Aug. 30 2004

Football Weekly Release - Aug. 30, 2004
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THIS WEEK
Saturday, Sept. 4 - vs. SOUTH DAKOTA STATE, 6:00

LAST WEEK Friday, Aug. 27 - BLUE-GOLD SCRIMMAGE NOTESbr> UC Davis begins its first season in the new Great West Football Conference, its first conference affiliation since 1993 (American West Conference)... Prior to the AWC, UC Davis was a member of the Northern California Athletic Conference where it once captured 20 consecutive conference championships (1971-90)... Head coach Bob Biggs (96-34-1) needs just four wins for 100 in his Aggie career... Only Jim Sochor (156 wins from 1970-88) has more... Sophomore Jon Grant will start at QB for the Aggies, the first sophomore to get signal-caller start since J.T. O'Sullivan in 1999.... UC Davis returns 15 starters overall... Aggies play just four home games, including 51st annual Causeway Classic on Sept. 25 at Toomey Field... Three Big Sky Conference teams (Weber State, Sacramento State and Portland State) are on slate. Aggies enter 2004 with 34 consecutive winning seasons... Although in its second of four years of reclassification to NCAA Div. I-AA, UC Davis is following all Div. I rules and regulations beginning this year... Media covering Div. I-AA already include UC Davis in their polls and awards programs... Aggies will be eligible for postseason in 2007. QUOTES FROM BOB BIGGS
"It's great to be able to prepare for a team in a new conference. Last year, of course, we fought that mental battle about not being eligible for the playoffs and not having a conference title to play for. To have have our opening game against a conference foe and in a new conference makes it very exhilirating and exciting for everybody. That helped with the team with their workouts during the offseason and certainly in the preseason; just the anticipation of playing in a new conference." "South Dakota State is very well-coached. They play a very physical style of football. They like to pass the ball on offense. Their quarterback, Brad Nelson, is an excellent thrower and he's got a host of good receivers. Defensively, they have some new faces but they have a great linebacker group that is back and a great defensive end. They make it tough to run the football but they'll let you do things in the pass game; but they won't give up the big play. That's the challenge. They force you to be very consistent offensively." "I like our football team. It's a bunch of `no-name' guys that I think people will get to know. I like the overall depth. It's certainly nice having guys like (cornerbacks) Derick Daniels and Andy Sullivan and (tight end) Daniel Fells and those kind of people back that were such great players for us last year and all got hurt. And I think we have a mix of some new players that have really stepped up. Defensively, I think there's some players over there that people may not know a lot about that are going to be pretty good players."™™