Montana 31 Drake 10 at the half
South Dakota 34 Northern CO 14 at the end of the 3rd
Oregon 62 PSU 12 Final
Idaho 7 Western NM 3 at the end of the 1st

Oregon 35 PSU 7 at the half
Montana 3 Drake 0 with 4:22 to go in the 1st
South Dakota 14 Northern CO 7 with 4:50 to go in the 1st

I was trying to find some information on San Jose's RB Tyler Nevens to see how he was doing after what appeared to be a serious spinal injury. I couldn't find any updated information. The only thing being reported was that his injury occurred "from a helmet to helmet hit." There was no penalty on the play. I hope he is recovering well. Those kind of injuries are always scary.

https://www.heraldonline.com/sports/article217632485.html

I had forgotten that we had offered Nevens in 2017 and he chose SJSU over the Ags, Idaho, Montana, Montana State, NAU, PSU, and San Diego. Of course, we landed Olonzo Gilliam, Namane Modise and Tehran Thomas...not too bad!

That's good to hear. A lot of things are changing with equipment and rules so, hopefully, the game will continue to become safer for the players.

I only played a couple of years in high school before it became crystal clear to me that ramming into players who weighed up to 130 pounds more than me was going to get me killed! I got knocked silly several times and saw stars floating around but they were inside my head.

Our coach even had a drill he called "head knocking" that we all hated. He'd have us form two lines: one with the big guys facing the other line with the smaller RB's and receivers etc. Then he'd place two cones about 10 feet apart and then he would throw the ball to small guy and we'd have to run head on into the bigger guy barreling straight at us and stay within the cones. Obviously, the laws of physics favored the big guys every time and I always took a wicked hit. Being the smallest guy on the team, I was nearly ready to puke each time he'd make us do that. Eventually, I swallowed my pride and decided I'd have more fun with cool cars and pretty girls...

Soccer has really come under scrutiny lately as you noted. The scary thing about CTE is that it isn't necessarily just the big concussions that are damaging but it appears that the repeated smaller hits to the head like heading the ball in soccer can create a cumulative effect over time. Our brain simply wasn't designed to be repeatedly bumping into the interior of our skull.

I'm not privy to any information concerning Hairston's injury but I feel quite certain that, here at Davis, he was given the best medical advice available at the time and, was at some point in his recovery, cleared by the medical staff to play again. Most of the documented cases of football related CTE have come from autopsies of professional players and Hariston only briefly played in the NFL. We do know that lingering depression, suicidal ideation, anger and impulse control have been associated with CTE and Hairston was quoted as saying he felt he had symptoms of CTE. There's a lot about CTE that we still do not know and, unfortunately, CTE is the elephant in the room with the game of football.

It has only been in the last decade or so that modern brain research has revealed the very serious and deleterious effects of repeated impacts to the head which can lead to CTE over time. I recall old school coaches actually instructing defensive players to "put your helmet on the ball" as a method to try and jar the ball loose from the ball carrier. Teams also routinely gave out "hammer awards" for the most violent hits in a game and concussed players were often expected to "shake it off" and reenter the game as quickly as possible.

We now know just how dangerous all that was and the rules of the game are changing to help protect the players and strict concussion protocols are in place for all sports. We will continue to see more rule changes in the future to help protect the players, such as the possible elimination of kickoff and punt returns, and, hopefully, we will continue to see significant advances in safer equipment for the players as well. We will never be able to eliminate all the risks of playing any contact sport but it is imperative in this day and age that we always move forward with the best interest of the the safety of the players first and foremost before all else.

The game notes are up:

http://ucdavisaggies.com/documents/2018/9/6/9_8_vs_San_Diego_Game_Notes.pdf

Nas Anesi is brimming with confidence in an Enterprise article:

First things first for UCD linebacker Anesi

Excerpt: “I love getting to play against a team like Stanford, but we know we have to concentrate on this week’s opponent first,” notes Anesi, a 6-1, 230-pound junior who prepped at football powerhouse St. John Bosco in Bellflower.

“Our coaches believe we can beat an FBS team (in addition to San Jose State) and so do I. It’s just another step for us. We have some athletes here who can match Stanford’s athletes. We definitely have some great talent around here.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/first-things-first-for-ucd-linebacker-anesi/

I've watched a few sets of their games that have been live streamed and they are pretty darn good. They have a good blend of experienced and young players and they have tremendous height including with 10 players who are 6 feet and over: 2 at 6-0, 2 at 6-1, 2 at 6-2, 6-3, 2 at 6-4 and, the tallest player ever for the Ags, a 6-6 freshman.

Outstanding! According to Rivals Thorpe had offers from Air Force, Army, Holy Cross, Howard, NAU, Oregon State, San Jose State, UCD and UNLV. Lots of offers but he chose the Ags!

We'll take a UCLA transfer if they're good enough to play for us... :cool:

Ex-Aggie RB Joshua Kelley had 6 carries for 20 yards = 3.3 yards/attempt playing for UCLA against Cincinnati.

Our freshman RB Ulonzo Gilliam had 23 carries for 132 yards = 5.7 yards/attempt plus 8 catches for an additional 53 yards = 185 yards total against San Jose State.

Kelley might have had more fun playing for the Ags...

Great highlights! I sure wish this game would have been televised.

NDSU is like the Alabama of FCS currently . They know they're the big fish in a small pond and, if they move up, then they're a small fish in a big pond.

NAU 30 UTEP 10
North Alabama 34 SUU 30
Sac State 55 Saint Francis IL 7
Fresno State 79 Idaho 13
Montana 26 Northern Iowa 23

NDSU 49 Cal Poly 3 Final
McNeese State 17 Northern Colorado 14 Final
EWU 58 Central Washington 13 Final
NAU 17 UTEP 7 with 15 seconds to go in the half
SUU 10 North Alabama 10 with 6:47 to go in the 2nd

San Diego 38 Western New Mexico 9 Final

Total yards: USD 392 WNM 296
Passing: USD 25-36-1 WNM 15-29-2
Rushing yards: USD 176 WNM 80
Passing yards: USD 254 WNM 216

Nice photo gallery of the game:

https://www.facebook.com/UCDavisFootball/photos/ms.c.eJxFj1EOwEAEBW~;U8Dys~_1~_sqQ39nYwBBCg6kYkMnAcXRKqElOWAis~;w5IB0WhGBNawB1zi3ods4bAAZQPRI~_QBn36ExwOQzTLZBvSNreHSUe7rbbeTfaMBdG~;1LCF~_VGzNX.bps.a.2022945251060979/2022945427727628/?type=3&theater