At least Jen and the Lady Ags took it to the Hornets!

From the Enterprise:

“We have the potential to be a good basketball team, but Sac State really took it to us tonight,” said Aggie head coach Jim Les. “We were outcoached and outplayed and everyone now knows what I’ve known all along, that Brandon Laird (Sac State head coach) is a really good basketball coach.”

“That’s Sacramento State basketball,” Laird noted. “We had a tough loss against UC San Diego and we had some heart-to-hear talks after that and our guys really responded tonight. We were fearless and aggressive and confident and it showed in the result.”

Les agreed.

“They were the aggressor right from the start,” said the Aggie coach. “We were soft and unaggressive. They contested everything we tried to do on offense and we didn’t have an answer for it. To the aggressor goes the prize of the W, so credit to them. We were just reacting to their aggression and that’s usually not a recipe for success for us.”

“We started out 2-0 and maybe got a little bit full of ourselves,” Les added. “This was a humbling experience tonight. We’ll find out who we are, but I believe in the character of this team and I’m confident we’ll respond in the right way, but we have a lot of work to do.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/uc-davis-mens-basketball-falls-to-sacramento-state/

From the Enterprise:

The Aggies enter the playoff on a two-game losing streak, dropping a 38-20 decision to Eastern Washington, followed by a 27-7 blowout at the hands of Sacramento State.

Still, UCD head coach Dan Hawkins says the past is the past and the playoff gives everyone a chance to start over.

“There are 24 teams in the playoff, so we have to show up and play hard. Only the survivors advance,” said Hawkins.

“We always stress trying to be the best version of ourselves and we weren’t that last Saturday against Sacramento State. It was certainly a humbling experience and it’s not the way we like to coach or play.”

Added Hawkins, “Nobody likes going into this after losing to Eastern and Sacramento State, but if I had told our team before the season started that we’d beat Tulsa, Cal Poly and Weber State and make the playoffs, they’d have been fired up. Right now, it’s a one-game season for everyone.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/uc-davis-football-wrap-up/

Same to you, Finn and Go Ags!

Link to the presser:

https://fb.watch/9ufk__P0uj/

I think we have to keep in mind that what I heard from a player's relative was "their emotional response" to what they say they have been hearing the accuracy of which can not be verified. However, there is no doubt that the leadership and consistency at the QB position has been an issue this year.

HR has looked spectacular for periods of time and then had some difficulties. He got replaced by Hastings and, for a true Fr QB, I think he's done a pretty good job but he has had his difficulties also. Both of them have done very well in stretches and poorly in other stretches but how much of that has to due with running for your life when the OL can't protect you very well also?

I think replacing HR after he didn't seem to be himself after he got injured was justified and giving Hastings quite a bit of time to get more experienced was fine also but, when Hastings began to struggle and the offense was practically dead in the water for quite a while, maybe HR should have been given another chance sooner. Tough call...

Well, I tend to agree with him that EWU deserved to be seeded.

Of course...the Ags play like the Kings at the Golden 1 Center... :rofl:

AINO... :rofl:

Some family members of one of our defensive players were sitting in front of us at the Causeway game. They were adamant that Rodriques should be playing and they were not happy about it. According to them, they said that Rodriiques is not injured and it was simply a coaching decision that he wasn't playing.

They seemed to have personal knowledge about Rodriques whether first hand or through their defensive player relative. They were very high on HR and they were really upset that he had been permanently benched. They said he's is an amazing kid who is very humble and quiet about not playing but they implied that "there were team members who were not happy about it."

They were not happy with our coaching staff either for a variety of reasons. I have no idea if this information is fully accurate so I've chosen not to mention the defensive players name but, it does appear that there is some credence that permanently benching HR has not been an entirely popular move.

Series history between the Aggies and the Jacks:

THE SERIES: Saturday's game will mark the eighth meeting between South Dakota State and UC Davis on the football field. SDSU leads the all-time series, 5-2, on the strength of winning each of the last four meetings and although there have been only seven previous games between the Jackrabbits and Aggies there is plenty of interesting history between the two programs.

The two programs first met in 1997, during the schools' NCAA Division II era and in what was John Stiegelmeier's first game as head coach of the Jackrabbits. SDSU came away with a 17-7 road win in that first contest on Sept. 13, 1997.

As the two schools made the leap to NCAA Division I and the FCS ranks, both were charter members of the Great West Football Conference, which began play in 2004. SDSU's first-ever game as a D-I program was at UC Davis on Sept. 9 of that year, but that matchup did not go well for the Jackrabbits, who were drubbed 52-0. The Aggies scored 24 first-quarter points and led 38-0 at the half.

South Dakota State won each of the last three games between the two programs as Great West foes and added a 12-8 home victory at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium on Sept. 15, 2012. Zach Zenner rushed for both Jackrabbit touchdowns (61, 23 yards) and linebacker T.J. Lally recorded four sacks to spearhead a stingy SDSU defense.

Each of the last four matchups have been decided by seven points or less.

SDSU and UC Davis are scheduled to play again on Sept. 10, 2022, in Brookings.

Excellent write up about the game and the Jacks here:
https://gojacks.com/news/2021/11/24/football-jacks-host-uc-davis-to-open-playoffs.aspx

The Jacks' OL is similar in size to EWU and we had no pass rush against Barriere. He sat in the pocket forever against us waiting for someone to get open. Here's what the Aggie DL will be up against:

LT Aron Johnson 6'6 300
LG Mason McCormick 6'4 310
C Wes Genant 6'4 300
RG Egan Lickiss 6'4 310
RT Garret Greenfield 6'6 295

This game will get out of hand early and fast if the Aggie offense can't move the ball and the defense gets worn down by the Jacks. They have a big OL and a bruising RB and they will wear out our defense. We'll need to play our best game of the year and have a few breaks go our way to have chance at winning. They just might be the best team we've played all season.

We've now lost 3 straight to the Hornets at the Golden 1 Center...not good!

We just had a awful first half and dug ourselves too big a hole. We had a bunch of TO's, blew several layups, couldn't buy a basket from the perimeter, got beat on defense over and over...it was a forgettable half of basketball. I'm not sure why we were so out of sync on both ends of the floor and I hope that isn't an omen of what the season is going to be like this year. We "won" the second half but it was too little, too late.

Pepper put the team on his back in the final ten minutes and you could tell he was frustrated. He plays hard every minute he's in the game. It was nice to see Cameron Ba getting minutes. Hopefully, he'll help us from 3 because we can pretty much can't buy a 3. We were only 4-17 tonight and are only shooting 26% from downtown for the season. Kane Milling looks like he's starting to be more comfortable in the offense and we need his offense.

I hate losing to Sac but we need to put this one behind us and get better. The season is still young.

I know! He's got it out for the Ags for some reason over on AGS....like he knows a whole lot about Big Sky football since his team is Delaware. I was going to respond but it's not worth the time and effort...

I’m at the game and this is really, really ugly…

I didn't think we played particularly poorly on defense in the first half against Pepperdine. They were just on fire. They were hitting everything they put up: 67% overall and 72% from 3. Many of those shots were contested and they still drained them.

We stepped up the defensive intensity in the second half and that got us back into the game but then they hit a two tough shots in the final minute that did us in.

I think we have played pretty good defense so far which is typical for Jim Les teams but the offense is a work in progress. The upside on offense has been the interior play of Anigwe which is something we having been missing for a while. However, the scoring has been concentrated among Anigwe, Pepper and Manjon and we aren't getting much help from anyone else.

Our perimeter shooting has not been very good either and we need that to be successful. Fuller is playing a lot of minutes but is in a shooting slump. Hopefully, he'll break out pretty soon.

Our opponents will continue to clog up the middle as long as we can't show we are more dangerous from the outside. Teams have been making it very difficult for Manjon to drive inside and he's having to rely more on his jump shooting.

That run and gun offense used by their previous coach is gone. They weren't very successful with it and that's probably why they had a coaching change.