ABOUT THE GAME 
The 2021 season brings the 47th meeting of UC Davis and Cal Poly as the in-state rivals renew the Battle for the Golden Horsehoe for another year. UC Davis has won the last four meetings, including a 73-24 victory in the most recent matchup on March 20, 2021. Week 8 of the Aggies' season also sees UC Davis return to the top-10in multiple national polls with Stats Perform and the AFCA both slotting the Aggies in at No. 10 this week. 

WHO: Cal Poly
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 23, 5:05 p.m. PDT
WHERE: San Luis Obispo, Calif.
VENUE: Alex G. Spanos Stadium
Live Stats: http://statb.us/b/352683
Listen: https://tunein.com/radio/Sports-1140-KHTK-s33038/
Watch: https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401328033?gameId=401328033&sourceLang=en

UC DAVIS LAST WEEK
In a game that proved to be a defensive struggle at times, UC Davis wound up posting a resounding 32-3 win over visiting Northern Colorado on Oct. 16. After a scoreless first quarter, UC Davis went on to score 25 unanswered points. Ulonzo Gillia Jr. posted his 20th career 100 yard rushing game, netting 104 and Trent Tompkins rushed for a pair of touchdowns and a two-point conversion to lead UC Davis back into the win column. 

ABOUT CAL POLY 
The Mustangs enter Saturday losers of their last five after winning their opener over San Diego 28-17. UC Davis and Cal Poly have one opponent in common with the Mustangs falling to Weber State 38-7 on Oct. 2 while the Aggies postd a 17-14 win one week previous. Cal Poly is in it's second year under head coach Beau Baldwin, having transitioned from the triple-option offense many had grown accustomed to seeing from the Mustangs. 

RUNAWAYS
The Aggies are running at a clip of 172.1 yards per game, a Division 1-era high and the most since the 2002 Aggies finished with 2,143 yards and 178.6 per game. Averaging 37.5 rushing attempts per game and at 300 on the season, the Aggies are on pace to run more than any team in the Dan Hawkins era at UC Davis. 

UC Davis have done it via a balanced attack despite the presence of Ulonzo Gilliam Jr., one of the top running backs in college football over his career. Four Aggies have gained over 200 yards on the ground this season with the fourth, quarterback Hunter Rodrigues, only having his net yardage hurt by sacks. That group consisting of Gilliam Jr,, Trent Tompkins, Lan Larison and Rodrigues have accounted for 15 touchdowns with none of that group rushing for more than five (Tompkins) touchdowns.

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU
The Aggies have now outscored six opponents by a combined 93-6 margin in the fourth quarter... Helping this cause is a 13-for-22 (59 percent) third-down conversion rate, while opponents have managed to succeed on just 6 of 22 (27.3) in the fourth quarter... However, the most dramatic statistical difference has been in turnovers: six of the Aggies' 15 takeaways have come in the fourth quarter... Three have effectively clinched the game: Chris Venable's forced fumble at Tulsa, Erron Duncan's interception (tipped by Venable) at Weber State, and Devon King's pick against Idaho last Saturday.

Helping the Aggies is a redzone defense that ranks tied for ninth in the FCS with opponents having scored on just 12 of 21 trips into the red zone. 

GOING FOR TWO
Through eight games, UC Davis has already attempted five two-point conversions, with QB Trent Tompkins involved in all five... He has run for three and passed for one (to Garren O'Keefe), most recently a rush after UC Davis' first score against Northern Colorado on Oct. 16... While an official school record for such plays does not exist, records dating back to 1964 show the following program highs: the 1967 (3-for-8), 1991 (4-for-8) and 1993 (6-for-8) teams had the most attempted conversions, with that 1993 squad owning the benchmark for most successful tries... Shaun Ayers scored three in 1991 for the individual best... However, UC Davis archives are incomplete, with the number of attempts missing from final reports throughout the 1970s and 1980s; and no individual info prior to 1964. 

For the 2021 season, Tompkins (and UC Davis) are 4-5 with the lone incompletion a Tompkins pass attempt against San Diego. 

GIVE AND TAKE, REDUX
UC Davis rank fifth in the FCS in turnovers gained with 16 (12 interceptions and four fumbles), although the NCAA Statistics website still leaves out the Venable-forced fumble in the fourth at Tulsa due to a glitch in the new software... The Aggies rank behind only Montana State among Big Sky schools on that list... Only eight teams in UC Davis history have recorded 20 or more in a season, with only one team (1997) doing so since 1972.

CHASING HISTORY
Gilliam also has 138 career receptions,putting him at No. 10 on the all-time career receptions list. 
Gilliam Jr. is the only Aggie to appear in the top 10 on both the career rushing and receptions lists.

WR Jared Harrell brought his career reception sum to 149... He ranks ninth at UC Davis, four away from CAAHOF receiver and Massachusetts General physician Tay Thompson (1970-72)... Harrell also has 1,955 receiving yards – in striking range of becoming the ninth Aggie to break the 2K plateau... He will also become just the second to do so in the program's Division I era: Keelan Doss totaled 4,069 from 2014-18... Chris Carter had 2,434 career rec yards, with 703 in the D-I reclassification period and the remaining 1,731 in the full-fledged D-I era.

AMONG THE LEADERS
The Aggies rank tied for third in the FCS in first down offense having gained 165 on the season behind Eastern Washington, Southeastern Louisiana. They also rank fifth in kick off return yardage, averaging 26.85 per return and eighth in punting average at 41.39 yard per boot. 


For more information, roster, depth charts and stats, consult the full set of game notes here.