Welcome to the Dirty South! Lived in NC over 30 years and have been to concerts, soccer games, etc. during May through September and scheduling anything after 5p becomes a weather crap-shoot.

Ok so then what genius decided Montgomery, AL at this time for this game?

Yea honestly wtf was this neutral site. What a joke.

Keep in mind that there are schools throughout the south and Midwest that have weather like this. No contest is an unusual outcome. But in this case, the city of Montgomery is incentivized to wrap it up and get all the security and ushers off the clock because they aren’t invested in the outcome. Incentives may be different when one of the teams operates the venue.

In reading the NCAA rules, there are 4 options when the game cannot be completed - 1. reschedule the remaining minutes at a later date, 2. Accept the current score as final if both teams agree, 3. Forfeit, 4. Declare no contest. Defers to conference policy to decide which option. In the appendix, this exact scenario is described, for a neutral site out of conference game, choosing an option should be by joint agreement of the ADs, and if they don’t agree, will default to conference policy of whichever team is designated as “home”, in this case would have been governed by SoCon policy.

I know neither team was trying to start the season like this... But what a stupid start to the season.

Although it sucks, I thought the team looked good for the most part. We are young so we got a little complacent. This actually might be a good lesson to learn early. And who knows? Maybe Mercer has a really great season which come selection time might weigh in our favor.

I’m not sure if the committee is even allowed to acknowledge this game. I think all stats were voided and erased from the history books.

I do hope that this teaches the players and maybe coaches to not become too complacent. Maybe if the lead was a lot bigger they could’ve declared this an Aggie W, so something for them to think about. Although maybe it would’ve been a no contest anyway so you can discard what I’m saying here in that case.

although we looked great at times. This looks like an uphill battle..

It all started with that unnecessary long throw. That honestly lost our momentum.

From Bob Dunning's Substack article about the game:

According to UC Davis Athletic Director Rocko DeLuca, “The decision was made jointly by the two athletic directors after much discussion.

“It is possible late in the game to declare one team as the victor, but given that it was a one-score game and Mercer had the ball near midfield, that wasn’t going to happen.”

DeLuca added, “It’s a disappointing outcome for everybody to come all this way and not have a final decision. But on the positive side, we saw some really great plays and some emerging stars. Everybody is disappointed with the decision, but it’s been made and there’s a lot of football yet to be played.”

https://www.thewaryone.com/p/mother-nature-has-final-say-as-aggie?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2582284&post_id=171783099&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

So maybe if Davis held their halftime lead and were up 3+ scores, the Mercer AD may have conceded. Not a guarantee, but the outcome of the game was not entirely out of the team's control. I hope we come out firing against Utah Tech.

I agree. If our lead would have been "insurmountable" then maybe the AD's would have agreed to give the Ags a win. The Ags won the first half but were losing the second half and Mercer was driving. They had all the momentum and the Ags were scrambling to hang on. We'll never know how it may have ended if the lightning hadn't interfered though.

What an incredibly frustrating way for all of this to play out. I guess it's good to get some of the young guys game time experience, but for both teams to go out there and risk injury for it all to just be null and void sucks. It also gives Plough and company the opportunity to go to the drawing board and figure out what Mercer did at halftime because what a tale of two halves this game was.

Keep in mind that there are schools throughout the south and Midwest that have weather like this.

Absolutely correct - pretty much anywhere east of the Mississippi you are subject to weather like this.

Sooooo how about pick a neutral location with 0% chance of this. Again this is a neutral location that was 3 hours from Mercer. Make it 3 hours from Davis… make it in another state?

This feels completely avoidable. I wouldn’t be saying this if this was a true away/home game situation but for this to be a neutral site game is an absolute joke.

Yeah or if they really want it in the South then maybe put it in a dome

^ perfect.

Starters memorialized.
After all the commentary about five returning OL starters, the right side of the line had a redshirt freshman playing tackle and the returning starter at tackle moving to guard. Played a lot of two tight end. The run blocking was not consistent.

On defense started a true freshman, the transfer from D3 Tufts, a redshirt freshman DT.. The defense was great except the big plays which was probably expected as it had so many new players and players in new roles.
The transfer from Dartmouth didn’t start but played quite a bit.

TE 0 SIMPSON,I
WR 7 DOBBINS,S
WR 8 GBATU, JR.,S
QB 12 PINNICK,C
RB 20 FISHER,J
TE 23 WILLIAMS,W
OL 52 COLLIER,Z
OL 64 RODRIGUEZ,J
OL 65 POROTESANO,D
OL 70 SIMONSON,E
OL 79 NAVA,E

DB 1 RIDDICK,K
DB 3 RICHARDSON,T
DB 4 CONNORS,R
LB 8 RUTCHENA,N
DB 10 STANLEY,J
DB 11 COFIELD,D
LB 31 GOLIGOSKI,S
LB 39 CONNORS,P
DL 90 CARRADE,T
DL 92 MAYO JR.,R
DL 94 PSYK,J

This was the last year of year for FCS “week 0” games, from now on everyone starts the same week.

I would assume the City of Montgomery, ESPN, and NCAA have some financial arrangement, kind of like why is the championship outdoors in Frisco.

In my part of Florida it is not unusual to get evening storms producing 400 strikes per hour with 0 second flash-bang, 3” per hour rain, and 60 mph wind that appear out of nowhere on radar. And it’s usually gone as fast as it appears. And then we finish outdoor football games and the parade at Disney World steps off. This was an unusual outcome even for the southeast. Anywhere you go there is risk. California could have unexpected wildfire smoke. During the Portland State game they discussed that heat on the field wasn’t far off from the 105 degree guideline to suspend the game.

Probably don’t need to worry about lightning here for these neutral hames

the INT? we blocked the following punt for a safety. That long TD run and our missed FG really hurt. Gave them life.

Mercer seemed to adjust well defensively in the second half. Loaded up the box, lots of pressure, dared us to throw deep and emphasize stopping QB runs. We were running well early in the 3Q but that disappeared - a couple false starts out us behind the chains and put more pressure on Pinnack.

From the Sacramento Bee article about the game:

Redshirt freshman quarterback Caden Pinnick, the pride of Del Oro High School in Placer County, dazzled in his Aggies debut after earning the job with a strong showing in the spring and in fall camp.

He completed his first nine passes in the first half as UCD stormed to a 21-3 lead. Pinnick passed for 141 yards and a touchdown, and he rushed for 62 yards on 15 carries and a score. Jordan Fisher led UCD with 84 yards rushing on eight carries, an average of 10.5 yards a carry.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article311826951.html#storylink=cpy

unfortunately, Caden was 4-14 after that hot start. He’ll get better - things seemed to speed up for him in the second half, and Mercer gets a lot of credit for that.

He has a bright future. Hopefully we can keep him.

Re They have apparently removed the game from ESPN. The game is still viewable, it just didn’t show the game when I selected resume, but works on restart.

7 wins for playoff eligibility was my point. Will it take 8? Maybe, but this game will be taken into account by the committee for sure.

yeah, I think you are right about stats and official counting of the game. However, if we look at it from a glass half full angle, the team went on the road to the south, played really well for a spell, and didn't take a loss. A glorified scrimmage, but one that gives us data. And this is a good thing.

Agreed. The long pass was pretty much either chuck it or get sacked as there was a defender in his face and it was equivalent to a very good punt assuming if sacked it would have been third and long. That throw showed me that he has a pretty big arm.

The missed and blocked field goals were big. Missed one looked good from the stands but I guess wide left? It dawned on me that if it hadn’t been an ESPN game with the frequent and long commercial breaks the game would have finished prior to the lightning.

Mercer really dialed up the defensive pressure in the second half and we struggled with it and we came up empty on the 2 failed FG attempts and that hurt. As you said, Pinnick will get better and we certainly saw that he can make something out of nothing when a play breaks down. He's getting a baptism by fire playing against Mercer and Washington in his first 3 games so he'll certainly be battle tested by the time conference play starts. I hope the team takes their frustrations out on Utah Tech next Saturday.