Here is the list of all 25 finalists:

https://theanalyst.com/articles/jerry-rice-award-freshman-finalists-fcs-football-2025

The early signing period is December 3-5. It's going to be a very busy time for the Aggie coaches trying to be in contact with our recruits and preparing for the playoffs at the same time.

The regular signing period starts February 4th. The Transfer Portal opens on January 2nd.

I don't think traffic should be much of an issue since it's Thanksgiving week and the crowd will most likely be very small unfortunately.

From Bob Dunning's Substack column:

If the Aggies prevail in their first game, they will almost certainly be headed to Fargo to take on the defending champion Bison either Dec. 12 or 13.

That matchup, of course, depends on the Bison winning their first game as well against the winner of this Saturday’s game between No. 13 Southeastern Louisiana and Illinois State.

NDSU will no doubt be heavily favored in its first game.

“Who would you rather play than the No. 1 seed?,” Plough asked.

“It would be a great challenge to go to the home of the defending champions, but a great opportunity too.”

Plough was especially happy to have a week off to prepare for the playoffs.

“Any time you can get a bye week at this time of year when you’re pretty banged up is a good thing,” said the Aggie coach.

“I’m especially happy that our guys will now get to go home for Thanksgiving, which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. We’ll practice through Wednesday this week and then they can go home and we won’t practice again until Sunday.”

https://www.thewaryone.com/p/uc-davis-receives-a-surprise-no-8?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2582284&post_id=179776202&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

I know!!

I remember Volek saying that Sac would soon be the Florida State of the west and they would no longer be playing teams like Davis. Sac has a history of making bold statements about becoming the next great football program in the west and this year was no exception

Could Plough's name come up for the Cal job now? He was an assistant coach there so he's knows the program.

It's turning out to be a banner year Aggie Athletics and the men's and women's basketball teams look like they could have very good seasons also.

Awesome! Really proud of this team and happy for them after all they've been through this season. Aggie Pride at its best!

...and Sac has now entered a barren space of FCS independent/FBS wannabe..

He made sure that being ahead of Mercer when the game was stopped was not forgotten

I think SOS and being in the Big Sky played a big role in this decision.

SOS must have played a big role in this as well as being ahead of Mercer in the No Conterst game...

NCAA won't allow free tickets to students. It's lost revenue to them. Anyone buying tickets to the game can make donations of $5 for each student ticket so that those tickets can then be given out to students.

Just got our tickets and purchased and some $5 donation tickets for students also. Hope we get a good crowd.

It's gonna be a really, big, enthusiastic crowd today. I sure hope we're just sitting surrounded by Aggie fans and not mixed in with a bunch of Sac fans!

We're leaving earlier than usual from Sacramento today. We typically get on westbound 50 at 5th street but the all the highway construction and lane changes around the West Sac exit over the bridge have made it a real bottleneck of stop and go traffic. We'll go over the Tower Bridge today and then through West Sac and get on 50 near the Causeway but that may be heavily traveled too. Hope it isn't too backed up.

We need to bring our A game, take care of the ball, play smart and control our emotions and not let the trash talk get under our skin. There's a lot on the line and emotions will be running high for both teams.

Sac will be coming in with a chip on their shoulder. They feel like they've been unfairly snubbed in the polls and have been purposefully targeted by the Big Sky officials after abruptly leaving the conference and talking down about how FCS football is really just "JV football." They've pissed off the FCS and they know they must win to get into the playoffs. They also want to make a statement that may help improve their FBS ambitions.

Make no mistake about it, the Aggies have heard all the hype and FBS talk coming out of Sac all season long and, even though nothing has been said publicly about it by the Ags, I'm sure it doesn't sit well with them either. So we need to cancel out the "noise" and play smart, inspired football without letting our emotions get in the way of our performance. Go Ags!

From Bob Dunning's Substack column:

“There were instances early where we were not playing Aggie basketball,” said UC Davis head coach Jim Les.

“We were very cool at the start, but we did show some resolve to get back into the game.”

“We had a lot of breakdowns in the second half, especially on defense down the stretch that really hurt us,” Les added.

“We did not make them uncomfortable very often on the defensive end.”

https://www.thewaryone.com/p/colorado-is-strong-down-the-stretch?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2582284&post_id=179621817&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

I hope the Ags don't overlook this game. It's a Monday night game during Thanksgiving week so there will probably be a small crowd so, with Louisiana coming in after being blown out by Santa Clara, this may be a hard game to get up for.