Finally a Davis Enterprise article about the game focused on our running backs. Interesting that Ulonzo Gilliam is in the mix.

“Gilliam, Thomas and Modise have all had good camps. And I don’t think any one tailback is going to take all the snaps in our system. We feel each one has a little bit different talent and different skillset,” believes Speckman, who like any good coach isn’t about to spill the beans on a game plan for Thursday.

kind of like Sacramento State and UCD, But at least they have a web presence and some Mercury news coverage

That’s the only game in this century decided by more than four points I believe. San Jose is one of those schools that fluctuates between pretty good and poor. They were pretty good that year.

CA Forever
I think the point you make about yards per carry and number of touchdowns is indicative of him not being too explosive. I get the impression that their whole team is more grind it out than explosive.
The receivers haven’t averaged much per catch, even in their last scrimmage; possibly due to QB. Apparently their tight end is their pro prospect. Maybe they have some newcomer who is going to be more explosive.
My guess is that they will try to maintain the ball, overpower us. Our offense should be looking to fool their defensive unit which won’t have much experience. I think we are a difficult opponent for a team making wholesale changes on defense because we are varied in what we do. It’s not all about stopping Doss by a long shot. I hope we’ve improved our run game, not just with the running backs but with the linemen, where we’ll have a couple of new starters. I’ll be surprised if we don’t reach our average score, if the defense gets the ball back for us.

Just my twisted sense of humor. He’s not a thousand yard runner unless he gains a thousand yards

I think in statistics you should round up and convert to one significant figure so he’s a thousand yard runner by that method.

which was Poly. ? 6-12 ? Anyway he looks consistent.

Ginda turned pro.
So they lost their leading tackler on a team where they ranked 129 out of 130 defending the run.

They seem to be replacing their entire back 7. I think we'll be a little more sophisticated than what they've practiced against.

We've got to be improved on defense though. That's the big question in this game. We are experienced on D but need an infusion of talent from our freshmen and redshirts.
We've got some tall fast prospects as DBs, and talented linemen and linebackers, recruited over the last two years. If we get a few of the younger players winning spots by merit, it can make a big difference.

Why they should be favored by more than 4 points is a mystery to me. Only justifiable if our defense is unimproved. I don’t think that will be the case but I think we’ll know in a week

I see the old pdf versions of the game notes from prior years are no longer linked correctly and the depth chart is not in the game notes html version
I hope they do publish a depth chart a couple of days prior to game. I have no problem with OR

Any news at all about our team? Real radio silence. Are they putting in the wishbone?
So far all I have seen has been mentioned on this board. Usually we would have some position reviews other than the linebacker article in the Enterprise. I hope they put out a depth chart in the game notes

Based on comparative scores last year (Sagarin) we’d have been favored by ten. This starting rating this year in that rating system has us the underdogs by about 4. Based on what I don’t know, And we’ve had competitive games with them in the past. So I don’t think a blowout is likely.
We’re the more settled team so should be better in the first game of the season, 1st game, proven passing combinations mostly veteran line should put some points up on a team that is still figuring things out. If we get a good game from defense we should win.

I wonder what they could possibly know about our team? I haven’t seen any coverage in 10 days. Except for the happy news that we’ve had guys transfer to UCLA and ASU and win scholarships.
So it’s going to surprise them that we have a team at all.

Really the defense allowed a pretty high percentage of pass completions and the offense was heavily weighted to throwing, so I don’t think their performance was that significant. All we can take from this is they still are playing a bunch of people at QB and elsewhere

Kelley going start at UCLA. Painful to read

https://www.dailynews.com/2018/08/18/joshua-kelley-makes-an-impression-with-ucla-football/

Wasnt thinking about defensive linemen yet, butI hope the new guy is good. I suspect he’ll lose weight.

The article had examples where they recruit guys with the frame to add weight and then they get bigger lifting, or so they say.
In the article they have a guy who was 240 ending up at 350. We tend to have guys gain maybe 10 or 15 lbs.
What does that mean? Who knows?
Maybe our guys are the right size for what we do, maybe not.
Cal Polys coach Walsh says something along the lines of bigger guys are better at horizontal blocking than vertical. It seems to me that big heavy lines tend to be better at pass blocking than run blocking, maybe related to what Walsh says. In the olden days linemen got downfield to block and they had pulling guards etc which required more mobility. Pass blocking requires that the lineman mostly stays on his feet and is hard to move so being big is advantageous. Walsh says run blocking has changed and is less vertical as well,

It seems unusual for us to have players get more than moderately bigger during their career here, going by roster weight. We have one guy, Colton Lamson, whose gained 50lbs in comparison to 2017, but he’s the exception. We aren’t small on the offensive line but we don’t have guys who are 310+. Not saying that’s good or bad, just different

Kelly and Hoyt, two players who had scholarships here plus guarantee playing time left to walk on at a Pac12 school. Plus the guy from 2006 whose name escapes me.
Make it so they don’t have to sit out and we might lose more, Not a bad thing if there is a two way flow but there hasn’t been.

We deserve this wish.....We don’t have to be world class in running the ball, just good enough so that running in typical running situations is not precluded. It would make all aspects of offense better.