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

We can't count on 7 wins with a smaller bubble this year (Ivy League auto bid) and past experiences with the committee.

Probably means we need to beat 8/10 (in other words, winning every game not MSU and UW including three current top 20 teams) to be a lock. Doable, but frustrating that the schedule situation is already stacked against us Week 1

I thought the traditional wisdom was that a delay favors the defense and the team without the momentum? Which is UCD, for the immediate drive at least.

Only catching it intermittently but it seems like there was no step back at all even with all the seniors graduating

I kind of like it as a promo / have a "let them cook" attitude with regards to what it means for the Tahoe center and the recruits, but obviously wouldn't want it to be the default.

Seems to me the Tahoe uniform is a contender for whichever of the NAU and ISU games is not homecoming, and maybe the second home game and whichever away game has a sufficiently different uniform that the powder blue contrasts (Utah Tech?)

If the grays and all-blues are any indication in the past, these will debut as a "set" then they might start slipping in alternate combos, ex: gold helmets and pants with Tahoe shirts. Or Tahoe helmet with all white shirt and pants for away game, etc.

The gray started as gold-gray-gray but then they started toying with gold-gray-gold and white-gray-white as I recall.

Depends how it's invested, might be even less. If the target return is the same as the UC pension's at 6.75% then I'd assume you'd only want to pay out something like 3-4% each year. It's possibly not even covering the whole position, just supplementing the athletics budget.

3500-4000 matches the eye test. From that really well attended 2015 season I was used to lower bowl mostly full = about 3000 announced

Best student section in a decade (that was mostly the football team as I understand it), probably the best turnout in almost a decade, and a good night for a few players but a positively crushing off day for TY.

Hopefully everyone can move past it and hit refresh for the tourney