- Overall-Man, I just don’t know where to start. A really nice day that started out as having a lot of hope for the season, great tailgate, pregame hype over the return of an old uniform tradition and just the overall sensation of hope for a great year. The Student section was full and loud, and expectations were high that we could beat this team. That didn’t happen. The game started off looking like The Lions could hang with these guys. That was an illusion. It became obvious by quarter 2 that was not going to happen. Make no mistake about it though, UC-Davis was a very good team that played hard and executed their offense and defense. We made some jokes about Dan Hawkins’ 2007 rant, but he is a terrific coach and UC-Davis has a tremendous program. We just got beat in every way, shape, and form by a better team and we have to move on. We have 10 more of these games left to play.
- Offense-Overall, the unit played very hard and you cannot knock their effort. Peter Parrish started the game as QB1 and looked like he had control of things, but the offensive line was just dominated. Let me say this as a nod to the importance of having an offensive line. The offensive line can and will make or break you. If our line can block better, our offense moves the ball better. It was going to be a matchup of their size versus our speed, but they had both size and speed which meant we were going nowhere. The play calling was there and I felt was good given what we had and there were adjustments made, which was refreshing compared to the last couple of seasons, but again you can’t run an offense when your line is getting run over, and it is really that simple. It forces turnovers, negative plays, and penalties, all of which were in abundance last night. I also have to give a tip of the hat to Josh Magana, who made the most of his time when he came in to play and we could see him possibly be the starter next week in Sacramento, but time will tell.
- Defense-Defense forced 3 turnovers and early on it looked like it would be another game in which the defense would try to keep us in it, but once again, the defense, as hard as they played, couldn’t produce because they were just on the field for way too long. The Aggies ran 78 plays compared to our 56 and the Aggie drives were long and sustained. It was another unit that played very hard, but was just outmatched. UC Davis ran a lot of downhill and unbalanced plays with a lot of guys on the line that allowed them to run counters and trap plays with great success. How did they do that you might ask? Their line blocked for them and did not have any holding penalties. A tale of two offensive lines. The secondary was not blameless though as missed a ton of tackles. Something that I see a lot of now in all levels of football are guys trying to blow up the opposing player rather than make the routine play. The Aggies did not hit us or deliver any big blows, but they made the routine play, and many times we did not. Against a team this good, you have to make the routine play.
- Special teams did their job. Aiden Martin delivered good kickoffs, Emmanuel Adagbon hit a field goal at the end of the first half to ensure there would be no shutout, and Mitchell McGarry averaged 39 yards per punt which was helpful in keeping the Aggies from putting even more points on the board. This group gets an A. The coverage units however, they get a C. They could have done so much better in returning and covering.
- This one hurt Clint Dolezel and you could tell it in his body language and his post game presser. He is not used to losing, especially like this. He used the word “embarrassing” and I think everyone was at some point or another as The Lions were thoroughly dominated and beaten. However as my colleague Russ said; “One game a season does not make.” It was disappointing for sure and yes, somewhat embarrassing and everyone felt that, but there is a lot of pride in this program and if anyone knows about the pride of Lion Football, it is the head coach. We have 10 more games to play and have to put this one behind us and forge ahead, because Sacramento State is now the objective and for the next 7 days, they are who this team needs to focus on.
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Last night’s loss was embarrassing. Totally embarrassing, and this move to Division I has “dumbass” written all over it. We haven’t had a winning season in anything since 2021. We had chances to win national championships in all sports until this dumbass of a President, who is so infatuated with “being diverse” and all that other stupidity has almost destroyed our athletic program! I don’t know about Dolezel. The fact that we did not have a real Athletic Director thgone to crap. All he has done is divide the alumni and destroy an athletic department, but Hey, he watched it all from the comfort of his air conditioned box! This moron didn’t realize we DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY OR THE FACILITIES TO BE DIVISION I. The whole move was supported by people who think we are too good to be in Division II. Would you rather be WINNERS in Division II or LOSERS in Division I? Remember, everything woke turns to shit! What is more important? Winning a Championship in Division I or getting our asses kicked at Rupp Arena? But hey, its cool, we get to play Kentucky and lose by 50!