Ags should handle business here. I'm looking for a big win.

I'm curious to see how Caden Pinnick plays. Will we see the guy who tore it up in the first half against Mercer or the guy who seemed to lose his composure and accuracy in the second half? I'm guessing the former, because he'll talk to the coaches about how to settle down. We tend to forget how young these guys are, despite their obvious talent.

Want everyone to remember how Miles struggled early last year. By week 6 CP should be hitting on all cylinders

I'd say its pretty easy to rattle a first year QB with pressure. If he can get comfortable enough to stay in the pocket he's going to be even more dangerous.

For what it's worth (and it's really not much this early in the season), but Massey had Mercer preseason ranked at 9 while Utah Tech is down at 71. SHOULD be a much easier game this upcoming weekend, but football doesn't always work in shoulds.

I don't have any reason to believe that Pinnick will be rattled from the Mercer game. We just need the OL to pick it up a little bit. They weren't doing him any favors in the 2nd half in terms of the pass pro.

I'm more concerned with our run game and special teams. I think our RB's are little small. Sure they are quick, but if we need that 1 or 2 yards can we get them?

Some of our best players are at the TE position. Need more plays there.

I really like our defense. Conner brothers are exceptional.

I still think Pinnick got banged up or rattled from some tough hits that affected his accuracy in the second. That with Mercer doing a better job with the edge rushing. I’m sure coach will have an adjustment to deal with various defensive schemes now that the cat is out of the bag.

With all the talk of five O line starters back, the right side of the line was affected by Main still not back from surgery, although he apparently practices. They moved Nava to guard, and Porotasano at tackle. Porotasano had only played in a few games as a redshirt last year. Point being that we didn’t have the all veteran experienced unit advertised. Played a lot of two tight ends, and tried to play power football with mixed results. There were more than a few tackles for losses on running plays, but often with our 205 lb back.

I share some of your concerns but Fisher had 84 yards on only 8 carries avg 10.5 a pop and we stopped giving him the ball.

He had that nice breakaway run in the 4th I think, but yes, Fisher looked good when he had.some space

I was pleasantly surprised by Vargas. We haven't seen him in any real capacity until Saturday.
I was joking with AggieFinn during the game about how he looks like "Lan Larison: 1.7" (not 2.0, of course... :sweat: )

The Bluebloods podcast made some interesting points. Mercer played more man coverage in the second half, which disrupts the timing on plays and Davis receivers were having a hard time getting separation and also that Davis scripts out their plays and practices those plays, when they get later in the game they need to make adjustments and run plays they haven’t practiced as much.

Vargas was a Nevada commit, who de-committed there in December after Nevada made a coaching change. So Vargas was a legitimate FBS prospect. I’m not concerned about Fishers size, he’s 180 lb now. He shown he can run inside. He is only one inch shorter and five pounds lighter than Gilliam was as a sophomore.

Fisher is a SOLID 180. When i saw him at practice up close, he was really put together.

On the radio broadcast (simulcast with an Under-9 boys soccer game), Scott Marsh was talking about how the emphasis on our collective and Team Aggie was feeding the players. This was the first year that we fed the players all 3 meals and a snack. They weighed everyone the first day of camp, and the end of camp.....every player at least maintained their weight! That's huge. We have to continue to financial support to feed them THROUGHOUT the season. Unlike many/most collectives, our group is putting their cash toward practical things like feeding the players and providing summer housing (apparently their aid runs out in July-August).

What's the best collective to give to for this?

Mike knows more about the collective than i do, but new giving choice is Champion Aggies, which replaces Team Aggie. The donation level for various benefits is higher than Team Aggie, all geared towards increasing revenues. Here’s the info on that:
https://ucdavisaggies.com/feature/champion-aggies-club

Deleted...Riveraggie and I posted at presser video at the same time.

Plough lets us know the dehydration and heat took a toll on the players. All three top wide receivers were unavailable at one point.
I had noticed prior to the long 69 yard run we were playing true Freshmen defensive linemen number 95 and 96, not necessarily at the same time, so thats why they were in the rotation.

Press conference

I believe that the Aggie football fund is the one who has funneled the most money to football. Run by former players.

https://www.aggiefootballfund.com/

When I purchased my tickets for the NAU game and brewfest, there was a hiccup with my order. Semaj Verner called me and we chatted for a bit. I mentioned that point about kids gaining weight. He said that wasn't the best thing about the three meals a day. He made it sound like it was more that the kids just don't have to spend time figuring out their own meals.

That being said, he sold me on contributing more this year to the Champion Aggies Club.

I donate there so I get the perks that go along with it

95 is a redshirt freshman but yeah a lot of young guys with expanded roles due to 8 d linemen gone from last year and 1 injured

Here's just a small breakdown on the Trailblazers

Quarterbacks
The Trailblazers return all 3 quarterbacks on their roster who took meaningful snaps last season. Redshirt junior, Reggie Graff, got the most burn as he led the team in starts as well as passing yards and rushing yards (56.9% completion rate, 1467 passing yards,10 passing TDs, 5 INTs, 565 rushing yards, 4 rushing TDs). He had an abysmal outing against the Aggies last season as he completed 7/21 passes for 95 yards with 1 TD and 2 INTs. He did have 85 net rushing yards and a TD on 17 rushing attempts. The other 2 QBs Bronson Barben and Deacon Hill, comparatively had worse seasons than Graff. Unless these guys developed significantly since the last time we played, this should be an area of concern for the Trailblazers.

Running Backs
Similarly to the QB position, Utah Tech returns a lot of guys from last season. Statistically, their top returning running back is redshirt senior, Chris Street, who had a net of 237 yards on 70 attempts and a singular TD on the season. He had a net 6 yards on 8 carries last season against the Aggies. Their top 3 returning RBs combined had less rushing yards and equal rushing TDs compared to Graff. Another area of significant weakness unless they figured something out over the off season.

Wide Receivers
Their top WR from last season, Bryce Parker, transferred out of the program which leaves their top returning statistical WR as redshirt senior, Shamar Garrett, who had 250 yards and 1 TD last season. He had 4 catches for 19 yards against the Ags last season. They did bring in a couple of young FBS transfers from BYU and Utah State so comparatively they might be at least be a little bit more dangerous than the QBs or RBs simply from an unknown factor.

Tight Ends
The Trailblazers return their starter in redshirt junior, Eric Olsen. Olsen had 259 receiving yards and 1 TD last year. Olsen participated in the game against the Aggies last season, but recorded no receiving stats. They did have their statistical leader in the TE room transfer out of the program. Eni Falayi had 417 receiving yards and 5 TDs in only 6 games last season. They have a lot of young guys on the roster so maybe a new face steps up?

Offensive Line
Per the Utah Tech 2025 preseason prospectus, the Trailblazers are returning 6 players who had at least 5 starts last season. Now they weren't a particularly strong unit as they were tied for 86th in FCS for sacks allowed and were not a strong foundation for any notable pass or run game, but at least they have game experience. This is the area on the offense where they brought in the most transfers from the FBS so maybe they see some improvement just from talent infusion

Defensive Line
The Trailblazer starting defense from last season as a whole got decimated by transfers and graduation so there will be a lot of new faces for better or worse. Their singular returning defensive lineman is redshirt senior, Layton Tanuvasa, who had 24 total tackles on the season with 1.5 sacks. He had 1 tackle against the Aggies last season. I count 4 incoming transfers on the line so they at least tried to load up with some experienced college players.

Linebackers
They return 1 linebacker who at least had play time from last season in sophomore Jace Sweeten who had 18 total tackles on the season last year. No starters from last season are returning. Otherwise every other player is a freshman or incoming transfer. Unknown for the most part of how they will perform this season.

Defensive Backs
Utah Tech returns 1 starter in the defensive back in redshirt sophomore Quncey Lejay had had 60 tackles (2nd on team) and 5 PBUs. Similarly to the rest of the defense they will be relying on mostly new names in younger players and transfers.

Specialists
They lost their starting punter from last season, but do return their placekicker in redshirt junior Ilya Uvaydov who only made 61.5% of his field goal attempts from last season. I wouldn't be surprised if a new face took over those duties because... woof...

Overall, I don't expect their offense to be much improved from last season unless young guys on the roster really stepped up their game over the offseason. The defense is almost a complete unknown. All but 2 starters are gone and a whole lot of transfers were brought in. Could be good, could be bad. Anything other than a big win for the Ags would be disappointing in my honest opinion.

This was a really helpful presser for understanding what wend down with the No Contest decision. Sounds like it was a heavy decision either way but the team has a good mindset about it.

I had a crazy idea that I'm sure can't actually work, at least not for a program of our profile, but I was imagining some sort of hotel sponsorship deal over a period of time that doesn't have an initial payment associated with it but acts as an insurance policy in case you need an extra night once every few years. Then you can say "shoutout to our partner Hyalton Mariott Western who was able to find us spare rooms so we could finish the Mercer game!" and there can be some sort of "there when you need it" theme for future video board ads for the rest of the contract.

@Zander in theory that sounds good. But the reality of the hotel business is Hilton/Marriott don’t own any property so it would be corporate reimbursing a franchisee below market and even if a property had 75 rooms available, there would be a challenge the next day that housekeeping would not be staffed or provisioned in most markets, except maybe Vegas and Orlando. Probably what you need is something closer to travel/trip interruption insurance like you might get for a cruise in hurricane season.

Me and SochorField will be at Vdara. Come say hi in Vegas if you're hanging out Friday/Saturday morning. Texas is playing at Ohio State at 9 am on Saturday - we're heading to St. George early/mid afternoon - 8 pm kick St. George time. 2 hour drive from Vegas.

Tix are $8...$8! Cheap for sure, parking maybe $5 we'll see.

Finn, are you sure about 7pm local? The website says 7pm PT, which should mean 8pm local. Maybe I’m reading it wrong, lol.

8pm Mountain, 7pm Pacific kick.