They made it an orientation event and combined it with artificial scarcity (not only with mobile ticketing and "sellout" terminology, but also asking the sophomores to show up two hours early thereby turning it into a can't-miss "EVENT".

I think we'll see a bit of that carrying over to Idaho given the good atmosphere, Aggie win, and first-year stampede coming up. Not sure if the momentum will totally sustain but I'd expect the Sac State game to be bonkers, especially if the title is on the line.

Didn't connect the dots that that was Livingston on the sideline mic. He was pretty good. I did notice the PA seemed a little dry but didn't think much of it. Definitely feels like the game announcer could use more energy.

Yep, good point. This team is absolutely stacked with athletic talent

Asked the merch store at the game; they weren't selling masks of any type.

Meanwhile I think I saw like 4-5 variants of UCD-branded masks on campus yesterday. Very strange.

I thought the wildcat series with TT was actually really slick. 2-3 direct snap runs and then for the scoring play a handoff to LL -- the only time of the night that TT didn't take it himself after receiving the snap. Good to show that there's options there to prevent / deal with teams just selling out to pile up on TT when they see the Magic Package

If you count TT's and HR's legs is this the deepest running corps UCD's had in the D1 era? Certainly I can't ever remember being so confident in the team producing mismatches on the ground even back when Manzanares and Luuga were in the backfield

I ended up sitting near Gomez' friends and family and they were very perplexed by him not making the FG -- multiple people pointed out how it just seemed to halt at the end, so I can totally believe it was wind.

In the past few years, 4th and 20 was the situation where offense would come out and Maier pooch kicked it -- I guess HR and TT don't have practice doing that?

I'd add that some of the graphics were comical. Pixellated, squashed player pictures when introducing the team, the old horse head logo (with the no-longer-used brighter yellow-gold) behind the Aggie player profiles, Dixie State getting referred to as Cal Poly in a graphic, it pretty much was all there.

I also thought the image was SLIGHTLY stretched on at least the sideline cameras but it could have been my imagination, I was tired when I was watching the replay.

It's a good point. I don't want to conjecture too much about the Tulsa game because while I was very reactionary at the time (thought playcalling was too conservative) a massive turnover margin and ability to pound the rock and run out the clock was what won that game. But on the flip side, hindsight is 20/20 -- had Tulsa not fumbled into their end zone we would have complained about not enough explosive plays on offense.

Certainly agree with you that the two FCS games were mismatch-oriented. I also don't mind the idea of sticking to the ground against a team that can score more (were the Ags also letting the playclock run out more or was that my imagination? I remember being surprised to see a few huddles). Coach opinions on TOP as a stat aside, defense will need to stay very fresh against teams like EWU.

I'm betting the band situation was due to them just having such a long time between formal events, and most of the old Band-Uh! members graduating since the last true halftime show. Since move-in was this weekend the band maybe hasn't even practiced together for more than a day or two.

I'm hoping there's a return to form and energy later. The halftime set was a typical one of their ideas (Lin-Manuel Miranda themed) but the overall performance sounded like it needed more reps behind it.

Really feels like Maier needs to be starting somewhere at some level of pro play or start trying to work his way into FA talks in the NFL next year. Would be a shame for him to sit on Calgary's bench when he just kills it every opportunity he gets

Kentucky gets a massive pick six to clutch it out, Chattanooga had a really nice onsides attempt too. So close

Only benefit I know of is being able to play the @ 4th seed instead of @ the 1st seed in the first round. Mattered a little in some years where NDSU was obliterating everyone.

I don't believe the location selection system matters at all if you're seeded; that's a first-round construct only. My understanding is the seeded teams simply have a bye and then always host when they're playing an unseeded team or a worse-seeded team.

Having the distinguishing letter be in the middle of F_S was.... questionable for readability.

Would prefer to just call them the P5, G5, and the Championship (borrowing a page from England's book)

I would hope that the trickling in TT at WR for pass plays that we were seeing this Sat means they're building up to some fantastic trickery once defenses are used to seeing him lined up on offense for generic stuff.

The concerning part to me is that I'm pretty sure he's gotten the snap every single time he's in the backfield this season, which is a bit of a tell. I hope they bring back the formation you mentioned (I still want Dragonfly to stick!) with both HR and TT in the backfield to mix that up.

I also saw Crawford back in the action and I just imagine the fits that will cause defenses having three passers to cover

I thought it was Larison who took the snap on that trick play vs Tulsa, but I might have missed it and/or the announcers didn't name him right.

QB under center -> direct snap to halfback seems like a pretty standard and useful trick play to have in the kit; it would be weirder to me to bring out TT in the backfield specifically for that play because it pretty much screams to an opponent who did their homework that he's going to end up with the ball.

They must be including end zones in the student allotment this game, the 6,000 estimated attendance number thrown around means that they expect over half the capacity to be students. I would hope that means tactical moves to organize events by the RAs, but also might just be a logistical consequence of there being less things to do than normal in Davis this summer.

I still view that as Hawkins' signature win, more than the FBS wins against undermanned or struggling Group of 5 teams. Going down three possessions and then achieving that kind of victory margin was just a standout declaration to the FCS that things had turned the corner in Davis

Neither team has yet to make any type of kick through the uprights today, huh

I read this as forcing opponents to burn practice time on a formation they may not even see

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

#14 in STATS poll. Can't read too much into early polls but this does feel like a bit of disrespect towards the Ags considering MSU, Weber, and Eastern seem to be given much more deference for their vs FBS performances. I'm not sure UCD is actually better than 5th in Big Sky at the moment, but certainly has better than the 5th best resume