I was about to make a comment that this is the most comfortable and confident I've been in the passing game since the Maier and Doss years. But then I actually looked at the stats and in fact Pinnick is on pace for even better stats than Maier during his Big Sky PotY season in 2018.

Even ignoring his running ability (other than the extent it kept eventual pass plays alive), Pinnick's passing numbers are somewhere between really good for a RS Freshman and out of this world.

I missed the milestone when it happened last week -- in one and a half seasons Coach Plough now has more wins than the entire time I was at Davis. And two of the wins in the Gould/late Biggs era that includes were non-D1 wins.

You're right, but I'll add the caveat that even OSU as a mediocre Pac school pays so much that a) the Plough family could afford two residences and b) even if things go south a single year + buyout would be worth the equivalent of many, many years at UCD. Taking the OSU or similar job wouldn't create a meaningful financial risk or force the Ploughs to move the kids from Davis, though it would mean less time with family which we know is important for Coach Plough.

Loved the return of Tube Sock madness as both a quirky stunt to get students out and a throwback for the alumni. I know I was thrilled that they started throwing them to the East Sideline too.

Now, sitting next to a bunch of recruits (DBs from the snippets of conversations I heard) meant I didn't actually get to catch any because I was pretty well covered, but still, nice touch

Not sure how NCAA's procedures for handling these appeals will play into it but on a moral basis it absolutely makes sense that NCAA should be generous with how to count/not count the Mercer game, we drew the short end of the stick there already

That's my math as well, with the one caveat being that if we had to take a third loss NAU is likely the most tolerable. Playoff dreams are probably dead with a UNC or ISU loss though

Closest thing I can think of is I think Trey Lance in SF might have gotten injured on a designed QB run that year where Purdy was eventually discovered. I don’t feel up to searching out the clip to see that again though.

But yeah unusual, but not unheard of. Since the start of the Hawkins era there’s been something like 4-5 guys who were doing that Wildcat package and this is the first serious injury I remember

One thing that gives me pause is UCD's schedule so far has been a lot of teams with Massey rankings currently in the 30+ range (including Mercer), which is a borderline awful schedule by Big Sky standards.

Cal Poly, Idaho State, and Sac State might play us as tough or tougher than anybody has so far, and that's not to mention an NAU/Idaho tier of teams we haven't played yet and MSU a half-tier above that.

I'm personally predicting something like 31-21 or even 31-28 final score, and am bracing myself for it coming down to the fourth quarter.

I’m all for creative packages and putting in backups, defensive guys, linemen etc in as fun wrinkles, but the risk/reward of using Rex seems excessive from the outside looking in.

That said, i guess i can have some reservations because maybe Rex was showing Jalen Hurts level physicality and tenaciousness in practice and in the weight room before this, and I know that replacing LL and TT for short yardage plays was a tall order.

Good news, this week might be the one game where Rex could conceivably rest and we’d still be favorites

I remember watching the stream of that with my folks, it was a crazy comeback. UCD was still undefeated and Hunter Rodriques seemed like The Guy that season, then he went out with injury. The two freshman QBs coming in to win it on what was (thought to be) the toughest FCS game on our schedule at the time had some Pac-12 After Dark kind of vibes

Serious answer to the questions, I'll hopefully provide some insight about the council but will need to keep many details vague out of respect to how transparent and accessible the athletics department was with the committee members with its internal workings and analysis.

Basically, the council had a flurry of activity last football season with a heavy focus on idea generation for various ways to get students engaged. We ended up talking the most about football due to the timing of when the council had most of its meetings, but that was not intended to be the only focus on the council and many discussions were broadly applicable to other sports.

In terms of results, my biggest takeaway is that I can just observe on socials and at the games that the athletics department has been implementing some ideas that look a lot like what we were talking about in the meetings. (Now it could be that some marketing ideas are things that were already being kicked around, and it just helped them sanity check to hear students and alumni pitch similar ideas.)

To say it another way, I'll emphasize that the council is just one of the tools the athletics department uses or plans to use for leveraging community input. So while I'm happy with the work we've done, it's also important to not overstate its significance or dilute kudos away from the athletics staff and teams who put a tremendous amount of work into improving fan outreach.

That's awesome, I actually had plans to go swing by as part of a Spain trip in March/April 2020 which did not happen

Question on away games -- I've never been to an away conference game except for Sac State before, but I'm eyeing destinations like Moscow and Bozeman this year. Does UCD or CAAA typically put together packages in the visitor's section for these out of state Big Sky games like they do for FBS games? Or do folks here typically just try to buy a ticket near the visitor's sideline from the other team?

Didn’t know much about St. George Utah but looked it up and it seems like climate will be somewhat less of a factor but maybe not completely. Similar temps to Davis, slight elevation but moderate by Big Sky standards, humidity seems to rest somewhere in between Davis and Alabama but varies by day.

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.

If someone else talked about it and I missed it my apologies, but I just noticed that CP had a green sticker on his helmet and was holding his helmet near his ear like he had helmet comms.

I thought that wasn't allowed in the FCS, have the rules changed or is there dispensation for this being a neutral site game?

Edit -- also saw Porter Connors and the Mercer QB wearing the C2P sticker in addition to Pinnick.

The Massey computer ratings as of today granted a giant jump to Nicholls into the top 20 and shoved UIW down to the 40s. Big drop also for Portland State and some

I imagine voters will just shunt UIW out of the top 25, maybe give Nicholls a spot int he 20s, then move everyone else up a notch. Though I'm not sure what they'll do with Tarleton beating up on a potentially really bad PSU, or if they'll give subjective eye test consideration for Davis and Mercer.

Fair. I'm always a little confused/skeptical about the 7-win rule because it seems more like a guideline. The committee has both left out 7-win teams and let in 6-win teams before, and I also don't know if the number of games on your schedule makes a difference (though this might be the last year where it's variable?).

Regardless, I think we're in agreement, we have to treat 7 wins as the floor but more would be better

It's almost the easier path to get the autobid now in the BSC, especially if we don't run the table against unranked FCS teams. MSU plays @ NAU and Wa Griz this year whereas we avoid Montana and get NAU at sea level.

In this imaginary stadium, could they put up an erector set stand on the other side kind of like Cal Poly is what I’m wondering. Even if it just provides a clear away fans section and some texture for the background on tv