In a sense we saw that already in 2012 when he was co-offensive coordinator under Biggs

Choate made the observation that we often utilize two tight ends to keep defenders in their base defense and then we execute “11 personnel” plays, in other words one tight end plays.

I think if we match them in physicality we win.

That was Hawkins first game at Colorado. That must have been a horrible Colorado team, Montana State followed that win off with a loss to Chadron State the next week.

Worth noting that the 2006 MSU team had beaten Dan Hawkins’ Colorado team 19 - 10.

I think we may now have our best offensive linemen starting. Amoah may have earned starting role over Lamson, who didn’t start but played. Richardson was back, as was Pettek.
We started the PSU game with two tight ends for the third straight game.

Jeff Choate is correct in saying that our big offensive games correlate with our getting the run game going.
This is a huge game for us even if we ignore the playoff picture. Our win percentage against the traditional big sky powers hasn’t been good, we need to beat one of them this season, and Montana State is our last opportunity.

When a program produced article on August 15th refers to a sophomore as
“Coach **** “ one suspects they knew.
I get not making a news release about it, but how about just leaving him out of the season preview article?
The school didn’t do the kid any favors by letting the information become public via the Cal football coverage on the week of our game.

Having a story about the linebackers and reporting what a great job the ineligible player was doing as a leader but not revealing he was ineligible was a little beyond not highlighting his ineligibility. It was deceptive.

Maybe the excessively high expectations would have been tempered if the school and media covering the team had not hidden the fact that a key linebacker was academically ineligible.
Lack of success in recruiting running backs has not enabled the overcoming of injury to one of our two proven backs.
Th Aggies aren’t as physical as Weber was In 2017 and 2019 and Eastern Washington was last year and aren't making apparent progress in that area.

It seems that we lost one offensive linemen, Pettek in the NDSU game, and now another Richardson before the Weber game.
Ford, was apparently making his first start at guard at NFSU in place of Martin, a decision I assume was based on merit. When Pettek went down, Martin took over at center. Martin had played that position throughout 2017, but was injured in first game 2018. So we should not have suffered too much from that.
What’s the story with Riley Gallant, who started lots of games for us including two last year but just a name on the roster this year?

Ford started all games after Conner Pettek was injured.
Ford first started against NDSU, replacing Will Martin. Martin then went back to center after Pettek was injured in that game.

I think the Montana State game will be a big one. We’ve lost five in a row to them. We’re still establishing ourselves in the league and regardless of the playoffs it’s important to beat the teams who’ve historically have had our number.

Remember last winter we were recruiting a running back who took a late offer from Fresno, so the fact that we don’t have many running back NLI signees on our roster doesn’t mean they haven’t tried to recruit any, but they haven’t succeeded. Going from memory we have only four running backs that were offered scholarships out of high school, Gilliam, Thomas, Spencer ( recruited as wide receiver, converted this year to RB) and Figueroa, a true freshman we’ve never seen.
Recruiting two useable running backs in three recruiting years is obviously insufficient.

Not last week. Outscored NAU 37-7 in second half

I hope we more transfers from Cal or UCLA., same educational system so smooth transfer of academic credits. We’ve lost a few to UCLA, so it’s nice to see some moving our way.

He started the first game against us, but dropped to third in depth chart. Caught one pass last year, none this. 2018 recruiting class.
Was a three star recruit out of high school, for what that’s worth.

It says something about star rating when a 3 star is offered a preferred walk-on.

Eason played five years and started all 16 games in 1985.
I don’t think we can say he doesn’t deserve to have his name up there; maybe others are more deserving but we shouldn’t read too much into the order of selection, lots of deserving candidates.

I’d like to see Casey Merrill get recognized.
Wikipedia:
Merrill spent nine seasons in professional football as a defensive end and outside linebacker. Blessed with exceptional speed (4.65 40 yard dash), Merrill became the first designated pass rusher in the NFL to line up and pass rush from both defensive line and linebacker positions. In the 1981 season Merrill had 7 sacks and 3 fumble recoveries for the Green Bay Packers. In the strike shortened 1982 season Casey had 4 sacks. In 1984 with the New York Giants, Merrill led all Giant defensive lineman with 11 sacks, including 1 in the playoffs against the San Francisco 49ers bringing Joe Montana down with a crushing hit.