Playoffs: First round UC Davis

[Jackedforlife]

Sounds like the Aggies come into the playoffs battered and bruised with several key players with injuries that will keep them out and or somewhat limited.

[TransAmBison]

UC Davis is not playing their best ball right now. Didn't watch their loss to Sac St, but I did watch their game against EWU, and they did not look good. At home, this should be a good win for you guys.

[Roy]

Headline on the Argus e edition Sports section this Morning! "Jackrabbits qualify for first time since 2017" Then proceeds to the USD article. Honestly folks?

[OldHare]

Headline on the Argus e edition Sports section this Morning! "Jackrabbits qualify for first time since 2017" Then proceeds to the USD article. Honestly folks?

And the article made print!! The Argus has reduced the sports department to bare bones minus one.

[JackJD]

I opened up this morning’s Argus (I’m a subscriber so I’m reading the pdf version of the entire paper). At the top of page 1B there are two stories about the FCS playoff selections announced yesterday. The headline on the story in the left corner is “SDSU to host UC-Davis in first round”. One immediately sees the headline in the adjacent right corner: “Jackrabbits qualify for first time since 2017”.

What?

Cutting to the chase— the upper right corner story was about USD.

My guess is the writer of the usd story does not write the headlines so not his fault. [However; the story concludes (page 3B) with comments about not having played Western Illinois during the season (wrong) when I think he meant to refer to Southern Illinois. I suspect THAT error can be claimed by the writer.]

i looked at the Argus website— the headline has been corrected there but presumably the print version is the same as the full pdf version so it’s in mailboxes with the wrong headline.

[rabbits64]

I did go and watch some of the UCD Sac State game via ESPN+. Typical to most Big SKY teams, they are small on the o-line quick and athletic at the position players. Sac State is as well. But in both cases I think we match up extremely well. We should be able to run the ball, and do well with our front 4 on Defense. I think UC Davis is going to have some shock in 25 degree Brookings this weekend. Their game this past weekend was 70. Not trying to get ahead, but we should beat up this team and move on to Sac State. Go 1-0 and take care of business.

[TransAmBison]

So I've been looking at Sagarin, checking out scores...working on filling out my bracket. I cannot imagine a scenario where you guys don't meet Sam Houston in the semis. I think Sac St is soft, and Villanova won't be able to score much on you. Beating Sam Houston without having a bye and going on the road for the previous two games...that's gonna be a challenge for you guys.

[BTownJack]

I did go and watch some of the UCD Sac State game via ESPN+. Typical to most Big SKY teams, they are small on the o-line quick and athletic at the position players. Sac State is as well. But in both cases I think we match up extremely well. We should be able to run the ball, and do well with our front 4 on Defense. I think UC Davis is going to have some shock in 25 degree Brookings this weekend. Their game this past weekend was 70. Not trying to get ahead, but we should beat up this team and move on to Sac State. Go 1-0 and take care of business.

Do they still run the triple option that they did a number of years ago or has that coach since left?

[Jackedforlife]

With over 2500 yards passing on the season I think the aggies are running a balanced attack on offense. I think there’s a lot of RPO’s ran though based off of some of the highlights I’ve seen.

[West-River_Jack]

I trust that the coaching staff and the players are solidly looking at this Saturday for a 1 and 0 record. I, on the other hand, plan too far ahead. I planned for a first-round bye and made other plans that I cannot change for this weekend, so I will rely on the media. I look way too far ahead and plan my next trip to Dana J. Dykehouse Stadium for September 10, 2022, when the Jackrabbits host UC Davis for home opener of next season.

[rabbits64]

Do they still run the triple option that they did a number of years ago or has that coach since left?

More of an RPO.

[CA Forever]

Do they still run the triple option that they did a number of years ago or has that coach since left?

Davis fan here! You must be thinking about Cal Poly running the triple option. We've never run the triple option in the time that I've been a fan and that covers back to the early 90s.

[CA Forever]

Hey there! Let me start off by congratulating you guys on a fantastic season! Davis has had a very weird season to say the very least. We have a lot of injuries coming into this game and they definitely had at least some impact in our last 2 games against EWU and Sac. We have been battling injuries on the offensive line for a good portion of the season and our back ups just aren't consistent enough to establish a run game making life hard on our quarterbacks. Additionally making things hard on our quarterbacks is the fact that our top 2 receivers, Khris Vaughn and Jared Harrell, are both out with injury. That gets me to our actual quarterback situation though. We started the season playing Hunter Rodrigues. He looked really solid the first couple of games of the season and then got a concussion against Weber State. When he got back to playing, he just didn't look like the same quarterback. Decision making and accuracy went in the toilet. He gets pulled mid season for freshman, Miles Hastings. The Hastings experience has not been good so far. He lacks any form of mobility, which Rodrigues does have in his playbook, and doesn't have the deep ball touch which as you can imagine stunted our offense immensely. We additionally have a wildcat quarterback, Trent Tompkins, who is an incredible athlete but is very predictable as the coaching staff never has him throw the ball. On defense we have been just okay. We started the season really hot and quickly found ourselves at the top of FCS in turnover margin, but the turnovers have dried up here at the end of the season.

We played a very easy schedule this season and just didn't look good against our toughest opponents for the reasons I mentioned above. The wheels have just kind of been coming off the wagon since mid season and we haven't been able to adjust. I believe you guys win at the VERY LEAST by 2-3 touchdowns. The team doesn't look anything like the team that beat Tulsa to start the season.

[SteelSD]

UC Davis is not playing their best ball right now. Didn't watch their loss to Sac St, but I did watch their game against EWU, and they did not look good. At home, this should be a good win for you guys.

Unfortunately, neither are we. I thought our mid-season lull on D was related to Backus and Gardner being out. However, since they've been back our defense has actually played worse. Missed tackles, inability to get off the field on 3rd downs, etc. I don't know if this is due to fatigue from the long previous season or coaching, but watching missed tackles, ease of completions to underneath receivers for 6-8 yards a pop, and QB's being able to rush at will, etc. Something needs to change on this front because it appears teams have discovered holes in our defense and are exploiting it.

On offense we have also seemed to lack an identity. People say we are a balanced offense, but let's be clear. We are at our best when we establish the run and then open up the pass to when teams have to make moves to take the run away from us. Oladaokun has been good in games when the run is established, but struggles if the pass is the primary focus of the offense. We absolutely need to take the reigns off him a bit on the running game because the read runs are there for him to keep, but he simply refuses to run those. Again, a coaching decision or something on his end? Having Davis back seemed to spark the team a bit, so getting him reestablished would really benefit the offense.

The simple fact is this team has the talent to make it to Frisco, but something is off. I honestly think this is a very good playoff draw for us, but just not sure that this team is playing at a high enough level to get there. Hopefully I'm wrong.

[JACKGUYII]

Hoping we can get 10,000 at the Cal Davis game. Either way the people who show up at playoffs game are usually into it from the beginning!