Add to that ugly low punts that only netted a decent average due to some rolling.

Passes to tight ends, 8 completions,12 attempts, 25 yards total.
Only one pass completed to Larison in six tries, for 11 yards.
Weren’t able to get a passing game going beyond the wide receivers.

My hope for this game was simply that it looked like a football game, and mostly it did.

Davis’ offense seemed less varied than in years past. They don’t have the blocking to run in running situations against Cal and they don’t feature fly sweeps anymore, so most runs are between the tackles, which they couldn’t block. Missing also were the screens they used to run.

Kickers had a bad day, after bringing in kickers to make the position competitive, the worst kicking i can recall.

If the players listed first on the Davis depth chart do indeed start, the three interior offensive line players will all be new.
Left guard will be the Stony Brook transfer Jace Rodriguez who played tackle at Stony Brook.
Center will be Zaire Collier who saw no action last year as a freshman. He may have walked on as he was set to play at a JC, but joined Davis in May of last year. 247 had him rated as a 3 star though.
Right Guard is the transfer from San Diego State. It will be interesting to see how that works out against a tough opponent.

The depth chart released in the Game Notes , listed behind Porter Connors is a name only appearing once before in these discussions.
That was when I posted a year ago:

The roster has a freshman, class of 2023, linebacker, Aaron Shebloski, a walk on, committed in May.
He has a link to a video on his twitter page of him doing 3000 pushups in a day when he was 16. Has a lot of personality.

Pretty impressive for a redshirt freshman walk-on to be high in the depth chart.

Davis gave up an easy Sac score near the end if the game to make their game seem closer than it was, so they didn’t help themselves when they knew they were in competition with Sac for that playoff spot.. Three out of four passes complete for 55 yards total and a TD in a situation where the drive started with 3:23 left.

I give some credence to the theory that Miles had something wrong with his arm, early last year.
They brought in a QB coach from North Texas who had worked under the current Cal offensive line/offensive coordinator, in a different offense, so who knows what they were telling Miles to do.

Whether Miles suffered from the situation or just is too limited will soon be known, not by the outcome of this first game but before conference play. Plough appears to have put all his eggs in Miles basket. Let’s hope he was wise to do so.

Write for California lengthy preview of UC Davis offense.

https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/uc-davis-football-offense-2024

Good read.

The 105 Scholarship limit isn’t until next year.
My opinion is that is a deplorable idea, it will result in another 20 scholarship players on rosters that don’t play, and increase the discrepancy between teams.

Two players in our depth chart, Gbatu and Dobbins share a position on and played high school football in Temecula although at different schools. Dobbins transferred to Bosco to finish. I suspect they knew each other from high school.

Not surprised but those are official stats kept by the NCAA or so I was told by David Collins when I exchanged emails with him 3 months ago about other incorrect participation stats.

He is listed as playing in 5 games.

No one verifies the box scores either.

Does anyone recall Jordan Fisher burning his red shirt year at Northern Arizona?
He and Souriolle both. Fisher had no stats just said to have participated. And he never played in any subsequent game.

We've learned to take these things with a grain of salt. Under Hawkins they used the appearance in the depth chart as a reward. I can see how that might apply to the two guys listed.

I was specifically looking for some underclassmen and glad they made the list,

We will see when they play the game, but he is the well established incumbent. I think it is just an error, unless he is injured. Tompkins is listed as a punt returner only.

Game Notes,
No ORs except for special teams.
Lots of new names, and interesting where everyone fits.
They list only two deep on offense, didn’t have room for Gale apparently.
https://ucdavisaggies.com/documents/2024/8/26/UCDWeek1_atCAL.pdf

Big upset possibility Montana State was favored by 12.5.

It is not the only path to the playoffs but it is the easiest as it doesn't require an upset. It is doable if the offense gets back to 2022 level and the defense can play at 2023 level, and key players stay healthy.

Idaho voters in polls are in denial about their losses to transfers and graduation. Davis is at home
Davis beat Sac last year more soundly than the score indicates.
Davis has never beaten E.Washington, but they would have last year except Larison’s injury in that game. Three very winnable games.