I think Plough will try to be balanced. McNeese was and scored 41 points.

That sums up my thinking as well, Mike. I hope we see some improvement in our medium to deep passing accuracy this week. Pinnick doesn't have the biggest physical targets in our WR's but they've been open quite a few times this season when the ball hasn't been in a place that they had a chance to make a play. Other than that, I think Pinnick is progressing nicely.

The other area of improvement I'd like to see is in our tackling particularly around the edges. Teams are going to continue to use their speed to run wide on us around the corners as long as we continue to give up big chunk plays. I'm sure that finishing the tackles and defending the edges has been one area of focus for improvement this week.

I completely agree.....but this is all we've got. I'm far to lazy to remove FBS blowout stats from every team and recalculate. It would be cool if the BSC website folks could allow us to sort for that.

I do feel that Plough is going to try to establish the run. Things have looked pretty different from the Miles era. I'm not saying its bad at all. Pinnick is going to be an issue for defenses.

DL Toki subbed in at fullback the end of last year (goal line) and in the playoffs, right?

Recent memories playing Weber State - I believe a young Miles Hastings came in late on the road in Ogden and helped lead the Aggies to a road win 17-14 with a young Trent Tompkins trotting into the end zone for a go ahead score late in the 4th - it capped off a 15 play, 6 minute + drive. It was a very tough, defensive game on both sides. It was the post-COVID fall season in 2021.

I was there! That was a slugfest. Weber had a really good punt returner and our punting held him in check all night.