From the Davis Enterprise:

"You turn the ball over four times against a good football team and it's going to be hard to win," Hawkins offered. "That's the nature of the Big Sky. We have to learn from this and move on. You have to learn how to handle defeat without getting defeated."

Much of the post-game focus, however, was on Larison's status.

"He's very special," said Hawkins. "He's strong and physical and with his speed, he can leave you. That kid is blue collar all the way. He is the definition of work."

Added Tompkins, "No matter what, he'll be on the sidelines encouraging us. He's a captain. This one hurts, but that's football. Hats off to them. They play hard and they always find a way. But our confidence is still high. We still have all our goals."

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-uc-davis-lose-tough-big-sky-conference-opener-to-eastern-washington-university/article_b2be12f2-59a9-11ee-9a82-0be8cdcfaa93.html

Mike Ichiyama, a versatile football player who earned first team All-America honors as an all-purpose back in 1994. He is best known for posting consecutive 300-yard rushing games in the final two weeks of his career, becoming the first collegiate player in NCAA history to achieve such a feat. Ichiyama remains among UC Davis' all-time leaders in all-purpose yards, receptions, receiving yards, rushing yards, punt returns and kickoff returns.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-induct-six-aggie-hall-fame

THE 25-YEAR ICH
On what was roughly the 25th anniversary of Mike Ichiyama's back-to-back 300-yard games, Gilliam's 242 at PSU stands as the No. 5 single-game performance in UC Davis history... Oddly, all five games took place in November, with the No. 6 game – Jermaine Rucker's 238 vs. Saint Mary's – taking place on Oct. 25, 1996:

1. Mike Ichiyama - 309 (11/5/1994)
2. Mike Ichiyama - 305 (11/12/1994)
3. Manusamoa Luuga - 249 (11/19/2016)
4. Preston Jackson - 243 (11/13/1993)
5. ULONZO GILLIAM, Jr. - 242 (11/9/2019)

Ichiyama's performance wrote one of the great "what might have been" stories in program history... He had served as a slot receiver and return man throughout his career, but an injury to starting RB Rusty Stivers moved the diminutive Ichiyama to the backfield for his final two games... On that Nov. 5, 1994 game, the heavy downpour forced UC Davis to run: Ichiyama carried the ball a school-record 42 times... The prevailing thought was to credit the conditions... A muddy field and a small, shifty runner enjoying a one-off start at RB meant that a 300-yard rushing game was unlikely to happen again at any time soon... Yet one week later, Ichiyama broke loose for 305 on a sunny and clear day at San Francisco State's Cox Stadium... He became the second player in NCAA history to run for consecutive 300-yard games, after Northern Illinois' Leshon Johnson in 1993... The next to do so: Texas' Ricky Williams, during his Heisman Trophy season of 1998.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/11/12/football-aggies-host-bobcats-for-salute-to-heroes-home-game

I remember him. He was a fireplug running on jet fuel and, once he got going, he was like a zigzagging, steel, bowling ball on the loose. Super strong and hard to bring down!

AGS Poll Week 4:

Big Sky teams:

#2 Montana State
#4 Idaho
#7 Sac State
#18 Weber State
#20 Eastern Washington
#22 UC Davis
#25 Montana



https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?340247-AGS-Poll-Results-2023-Wk4

Ags drop 6 spots in the STATS Perform FCS Poll for Week 4:

Big Sky teams:

#3 Montana State
#4 Idaho
#8 Sac State
#13 Weber State
#18 Montana
#19 Eastern Washington
#21 UC Davis



https://www.aggiesportstalk.com/discussion/2153/fcs-regular-season-polls

The Aggies drop 5 spots to #20 in the FCS Coaches Poll for Week 4:

Big Sky teams:

#3 Montana State
#6 Idaho
#9 Sac State
#14 Weber State
#16 Montana
#20 UC Davis
#25 Eastern Washington



https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-poll

From the Sac Bee:

Eastern Washington blocked a field goal with 3:20 left and then ran out the clock to beat the FCS No. 15 Aggies 27-24 on Saturday night, moving to 11-0 all-time in the series since it began in 2005. The double whammy loss is the realization of what could be a season-ending injury for UCD’s top player and certainly the program’s most electric one in Lan Larison. The junior from Idaho and the fastest Aggie on the roster bolted for 256 yards on 22 carries, including a sizzling 78-yard scoring burst. His rushing total is the third most in program history, which dates to 1915, behind two 300-yard efforts by Mike Ichiyama in 1994.

Larison was the last one to leave Jim Sochor Field. He was without shoulder pads but wore his No. 3 jersey in the final quarter. Scores of UCD players hugged him after the game. At the very least, Larison won’t play any time soon, and the pained expressions of Aggies coach Dan Hawkins and another team leader in receiver Trent Tompkins spoke volumes of the team’s mood. Players and coaches expressed concern and compassion for their teammate and friend.

“He’s a special kid, a special player,” Hawkins said. “He’s blue collar all the way. His picture is the definition of work.”

Said Tompkins: “Lan’s one of the best players in the league. He means a lot to the team He’s a great person and a great player.”

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article279696904.html#storylink=cpy

]

The Ags lost to #11 LB 15-10 today

We may see Tompkins moving between WR and TB but i think Chukwudobe will be our starter now.

He's definitely is one of the most talented and exciting players we've ever had.

Well, this one hurt for sure and Aggie fans left the game feeling disappointed. This is a game we could have won but the TO's did us in. I'm sure the team is as frustrated as the fans are and, since we've never beaten EWU, it feels even more bitter.

I give the Aggies credit for coming back after getting down 14 early due to the TO's but this game has certainly pointed out some problems we have against tough opponents. We simply can't win against quality opponents when turn the ball over 3 times. Two of those TO's gave EWU a short field and led to 10 quick points for them.

EWU is a tough team. Let's not forget that they took Fresno State to 2OT after Fresno had just beaten Purdue on the road. Then they followed up that game by putting up an impressive 530 yards in their win over a very good SE Louisiana team. They're much better than a lot of people give them credit for.

Our defense is keeping us in these games while our offense sputters at critical moments and is turning the ball over. The D held EWU well below their average yardage per game and on the offensive end we had 435 yards to their 319. That's pretty darn good overall but the TO bug got us again.

We've had a lot of early season injuries too and it's definitely hurting us now. There were at least 4 players wearing boots on the sideline and we lost OL David Main last week too. Two WR's, Andre Crump Jr and Abe Del Real, were in street clothes also. We're thin at RB now that both Larison and Perez are out.

We're going to drop way down in the rankings especially since EWU has not been getting much respect in the polls up to this point. There's a lot of football yet to be played in the Big Sky and a lot of things can change quickly but, from what I've seen so far, we're a middle of the pack team and we're pretty beat up so every game from now on is going to tough.

Sac, Montana State and Idaho are clearly the 3 best teams in the Big Sky to date. They're all loaded.

"We've been in a lot of these (type of games) over the years, been in three of these the last three weeks. I'm not going to say we're battle-tested, but we've been tested by three different ball clubs," said head coach Aaron Best after the game.

"We got our first road victory, got our first Big Sky victory. It was a tough game. Far from perfect, but (the team) responded and we came out victorious. It's awesome."

"It was not clean, but against good teams it's probably not going to be that clean," Best added. "We were gritty, we were tough, we were resilient. All of those things that Eastern Washington football resembles, we were all those tonight and we had to be."

https://goeags.com/news/2023/9/23/football-final-ewu-27-15-ucd-24.aspx

The official attendance last night was 14,724. We really needed to win that game. That's a huge crowd for us and they went home disappointed. The question now is whether or not they'll come back.

I will say this, as great as it is to have such a big crowd, you would think that they could be more vocal is supporting the team in tight game like this against a conference team we have never beaten. It seems to me that at least half the people in the stands don't really pay much attention to the game. They spend most of the time just chatting with friends and sitting on their hands. Hell, most are even reluctant to stand up for the kickoffs which has been an Aggie tradition since the D2 days. I don't get it...

The Aggies fell to #3 USC 9-3 and #4 Pepperdine 15-11 today and will now face #11 Long Beach State for 7th place.

For the second straight day the Aggies came back from 2 sets down to win their second conference game in a row by beating Irvine in 5 sets (21-25, 22-25, 25-19, 28-26, 15-12). The Ags did the same thing yesterday beating Fullerton in 5 sets after dropping the first 2 sets (20-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-17, 15-10).

Final scores week 4:

Montana State 40 Weber State 0
Idaho State 35 Northern Colorado 21
Northern Arizona 28 Montana 14
Idaho 36 Sac State 27
Portland State 59 Cal Poly 21
EWU 27 Aggies 24

Man driving across the Causeway back to Sacramento at night is no fun with all that construction going on...traffic jams, narrow lanes, lane shifts, glaring construction lights and people driving like they think they're immortal.

:rofl:

And the EWU curse continues…

Larison is on the sideline with a big brace and an ice pack on his right knee. There goes our offense.