The SEC "just means more" lol

Dan was the right person at the right time but smh...

Ok i don't post often but check in daily as y'all have great insight and I'm about 2300 miles away. I was fortunate to play for the Ag's when we were D2. I was also very fortunate to play on the ONLY team to go to the national championship under the great Coach Sochor. Yes, signal all the people that say FCS is so much different than D2. Well the only difference for those who never played football is speed of the game. Average HS<Elite HS< NAIA < D3< D2<FCS<FBS<FCS<NFL. If you don't believe me watch a game at each level. Top players at the top levels can react in milliseconds which is not related to where someone played. You either have it or you don't. I have coached HS and college in CA and in the Southeast. The problem with the Ag's is the whole "we are so academic" mindset. You cannot compete with schools that have much lower academic standards than Davis. See Stanford, Purdue, Duke, etc. etc. Handcuff any great coach and they will quickly become mediocre. Coach Hawk is a great coach however if you limit who can get in and who can't equals not being able to compete with schools with much lower academic standards. Join the Ivy League if you want to ride an academic high horse.

Back in the mid-80's, UCD allowed a certain percentage of student athletes who did not qualify for admission but were accepted. I had 3 roommates who were allowed in but needed to meet with academic tutors weekly and 2 out of 3 graduated. 66% is better than schools such as UNC Chapel Hill, Syracuse, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Cal, etc. etc. This is the only way to compete in the Big Sky or any other FCS top conference. We could join the same conference as University of San Diego and Drake if we want to compete year after year but these too are not academic superpowers,

UCD administration needs to get off their butts and start caring and putting forth an effort. Start walking the walk and talking the talk. Otherwise drop back to D2 or D3. You cannot compete with much lesser academic institutions in football, basketball, baseball. If you want to be top dog in golf and tennis so be it. If you want to be tops in Physics, Animal Science (my degree), etc again so be it. The administration needs to find the happy medium as you can be be excellent in academics and sports but they need to be willing to provide assistance.

What is wrong with Cal Poly? Coach Walsh was actually a coach at my high school when I was a junior and senior...great guy and good coach.

The SEC is no joke too. I have two kids at South Carolina....excellent gameday experience. My daughter played soccer at Tennessee and transferred to USC (South Carolina). Tennessee is ok but South Carolina is the real deal!

great game!!!

Honestly, I have followed the Ags for years after my playing days ended...there were a lot of bright spots Saturday night. SDSU is a good FBS team...not Alabama but they are athletic and good. Their first string could score almost at will which is expected however we matched up well with their 2nd stringers which is more indicative of playing against FCS players. Hawk has them going in the right in direction - remember Rome was not built in a day. Go Ags from Western North Carolina!

Out East we are hoping Tennessee dumps Butch Jones (aka Sargent Carter) and hires Chip Kelly. My first thought when Dykes was fired was that Cal is going after/getting Kelly.

Movielover...I was replying to a question and in response to one article. The entire staff made for a very successful program. Foster, Arp. Biggs, Sochor, Coach V, Young, etc. had a great chemistry.

The scout team ran the opponent's defense which were on note cards. Offense scout team did the same.

Peterson, O'Brien, etc. played offense and had little contact with Foster, Arp, Young, etc. We were all under Coach Sochor however those on D worked with Foster et. al. throughout 90% of each practice. We were usually brought together to run plays against each other toward the end of practice but we stood with our position coach. On defense you would only hear from Coach Sochor if you did something wrong like when I as a freshman chased OB onto the track and he fell. OB was cool with it but, needless to say, Sochor wasn't!

Great article that truly captures what it means to wear the blue and gold.

yep heard that too

Coach Young is a great guy and eats, sleeps pigskin...excellent hire.

I think Hawk and his staff will focus a lot of their recruiting efforts on the Bay Area and Northern California whereas if you look at the roster a large majority are from SoCal. There is a large amount of untapped talent in the north. Also, there might be a return to underachievers...this is what made Boise very successful under Hawkins and continued under Peterson. Players with chips on their shoulders make some of the best players!

excellent....welcome back Hawk!