Hawks comment about red zone defense prompted me to look at the BigSky conference stats.
I have no idea what they indexed this on. It looks like Sac State has the best Red Zone defense, yielding only four touchdowns in 11 attempts. We’ve yielded 7 touchdowns in 15 attempts.

Red Zone Defense
Index Team G ATT % TDS R/P FG-AT FUM INT Downs
1 Southern Utah 5 24-29 82.8 18 11/7 6-7 1 0 1
2 Northern Colorado 5 24-27 88.9 14 10/4 10-12 0 0 1
3 Idaho 4 18-22 81.8 16 6/10 2-5 0 0 0
4 Northern Arizona 4 16-19 84.2 14 8/6 2-3 1 1 0
5 Eastern Washington5 14-18 77.8 13 11/2 1-2 0 1 1
6 Portland State 4 12-17 70.6 8 4/4 4-4 2 1 1
7 Idaho State 5 15-17 88.2 9 5/4 6-6 0 2 0
8 Montana 4 11-16 68.8 9 5/4 2-4 1 1 0
9 UC Davis 5 11-15 73.3 7 4/3 4-7 0 0 1
10 Cal Poly 4 13-14 92.9 10 4/6 3-4 0 0 0
11 Sacramento State 4 6-11 54.5 4 3/1 2-3 0 2 2
12 Weber State 4 10-11 90.9 8 7/1 2-2 1 0 0
13 Montana State. 5 8-11 72.7. 5 3/2 3-3 0 2 1

Thorpe looks good, but to say he’s our best receiver must have some qualifier.
The Poly defensive lineman who created the most disruption against us ( 2 sacks, 4 TFL, a tipped pass that lead to an interception, maybe another block or so) was a 6’3” 200lb. defensive end. If our guys who weigh 260 to 280 can’t block him, it’s unlikely putting a bigger slower guy in would help.

Do you think Sac is suffering for using two QBs? They switch them at any time in a drive.
I know that throughout football history there is the belief that not having a number one QB is a bad thing. I think that’s no more true than for most positions. Certainly whatever benefit derives from having a top guy depends on picking the right guy, and that has to involve giving candidates playing time.
It’s unfortunate the HR has been inconsistent enough to have to sit a game. He may or may not have lost his starting role, I think not. But I think it was a sound decision to sit him.
Hastings gained valuable experience.
The team saw that Hastings can win with/for them, which is a positive. Rather than a controversy I think they now have evidence that any of the QBs are good enough to play. If the QB is pressing because of competition that doesn’t bode well for other pressure situations.
I agree 100% that HR has a higher ceiling. I’m hoping to see him play next game. I wish both guys had better pass protection,

For what it’s worth, at end of season 2018, Sagarin had the Aggs #100.
This years team currently stands at #130.
Their algorithm is based on scores.

Based on performance so far, it edges out the 2018 team for best. That means we’ve played eight games, had an win over a top 100 FBS team, broke a loosing streak on the road over a favored and ranked Weber State team. That’s two quality wins. The 2018 team had a win over what turned out to be a poor San Jose State team and a win over an unranked Montana team.
However, it’s an incomplete season. The 2018 team won a playoff game. So that counts as a third impressive win. This team can add a third win by beating EWU or Sac or a playoff game. Anything beyond that makes them the best. I’m not too persuaded by strength of schedule because losing by 20 to Stanford doesn’t prove anything. The main thing is who did you beat and the 2018 team didn’t beat any ranked opponent, this team has done that.

It depends on whether you’re a glass half empty or half full guy.
Pretty good for a reserve.
Good enough to beat Eastern Washington - probably not.
If we had better line play with our running backs and receivers we could win with any of our QBs.

Playing multiple QBs is commonplace in college football. We’re a better team when Rodrigues is playing his best game than if Hastings is playing his best game, but if your starter isn’t producing it’s a good thing to use someone else. They are both new, so neither has really prove themselves to the extent they have a claim on the role. I think it only becomes a controversy when players start thinking the coach is playing the wrong guy, but players understand competition.

Hawkins recently said that as a player here he felt if he fumbled he would be on the bench. Hawkins repeatedly stresses that turnovers make the difference in most games. I think Hawkins benched Rodrigues to make that point.
I think we’ll see him again either as a starter of if Hastings has problems. I think the point has been made, not just to Rodrigues but to Hastings as well.

Maybe next year. As someone who is 6’4” I can attest that height doesn’t necessarily imply athletic ability.

There certainly were some challenging completions in the mix. The receivers didn’t drop any which isn’t always the case..

I’ve got to defend Hastings on the bated passes. One was a totally unblocked linebacker on a screen play where the play is designed for him to throw over that guy. The guy is just long and quick,
Others are because the pocket collapses. As mentioned Hastings is not as mobile as Rodrigues so the offensive line has to do a better job of maintaining a pocket. Hastings is as mobile as most Davis QBs of thie last decade. The disadvantage of our short QBs is that it’s harder to throw over guys.

Dartmouth lost 19-0 to Columbia today.
Funny coincidence that Dartmouth uses two quarterbacks, one a runner. But he’s a big guy.

If I watch the game again I’ll look more closely, but he wasn’t dressed to play. Not sure what he had on his legs but.not uniform pants.

If these stats are correct, the only completion failures of the night were thrown toward Harrell. Amazing that seven guys caught everything thrown to them.

UC Davis Receiving
# PLAYER NO YDS TD LNG AVG TGT C%
87 CASTLES,M 6 65 0 14 10.8 6 100
34 GILLIAM,JR 5 34 0 19 6.8 5 100
0A HUTTON,CJ 4 22 1 10 5.5 4 100
9 VAUGHN,KHRIS 4 19 0 8 4.8 4 100
2 HARRELL,JARED 3 42 0 28 14 8 38
1H TOMPKINS,TRENT 2 13 0 8 6.5 2 100
5 THORPE,BLAKE 2 12 0 8 6 2 100
6 CRAWFORD,C 2 3 1 2 1.5 2 100
8 RECEIVERS 28 210 2 28 7.5 33 85

I saw Lamson on the sidelines, it didn’t look like we’ll be seeing him back in two weeks.

It would have been nice to see us put the ball away with a ground game, like Tulsa or Weber games, I don’t think Cal Polys D is better than those teams.

Gilliam had at least three significant loss carries in the first half, I don’t recall seeing that before. Larison and Tompkins also struggled more than usual. Probably due to injured linemen.

Well,
On the bright side, they got their number 1 QB back, and scored 13 points.
And we played our backup qb and scored 24 with two second string linemen.

I wonder how much our two missing linemen affect our run issues.
We were able to put games away on the ground against Tulsa and Weber

Who will be the QB?

Smalley is having a good game.

that’s what his Ouija board is telling him