ABOUT TODAY'S GAME
In the FCS season's first meeting between two Top-5 teams, No. 4/4 UC Davis visits No. 1/1-ranked and seven-time FCS-champion North Dakota State on Saturday... The contest rekindles what had been a brief but storied Division II playoff rivalry in the early 1980s, then what later was a four-year Great West Football Conference matchup in the mid-2000s.
Who: No. 1/1 North Dakota State
When: Saturday, September 21 • 12:30 p.m. PDT
Where: Fargo, N.D.
Venue: The FargoDome (19,000)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast (http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=268471)
Listen: Sports 1140 on TuneIn app (https://listen.tunein.com/ucdavis18schedule)
Watch: NDSU All-Access (https://gobison.com/showcase?Live=2463)
Saturday's game is also aired on the NBC North Dakota network, with fans outside the area able to watch by subscribing to ESPN+... The free NDSU All-Access video consists of the FargoDome's in-house feed.
UC Davis has won 4 of the 10 previous meetings (see page 36 of the notes for a full series list), with its last win being a 20-14 upset of then-No. 16 NDSU on Oct. 22, 2005... The Aggies and Bison last squared off on Oct. 6, 2007 – their final year as leaguemates – with No. 2 NDSU coming away with a 35-16 victory... Current associate head coach Tim Plough started at QB for the Aggies in that game but had to leave early due to injury.
UC DAVIS LAST WEEK
UC Davis exploded to 41 unanswered points in its home opener against Lehigh, ultimately prevailing by a 41-13 final... Senior QB Jake Maier completed 38 of 49 passes for 389 yards and four touchdowns: two to Khris Vaughn, one to Carson Crawford and one to Wes Preece... Maier set or tied two program records in the effort: his final completion (the 23-yard TD to Vaughn in the 4th) marked his 756 for his career, moving him past Randy Wright (2010-13) for the school benchmark... Additionally, the 389 ticks represents Maier's 17th career game of 300-plus yards, tying the record first set by J.T. O'Sullivan (1998-2001)... The communication major from La Habra went on to capture Big Sky ROOT SPORTS Offensive Player of the Year honors... See JAKE MAIER RECORD WATCH below for more details on the preseason All-American's upcoming miletones.
Defensively, UC Davis held Lehigh to 58 net rushing yards, the lowest opposing total since Southern Utah managed just 20-for-45 on the ground back on Oct. 5, 2013... Helping this cause were seven QB sacks, the most by an Aggie team since hitting Portland State for nine on Sept. 8, 2007... Sophomore CB Jordan Perryman tied his career high of five tackles (all solos) while redshirt freshman LB Da'Von Frazier paced the Aggies with 3.0 tackles for losses of 9 yards.
'TIS BETTER TO RECEIVE
The sophomore Crawford totaled career highs of nine receptions and 148 yards for his career collegiate game above the century mark... His 21 for the season has him just four shy of his entire 2018 total... Vaughn's TD haul on the game's opening series was his first an Aggie... The junior sociology major from Redlands had 22 receptions scattered from 2016 through the previous weekend at USD but had never scored – even on a career-long 64-yard catch at home vs. the Toreros in 2018.
Preece, a senior TE from Rocklin, pulled down his 19th career touchdown pass... That moved him into 10th in school history, but tops among Aggie tight ends... Howard Gravelle, a 12th-round draft pick back in 1970, scored 18 from 1967-68.
BEATEN BY EATON
Redshirt freshman LB and 2018 George Belenis Award winner Nick Eaton enjoyed a complete game against the Mountain Hawks: four tackles (3-1-4), 2.5 sacks for 17 yards, a forced fumble, a QB hurry and two batted down passes... Oddly, that forced fumble served as something of a deja vu: it came on a sack of QB Tyler Monaco, with teammate Nas Anesi recovering... Two weeks earlier, Eaton forced a fumble by Cal QB Chase Garbers – also on a sack, and also with Anesi recovering.
ABOUT NDSU
The top-ranked Bison extended its winning streak to 24 games, the third-longest in FCS history, claiming a 47-22 road victory at No. 18 Delaware... Freshman RB Kobe Johnson rushed for 101 yards while freshman QB Trey Lance finished 18-for-23 with 195 yards and three TDs... NDSU piled up 490 yards of total offense while holding the Blue Hens to fewer than 100 during the first three quarters... The Bison have not lost since a 33-21 upset to then-No. 10/8 South Dakota State on Nov. 4, 2017... The Jackrabbits have provided the closest challenge since, with the 21-17 NDSU win in the Trees Bowl on Sept. 29, 2018... NDSU began the transition from Division II to Division I in 2004, a year after UC Davis... This is the first season under head coach Matt Entz, who previously served as the program's defensive coordinator... His replacement at DC is David Braun, formerly of Northern Iowa and UC Davis' D-line coach from 2015-16.
JAKE MAIER RECORD WATCH
The preseason Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year inched ahead of Randy Wright (2010-13) as the program's career leader in completions with 756 (Wright had 755)... Entering Saturday's game, Maier needs:
- 279 passing yards to move ahead of Wright for 2nd.
- 28 passing attempts to pass Jon Grant for 2nd
- 3 touchdown passes to pass Kevin Daft for 2nd
- 66 yards of total offense to pass Grant for 3rd, another 105 to move ahead of Wright for second.
For a full summary of Maier's ascent up various UC Davis career lists, see page 19 of the official game notes.
MORE ON THE UC DAVIS-NDSU SERIES
UC Davis and North Dakota State met for four straight years during the NCAA Division II playoffs from 1982 to 1985... The rivalry also pitted two almost polar opposites in styles: the Aggies opted for a pro-style offense while the Bison featured the veer... Dan Hawkins was part of all four: a player in the 1982 semifinal, then a member of Jim Sochor's staff from 1983 to 1985.
Each of the first two matchups appeared on the NCAA's list of "Spoilers" – that is, a game in which a team lost an otherwise undefeated and untied season... NDSU was 12-0 before its 1982 loss to UC Davis; the Aggies were 11-0 before falling to the Bison in 1983... Both games took place at Toomey Field:
DEC. 4, 1982: UC DAVIS 19, NDSU 14
QB Ken O'Brien ran for three touchdowns to give the Aggies a 19-7 lead at the break... Stacy Robinson, who went on to win two Super Bowl rings with the Giants, scored on a 69-yard reception to put NDSU on the board in that run... The Bison cat the deficit to 19-14 and had a first-and-goal chance with 19 seconds to go, but a 1-yard run and two Mark Nellermoe passing attempts sailed wide and long to seal the Aggie win... The downside: O'Brien was injured in the third quarter and sidelined for the following week's D-II title game with Southwest Texas State.
DEC. 3, 1982: NDSU 26, UC DAVIS 17
The two teams meet again at Toomey Field almost exactly one year after the inaugural showdown... Once again, UC Davis held the lead at halftime, with 1-yard TD runs from QB Scott Barry and RB Dave White providing a 17-10 edge... However, the Bison scored 16 unanswered in the second half: three Ken Kubisz field goals and a 5-yard TD run by Chad Stark... NDSU rushed for 253 net yards on 64 carries behind 290-pound LT Dave Piepkorn, who now serves as Fargo's city commissioner.
For a complete set of notes, please visit the link above or visit this URL: https://ucdavisaggies.com/documents/2019/9/18/092119_FB_Notes_NDSU.pdf
ABOUT UC DAVIS: Providing a small-town community feel while providing a world-class academic experience, UC Davis is home to more than 37,000 students and centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley. The No. 5-ranked public university in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal, and among the top 10 public universities nationwide according to U.S. News and World Report, UC Davis offers nearly 100 graduate programs and more than 100 academic majors across four colleges and six professional schools, ranking among the world and nation's best in numerous disciplines, including veterinary science, agriculture, and plant and animal programs.
AGGIE EVO: Established in 2017-18, the Aggie EVO System is UC Davis Athletics' investment in the primary mission of preparing student-athletes for a successful "launch" after graduation. Thanks to a collaboration of alumni, university resources, corporate partners, coaches and Student-Athlete Outcomes staff, all Aggies are guided over four years to acquire the skills, knowledge, opportunities and tools to better know and navigate the "World of Work" after graduating from UC Davis. Follow the Aggie EVO system on Twitter and Instagram at @AggieEVO.
DON'T MISS OUT: Season and single-game tickets for UC Davis football are now on sale by contacting the Athletics Ticket Office at (530) 752-AGS1 or by visiting us online at tickets.ucdavis.edu.
