https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2022/11/14/football-ulonzo-gilliam-jr-garners-national-recognition-after-big-game-at-idaho.aspx

Plus with the coaches/AD's voting they're going to be biased. Not just in favor of their own teams but in their own conference. If their opponents are ranked higher, their wins look better or losses not as bad. — cmt

You nailed it...

Here's an article about whether Cal will offer Taylor the OC job now that Bill Musgrave has been fired:

There is no doubting Taylor’s fondness for his alma mater, as you can tell from his remarks in an interview we did last season before Cal played Sac State.

“There’s not a place that’s more special to be than Berkeley. I love the place. It’s a big part of my life,” Taylor says in the video at the top of this story. “It kind of shaped the person I am in terms of being challenged academically and athletically.

“Yeah, I would have liked to have won a Rose Bowl — that was really my only goal in going there. Obviously, we did not do that, but still great memories and a very special place to me.”

Whole article here: https://www.aggiesportstalk.com/discussion/1978/bee-article-on-sac-state-coach-taylor-and-the-prospects-for-him-moving-on

The buzz around Sac State is that they are expecting a record crowd of over 20,000. We live in Sac and are tempted to go and support the Ags but we will probably sit this one out and watch it on TV. Our experiences at the games in Sac have not been the best.

I've attended a lot of the Causeways including nearly every one at home since 1972 and many in Sac. Unfortunately, I really have not liked the vibe around the parking lot at Hornet Stadium. Too many times it was just too drunken, too rowdy, too loud and just didn't feel friendly in general. I don't mind a bit of friendly rivalry and poking fun when it's done in a welcoming manner but that's not what my experience has been when the game is at Sac.

Don't get me wrong, the majority of the Sac fans were not like that but there were a whole lot that were. I've never seen that level of rowdy behavior from the Aggie fans when the game has been in Davis though.

Interestingly, I think the rivalry has actually tamed down quite a bit since the D2 years when the Aggies dominated the Hornets for such a long time. Sac felt looked down upon and dismissed by the Aggie fans and the students would trade some pretty hostile, demeaning barbs with each other at the games. It seemed like there was a true "hatred" between the programs back then. Now, I think that there is much more mutual respect between the programs since Sac has emerged as one of the best FCS programs in the nation.

A bunch of Sac fans sat around us at the last Causeway in Davis and, believe me, it was not fun. The guy right beside me was loud and obnoxious and took delight in goading and mocking the Aggie fans while Sac was dominating us on the field. He would even pat me on the back or nudge me when Skattebo would break some tackles for another big gainer and would say things like: "I told you that the Aggies wouldn't be able to stop him. He's a beast." It was bad enough watching us getting thumped let alone having this guy boasting loudly the whole game while he slurped down yet another beer.

I think we'll sit this one out...maybe I've got Causeway PTSD... :yikes:

The FCS fans over on the anygivensaturday.com forum are at least as accurate or even more accurate in their assessments of the FCS teams than many of the other polls. Here are a few interesting comments regarding their current poll:

Most Significant Win: UC Davis Aggies
Most Significant Loss: Idaho Vandals

A few thoughts:

This could've been called the "Top 24" this week - I don't think I've ever seen so few points for #25 or such a massive gap between #24 and #25.

12 of the top 25 are from the Big Sky and CAA - you want to take a guess why the bubble is looking so tough this year???

UC Davis might be the scariest #23 team this late in the season I've ever seen - I don't think anyone wants to play them right now (after this week they'll have played 4 of the top 6 teams in the current AGS Top 25). I highly doubt there are 22 FCS teams better than they are.

https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?317999-AGS-Poll-Results-2022-SEASON-Wk-11

College Sports Madness Poll:

1. South Dakota State
2. Sacramento State
3. Montana State
9. Weber State
17. Idaho
18. Montana
22. Aggies

Notable comments:

Vandals could not stop the red hot UC-Davis team. A real mystery team. Would beating Idaho State be enough to get into the playoffs? Gonna be close.

Aggies are on fire. Winners of five in a row, but only good win was at Idaho. A win this week at Sacramento State should clinch. A loss and they're out.

Full poll here: https://www.collegesportsmadness.com/fcs-football/top-25-rankings

STATS Perform Poll:

1. South Dakota State 1343 (47 1st place)
2. Sacramento State 1297 (7 1st place)
3. Montana State 1247
7. Weber State 996
13. Montana 625
T-21 Idaho 275
24. Aggies 217

Full Poll here: https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/stats-perform-fcs-top-25

FCS Coaches Poll:

1. South Dakota State 695 (23 1st place)
2. Sacramento State 673 (5 1st place)
3. Montana State 642
10. Weber State 462
12. Montana 375

Others receiving votes:
Idaho 27
Aggies 19

Full poll here: https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-poll

That makes sense. CBS Sports got it wrong so I edited my post and posted last weeks poll. I edited my post to avoid any more confusion. Thanks for the correction.

That's what the chart shows. Is this the actual, official poll of the FCS Coaches? This just doesn't seem right yet that's what it says and updated on 11/13/22.

I've noticed this Texas transfer Linebacker #46 Ayodele Adeoye. A product of St. Louis, and the Longhorn system, but has also been ejected from two games this season. Most notably for knocking out Montana QB Lucas Johnson three weeks ago in a tightly contested home game vs. the Griz. — AggieFinn

Adeoye was ejected for targeting on the hit that took out the Montana QB Lucas Johnson. It was one of the most egregious targeting hits I've seen since they began really clamping down on players making hits with the crown of their helmets.

Sac State had Johnson stood up and not moving forward. Adeoye hesitated and then lowered his head and launched forward and high with the crown of his helmet directly into Johnson's face mask. Johnson's head snapped back and he was visibly knocked woozy by the hit. It was a dangerous hit against a defenseless player that didn't happen in a bang-bang fashion and, in my book, that's a dirty hit. Adeoye was again ejected for targeting in the Weber State game two weeks later.

It appeared to me that, early on in the games, a few of the Vandal players were understandably frustrated with how things were going. There was quite a bit of "face mask to face mask talk" going on after some of the plays and the refs didn't seem concerned about that. They just gave the players the eye and watched that it didn't go too far.

I think the ref who made the call against Tompkins could have handled Tompkins' little dance in much the same way and could have simply warned him that he was close to getting flagged.

It was a totally unnecessary call by the ref. Tompkins' little Michael Jackson move was completely harmless and didn't come close to "unsportsmanlike conduct." Ridiculous...

Taylor took a sizable pay cut to come to Sacramento State, where his base annual pay is $242,000. That’s about $1.7 million through the duration of his seven-year contract. Taylor’s 2018 base salary at Utah was $525,000, plus a bonus of $87,500, a total about 2½ times his annual take at Sacramento State, where he is the highest-paid coach.

“It’s never been about the money for me,” says Taylor, who will earn a bonus if the Hornets win the conference title. “It’s about believing in where I am and being challenged. My goal when I left Folsom High School was to one day be a head coach, and this is a great opportunity. They’re paying me well. This is where I want to be.”

https://www.csus.edu/sacstatemagazine/2019/05/terms-of-endearment.html

Post-game quotes from the Enterprise article:

“The coaches put us in good position to make plays all night long,” said Aggie quarterback Miles Hastings, who turned in his fifth straight lights-out performance by hitting 16 of 19 passes for 206 yards.

“The offensive line did a great job of opening holes for our run game and when I did drop back, they gave me a lot of time to throw,” Hastings added. “I’m happy to hand the ball off when we can run like that.”

“The fast start really helps, but we’re a good football team and we expect to start that way,” said Aggie head coach Dan Hawkins.

“We’ve been on a five-game playoff run with one more to go, so we have to win it to stay in it. But it’s not really so much about winning as it is about playing well and that’s what we did tonight. We were very efficient on offense and we didn’t turn the ball over. Any time you can do that, you’re going to be successful.”

“We knew they had been a strong second-half team,” Hawkins said of the Vandals. “We knew it, but we didn’t do anything about it. For a while there in the third quarter they were blowing through us pretty good, but then our score knocked them off schedule a bit.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-aggies-win-fifth-in-a-row/

I'm really proud of this team and the coaching staff at how they continued to stay focused and get better after a very tough, disappointing start to the season. Those 4 tough losses to good teams plus several key injuries could have sunk our season but they stayed the course and have put themselves in a position to potentially do something very special: spoil Sac's undefeated season and punch their ticket to the playoffs. Go Ags!