Sept. 2, 2004
Complete UC Davis football game notes
OPENING KICKOFF
UC Davis opens its first season in the newly formed Great West Football Conference and its 86th season of football overall when it entertains South Dakota State in one of two games marking the beginning of the conference season... The Aggies enter the season with a streak of 34 consecutive winning seasons, the all-time NCAA Division II record... The game also begins the second of four years of reclassification to Div. I-AA... UC Davis also starts at home for the second straight year and plays a team other than Grand Valley State (Mich.) for the first time in the past three.
ON THE AIR
UC Davis and KHTK (1140 AM) partner for the ninth straight season to air Aggie football games... Steve Buzzard (play-by-play), Doug Kelly (analyst) and Scott Marsh (sidelines) return to bring all the action to the Aggies... KDVS (90.3 FM) will also carry the feed of all games while www.ucdavisaggies.com will offer live internet streams... Live stats will also be available for all home football games on the Aggies' internet site... Pregame show begins 20 minutes before kickoff.
WELCOME TO THE GREAT WEST
UC Davis, South Dakota State, North Dakota State and Northern Colorado will make Great West Football Conference history by playing the new league's first games this Saturday... Those four schools, along with Southern Utah and Cal Poly, make up the new conference which is comprised of current I-AA teams and others moving to I-AA... The conference was announced in February... Southern Utah and Cal Poly are currently I-AA, UC Davis and UNC are in the second year of reclassification, and NDSU and SDSU are in their first year... The conference affiliation marks the Aggies' first league membership in football since it was a member of the former American West Conference in 1993 (3-1, T1st)... Prior to that, UC Davis was in the Northern California Athletic Conference (1982-92) and the Far Wester Conference (1925-81)... Conference affiliation has been nice to the Aggies as the program captured 20 consecutive league titles from 1971-1990.
DIVISION I OR DIVISION II? A LOOK AT THE TRANSITION
UC Davis is in the second of four years of reclassification to Div. I-AA and is ineligible for the postseason until 2007 - its first official year of Div. I-AA status... While still officially a member of Div. II until that time, UC Davis is following all Div. I rules and regulations beginning this year (including scheduling requirements) and its football statistics will be listed with Div. I-AA teams by the NCAA... National media have been including UC Davis in polls and awards consideration, and its coverage of I-AA since last year, noting the Aggies' committment and transition to the new division... The University announced its intention of reclassifying to Div. I in March 2003 and will join the Big West Conference in 2007-08 in most non-football sports... The Aggies will begin competition against Big West Conference teams this year in those sports but are not members of the league yet.
ALL-TIME VS. THE JACKRABBITS
The series is tied 1-1... UC Davis and South Dakota State are meeting for the first time since 1998... The road team has won both matchups with the Jackrabbits winning 17-7 at Toomey Field in 1997 and the Aggies returning the favor in Brookings, S.D., in 1998... South Dakota State's victory also marked the last time UC Davis has been held to less than 10 points in a non-overtime game at Toomey Field (GVSU beat the Aggies 9-6 in OT last year)... G.P. Muhammad rushed for 182 yards and two touchdowns while Frances Montes caught a pair of TD passes from Kevin Daft in the Aggies' 30-13 win in 1998.
A LOOK AT THE HEAD COACHES
John Stiegelmeier (SDSU '79) is 42-33-0 (.560) and in his eighth year at the helm of his alma mater... He has led the Jackrabbits to winning seasons in each of the past two years, going 6-4 in 2002 and 7-4 in 2003... He was named the North Central Conference Coach of the Year in 1999 after the Jackrabbits posted an 8-3 record, the program's most wins since 1979... SDSU has recorded winning seasons in five of the past six years... Bob Biggs is closing in on the century marks in wins, having posted a 96-34-1 (.737) in his first 11 seasons as head coach of the Aggies... He is the second winningest coach in school history behind Jim Sochor (156 wins)... Biggs has led UC Davis to at least 10 wins in five different seasons - the most in school history - and has coached the Aggies to the playoffs eight times, including seven straight from 1996-2002.
SCOUTING THE JACKRABBITS
The Jackrabbits return 32 letterwinners and 11 starters from last year's team that finished 7-4 overall and 4-3 (T4th) in the North Central Conference... Leading the way is RB Anthony Watson, who rushed for 974 yards (4.9 avg.) and 6 TD's, averaging 88.5 ypg... QB Brad Nelson had a 165.87 efficiency rating after throwing for 3,141 yds and 27 scores, including 346 yds and 3 TD's in a 22-11 win over rival South Dakota... WR Josh Davis caught 63 passes for 1,028 yards and 9 TD's to lead all receivers by a wide margin last year... SDSU averaged 409.4 ypg. in total offense, including 295.9 ypg through the air... Defensively, the Jackrabbits return their second-leading tackler in LB Marty Kranz, who had 84 stops (53 solo) in 2003... He also had 7.0 tackles-for-losses and a pair of sacks... DE Joey Abbell had 60 tackles and an impressive team-high 14.5 tackles-for-losses... He also led the team with 7.0 sacks... SDSU gave up just 338.8 ypg overall and only 208.1 passing.
SCHEDULE UPGRADE
UC Davis is required to adhere to NCAA Div. I-AA scheduling rules this season and, as a result, the schedule is perhaps the toughest in school history... Along with matchups against the other five Great West Football Conference schools, UC Davis faces three Big Sky Conference teams in rival Weber State (Sept. 18), Sacramento State (Sept. 25) and Portland State (Nov. 20). Additionally, the Aggies will host No.16 Stephen F. Austin (Oct. 16) during Homecoming activities... Weber State and Stephen F. Austin are newcomers to the Aggies' schedule... UC Davis has just four home games scheduled in 2004, matching the four games it played at Toomey in 2002 (UC Davis played its fifth "home" game against Sacramento State at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento... The last time UC Davis had only four home games scheduled (including games at Hughes Stadium) was 1986 (Cal Poly, Chico State, Sonoma State and Sacramento State)... That was a good year for the Aggies, who finished 10-1 overall, 5-0 in the NCAC and earned a playoff bid (losing to South Dakota, 26-23).
STREAKING INTO ACTION
UC Davis enters the season with a streak of 34 consecutive winning seasons, the longest active streak of any non-Div. III school... It is the fourth-longest active streak overall, following Linfield (Ore.), which has 47, Baldwin-Wallace, which is at 37 and Pacific Lutheran, which sits at 35... Central (Iowa) allowed the Aggies to move up a spot after going 5-5 in 2003... Another streak worthy of a mention: UC Davis has not been shut out since losing 19-0 to Cal Poly in the fifth game of the 1990 season, a span now amassing 157 games.
FROM COACH BIGGS
On the start of the season:
"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."
On the Jackrabbits:
"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."
On the Aggies:
"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."
GRANT TO START AT QUARTERBACK
Sophomore Jon Grant will get the nod at quarterback for the Aggies' opener on Saturday after a tough preseason battle amongst five talent signal-callers... Grant completed 4 of 6 passes for 73 yards and a touchdown last year for his only action... Grant is the first sophomore to earn starting quarterback honors since J.T. O'Sullivan in 1999... Ryan Flanigan, who graduated last year, was a sophomore when he started the 2001 opener for O'Sullivan, who missed the game, but it was predetermined one-game start only for Flanigan as O'Sullivan started the remainder offseason.
KEY STARTERS RETURN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BALL
UC Davis starts the season with six returners back from an offense that averaged 395.1 ypg last year and three on a defense that gave up just 338.0 ypg... On offense, WR Jesse Oliva, RB O.J. Swanigan, WR Kevin Freeman and TE Daniel Fells return while the line welcomes back OT Cory Lekkerkerker (6-7, 324) and C Marc Manfredda (6-2, 302)... Manfredda has started 28 consecutive games for the Aggies... On defense, DE Jake Mossawir, whose 4.0 sacks led the team, returns along with SLB Tom Parisi and CB Angelo Caffese.
TEAM CAPTAINS
Aggie team captains for 2004 are:
* C Marc Manfredda
* WR Jesse Oliva
* SLB Tom Parisi
* DE Jake Mossawir
