Head WBB Coach Jen Gross’ 15th Aggie team opens the season at home as the second half of a basketball doubleheader on Monday night versus the William Jessup University Warriors.

Jessup, having completed the transition form NAIA to NCAA D2, comes in off a confidence-building exhibition at D1 San Jose State on October 29. Tied at the end of 3 quarters, the Spartans pulled out a narrow 91-84 win. The Warriors were led by sophomore Giselle Dogan with 24 pts., while seniors Andheya Aurelio and Hailey Hoff each added 18 pts.

With the graduation of Tova Sabel, Sydney Burns, Mazzie Harris and Bria Shine, UCD will look to seniors Nya Epps, Vic Baker, Megan Norris and Ally Fitzgerald, to set the tome. With an apparent wealth of new and returning talent ready to fill the openings, it will be exciting to watch the rotation shake out. The young-ish Aggies have the potential to be as deep as any Jen Gross team in recent memory - all 13 players look able to contribute. A strong season is certainly in the cards.

But as someone once said, “Potential means you haven’t dome anything yet.” Here's hoping that the “doing” starts on Monday night against a Jessup club that looks to challenge the Aggies.

Go Ags!

The tower was originally constructed in 1927.

While the tower debuted during football, it will continue to shine for key athletics victories and special occasions throughout the year — including the upcoming basketball season — turning a campus icon into a bright new tradition for generations of Aggies to come. During the Causeway Classic against Sacramento State, UC Davis will also honor the individuals who helped construct the tower, celebrating its legacy and enduring role on campus.

Whole announcement here: https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2025/10/31/athletics-uc-davis-lights-the-water-tower-launching-a-new-aggie-tradition.aspx

ticket sales looking good for the game!

My issue with the Big Sky, or really FCS teams, is active football message boards. I checked all three Utah teams we played this season, Mercer, Northern Arizona, and Idaho State, and practically all have dead message boards.

Aggies' 2025-26 edition meets Menlo College in the season opener. Last year, the Oaks gave UCD a surprisingly tough game with the Ags prevailing 80-70.

Awesome, just like the old days!

I’d say 200 people watching it? Playing all the songs! Got the cheer and dance teams, gunrock out.

Pep rally for football happening at the quad as we speak!

potential upset is in Cheney where it will be 55 and potentially wet

EWU defense pretty much stinks and is giving up 4.7 or 5 yards a carry depending on overall or league stats. Anything could happen on that gawd-awful red turf but I suspect Sac State will likely run all over them.

Of course Sac defense is also iffy. If they had played disciplined ball last week, they would have beat Montana. Pint muff was a big turning point not to mention hold on to-the-house kick return for TD. But Sac State and discipline are oxymorons.

Silver Dragon closed. There is another Chinese place there, Tasty Kitchen.

He's playing, a lot.

"His month began with a career-high 15 tackles in Week 5 against the Houston Texans, wearing the green dot helmet with Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton sidelined. Buchanan played every defensive snap against Houston and had the team's best grade against the run (88.9), according to Pro Football Focus.

"Buchanan followed that performance with a combined 15 tackles against the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears, and his 30 tackles in October led the team."

https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/teddye-buchanan-defensive-rookie-of-month-october-ravens-dolphins-week-9

https://x.com/ryanmink/status/1968420924828385308?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1968420924828385308%7Ctwgr%5Ef0cdb113bfa22cfca01d67695bb3768a17a2f123%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.baltimoreravens.com%2Fnews%2Fteddye-buchanan-defensive-rookie-of-month-october-ravens-dolphins-week-9

:strong:

He's one win away from getting a World Series ring as he's the hitting coach for the Blue Jays. Heard his name mentioned on a podcast just now and had to look up if it was the same guy. Pretty awesome.

So, per Coach Hawk II, the players are playing and not the coaches:

Teams that commit to running the ball at the Bengals have great success. Throwing out UNLV (FBS) and Lincoln (maybe the 2nd worse college football team in America behind Simpson up in Redding. Yes, there is a football team there), Southern Utah went for 323 on the ground, Montana State went for 328, and NAU with a very average rushing attack went for 200+. Against UNC, the Aggies looked to have a lot of success with an outside zone play. Great answer for all the 5 down fronts in the BSC. Pair that with their usual inside zone, gap schemes, and jet sweep packages, commit to 12-15 carries between the tailbacks, and we will win this game going away.

Conversely, teams that attempt 45+ pass attempts per game (removing the 20 attempts vs. hapless Lincoln) don't stand much of a chance to win vs. Top 25 teams especially. The Bengals QB is a dealer, but they don't play with Tight Ends, they throw it too much, and play with tempo which typically equates to a lot of opportunities for opposing offenses.

This game will go 3.5 hours+ in an Aggie ass whippin' of the Bengals...

Yeah, and interesting that Orr is no where to be found through all of this. I’ve mostly thought that Orr was good for them. But you’d think he would have at least showed up after the Big Sky levied the fines on Marion. But they’re done with the Big Sky so maybe it doesn’t matter to them (?).

Watching the Idaho State - Northern Arizona game the things that stood out to me.

NAU had long drives that kept the ball away from the potentially dangerous offense of ISU. ISU defense was in general poor against the run. The bengal passing game was off, mostly due to Cook being off. I think a key to this game is with the Aggie rush game being used to control things at critical periods.

We’re on our way back from Paris and we plan to be at the game even if we’re still jet lagged. These long haul flights are pretty tough on us nowadays. It takes longer for us to reset the biological clock now than it did when we were in our 30’s!

Fisher had 3 receptions in the whole game. 11 was his rushing number. He’s the best inside zone runner on the team and has been for the last three years. Should have put the game on ice early in that second half but got cute with the pass game and too much Vargas.

Yeah, I was just talking about Ivy grad transfers....I'm pretty sure nobody on scholarship in the Ivy League is transferring before graduation.

Davis offers a BS in Business now (finally), which I assume will help things for business admin portal guys.

Woo!

Very few people are showing up to Davis or Sac for FBS football on Tuesday or even Thursday night.

I think slowly and thoughtfully building for MWC football is the right way to go. And so far we've got every indication that this is the strategy.

Thank goodness for sound, responsible leadership.

“ campus update: the tvs in the memorial union and silo are all playing ads saying go to the game”
That’s awesome. Back in the day, they would have pep rally's on Fridays on the quad. Sochor would come out, the band would play, and the cheerleaders would lead a cheer. Do they ever do that anymore?

Pinnick seen in practice fully padded playing with the 1s

Agree 100%. And, GOOD FOR GRANT! 5th year guy who has been a great teammate. Great to see him notch a victory!

Our back-up QB now has some real world experience heading down the stretch, whether we see him this week or need him in a spell for future games. Having 60 minutes under his belt will no doubt slow things down, plus he got to deal with some adversity, and most critically, LED THE TEAM TO VICTORY! Those things build trust and confidence w/teammates and coaches, and improve our depth at the most important position if nothing else.

campus update: the tvs in the memorial union and silo are all playing ads saying go to the game

I had the same thoughts about UNC - they didn’t look good on either side of the ball. The 24-0 lead seemed more indicative of the gap between the teams than the final score

Thoughts from UNC:

Can't say enough about the plan that Coombs & Co. put together for the Bears. The only real threat was from our own turnovers and from the RB as a late checkdown or swing pass receiver in the pass game. #3 was LOCKED DOWN by Cofield and friends, and the game never felt as close as the score. Some missed tackles and plays but otherwise outstanding performance.

The QB played well when we were on script in the first half and he extended a few plays with his legs. Second half was abysmal. Plough gave credit to Lamb for halftime adjustments, but he was protecting his guy. Too many receivers running open with balls sailing all around them.

Kudos, however, to the commitment to the running game. The O-Line dominated, and the Wide Zone scheme was particularly effective against UNC. We looked like the '23 Niners. Our RBs are legit dudes, our TEs are legit dudes, and our OL can roll people when given the opportunity to get into a groove like they were on Saturday. Look for more of the same with some added play action moving forward, we are on to something.

Loved seeing the touchbacks, the coverage on the squib, and the money field goal to salt it away.

Rumors of Northern Colorado's ascendance are greatly exaggerated... They looked slow and smallish to me.

Feel.nothing but pride for the team coming out with the road W and such a splintered roster. All that BYE time and Pinn couldn't even play! Thanks to Harper for gutting it out and making the plays we needed. The Defense was in full Blue Force mode, what a performance. Great kicking by Hunter as well. Team win.

After a strange game on the road against Northern Colorado, the Aggies return home to take on the Hawkins family and the Idaho State Bengals. Idaho State comes into this game with a record of 2-6 and a conference record of 1-3

@ UNLV - L 31-28
@ Southern Utah - L 24-46
@ New Mexico - L 22-32
vs Lincoln (CA) - W 90-0
@ Northern Colorado - W 26-18
vs Montana - L 38-42
@ Montana State - L 14-48
vs Northern Arizona - L 18-31

They have played a tough schedule with 2 FBS games and 3 straight ranked opponents coming into their battle against the Aggies. Honestly, to start the season they were playing teams very tough. They were in striking distance against both FBS teams and were very close against Montana, but it seems like the wheels fell off the last couple of games.

The Bengals are definitely an offense first squad and they like to throw the ball. ISU is led by redshirt junior QB Jordan Cooke. He's a big boy standing at 6'4 234. So far this season he has completed 148/263 passing attempts (56.27%) for 1950 yards with 9 passing TDs and 7 INTs. He does not seem to be much of a running threat though in terms of taking off for big chunk plays. They've also gotten some burn from redshirt freshman QB Davis Harsin who has completed 36/62 passing attempts (58.06%) for 482 passing yards with 7 passing TDs and 2 INTs. He is more of a running threat than Cooke with 19 rushing attempts for 128 rushing yards on the season.

Idaho State are deep in terms of receiving threats. They currently have 4 guys who have more than 300 all of which have 30+ receptions. We have 2 guys over 300 yards and only 1 has over 30 receptions. Their top receiver is 6'6 senior Michael Shulikov who has 40 receptions for 703 yards and 5 TDs. Their second main threat is 6'4 redshirt senior Tsion Nunnally who has 40 receptions for 573 yards and 4 TDs. Whoever said you can't find big bodied productive WRs in the FCS was mistaken. Their passing game is a serious threat and it'll be interesting to see if our battered defense can contain them.

The Bengals starting RB is redshirt junior Dason Brooks who has a net of 544 yards on 81 attempts (6.7 avg) with 6 rushing TDs. Backing up Brooks is redshirt freshman Carson Sudbury with a net of 201 yards on 42 attempts (4.8 avg) with 4 rushing TDs. They are clearly a pass first team, but you can't ignore the fact that their starting RB is closing in on 7 yards per rush. They are effective when called upon.

While their offense is potent, the Bengals have had some difficulty on defense. Take away their game against Lincoln (which the Bengals should be mocked and ridiculed that they even scheduled that game) and they have only managed to keep their opponents under 30 points 1 time and that was against Northern Colorado. While both their pass and rush defense are closer to the bottom of the Big Sky standings than the top, they appear to be notably weak to the run giving up on average almost 200 yards per game. Their standout defensive player has been redshirt freshman S Rylan Leathers who has 75 total tackles, 1 INT, and 2 forced fumbles. They have gotten productive pass rush from junior LB Jackson Irwin with 4 sacks as well as senior DL Cam'ron Willis with 3.5 sacks. If Caden is healthy, the Aggie offense should be able to put together a solid day against this defense.

In terms of kicking they are averaging 46.67 yards per punt have made 11/14 FG attempts with a long of 56 yards. On 49 kickoffs, 33 have been touchbacks.

All-in-all, it's tough to peg where the Bengals really stand. They played well against a now 6-1 UNLV, though it was their fist game under new HC Dan Mullen, and were within 1 score of Montana, but then just recently had a real stinker against Montana State and lost soundly to a Northern Arizona that we beat by like 3 scores. We all saw what happened in the 2nd half against Northern Colorado. I think I can speak for us all when I say that we hope Caden is back this week and if he isn't I think we can still win this game by leaning in on Jordan Fisher and Carter Vargas, which we may have to do anyway given the Gbatu is out for the fist half of the game due to his targeting penalty.

GO AGS! BEAT THE BENGALS!

I was driving back from a hunting trip in N. Montana and caught most of the game on the radio. I was so happy for Harper in the first half but the second half was really painful to listen to. It started reminding me of that close game in Portland. Will be back for Idaho State. Go Ags!

It's 20 past midnight here in Paris and my wife and I are happy Aggie fans! Great win by beat up Aggie team that simply finds a way to win regardless of how many key players are not playing. Gritty, gutty win by the Ags!

Richardson dressed as emergency corner otherwise no

I think I may be able to tune into the radio broadcast from Paris since the kickoff is set for 12 noon PT which is 9 pm Paris time. GO AGS!!

It's always satisfying to watch someone not being able to back up their trash talk. Wood has to hope that things work out for him in the long run at Sac because he's done nothing but look like a fool this whole year.