ABOUT THE GAME
Another nail-biter of a win, this time against Idaho, sets No. 7/8 UC Davis to a 5-0 start for the program's best since 2004... The last to open with six straight was the 2000 team, which went 10-0 in the regular season, stormed through two rounds of the NCAA playoffs by a combined score of 110-28, then lost to Bloomsburg in the national semifinal... This will be the sixth all-time meeting between the Aggies and Bengals.

Who: Idaho State
When: Saturday, Oct. 9 • Noon PDT
Where: Pocatello, Idaho
Venue: Holt Arena (12,000)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast 
Listen: Sports 1140 on Varsity Network app
Watch: ESPN+

UC DAVIS LAST WEEK
Tight ends McCallan Castles and Garren O'Keefe each hauled in touchdown passes (from Carson Crawford and Miles Hastings, respectively) while QB Trent Tompkins sparked a fourth-quarter rally to lead UC Davis to a 27-20 win over Idaho on Saturday... Chubba Maae blocked a PAT and Erron Duncan blocked a field goal to highlight the Aggie special teams play, while CB Devon King – still coming back from his season-ending injury last spring – came up with a game-clinching interception with 0:45 left...  QB Miles Hastings earned his first collegiate start, filling in for junior Hunter Rodrigues.

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU
The Aggies have now outscored five opponents by a combined 65-0 margin in the fourth quarter... Helping this cause is a 10-for-19 (52.6 percent) third-down conversion rate, while opponents have managed to succeed on just 4 of 16 (25.0)... UC Davis has a slight edge in total offense in the fourth, outgaining its foes by a 479-445 advantage... However, the most dramatic statistical difference has been in turnovers: six of the Aggies' 14 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.

CARDIAC CONTESTS
UC Davis is 5-0 all-time against Idaho State, but the two most recent meetings have come down to late-game heroics... The October 13, 2018 matchup is the last Aggie football game to go into overtime... Jake Maier hit Keelan Doss for a 5-yard TD with 1:09 left in regulation to erase what had been a 37-22 deficit... Ulonzo Gilliam, Jr., ran in a 4-yard TD in overtime while Vincent White broke up Tanner Gueller's pass attempt to Mitch Gueller on the Bengals' 4th-and-3 chance to tie in the bottom half of the extra frame... Last spring, Xavie Guillory gave ISU a 27-24 lead on his 32-yard TD reception from Ty Vander Waal, only to have Trent Tompkins score the game-winner with :04 left.

GIVE AND TAKE, REDUX
UC Davis shares the FCS national lead in turnovers gained with 14 (11 interceptions and three 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 are also alone at the top in the FCS interceptions lead with 11, two ahead of the four-way tie of Villanova, Chattanooga, Stephen F. Austin and Eastern Kentucky... Only eight teams in UC Davis history have recorded 20 or more in a season, with only one team (1997) doing so since 1972.

UNBEATEN
UC Davis, Eastern Washington and SoCon member East Tennessee State are the only FCS teams with 5-0 records, while five other teams sport 4-0 marks... ETSU hosts The Citadel this Saturday, while EWU travels to Northern Colorado for more Big Sky Conference action... All three teams had close calls last weekend: the Aggies' comeback on the Vandals, the Eagles comeback against No. 4 Montana, and the Bucs rallying late in a 27-21 win over Wofford.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
WR Carson Crawford has thrown for two passes in 2021, both for touchdowns: a 26-yarder to Jared Harrell against Dixie State and the 30-yard go-ahead strike to McCallan Castles last Saturday... His career totals are now 8-for-14 for 277 yards, no interceptions and three TDs (the third going to Matt Hyman at USD in 2019)... Three of Crawford's eight completions are to Harrell: at EWU in 2018, at Idaho in spring 2021, Dixie State this year... Of course, the other five have gone to tight ends (Castles, Hyman twice, Blake Thorpe and Wes Preece), which makes sense given the distribution of available targets when a WR is passing.

Crawford is a former high school quarterback and the son of the late Chris Crawford, a 1987 Western Football Conference MVP and 1988 All-American as a QB at Portland State... Chris Crawford wore No. 6 as a Viking and now Carson wears the number as an Aggie receiver... Carson also has a Roman numeral VI with the words "PRESS ON" tattooed to his wrist.

CHASING HISTORY
RB Ulonzo Gilliam closes in on two key milestones: passing Ronnie Austin as the school's No. 3 all-time rushing leader, and becoming just the third Aggie to surpass 3,000 career yards... The human development major from Merced enters Saturday's contest with 2,956 yards... He needs 13 to surpass Austin (2,968 from 1977-80) and 44 to crack the 3K barrier... G.P. Muhammad (3,589 from 1995-98) and Preston Jackson (3,325 from 1991-93) hold the top two slots on the Aggie career leaderboard... Incredibly, Jackson largely posted his total in two seasons: 1,826 as a senior, 1,435 as a junior, after being a backup behind Joe Genasci, Keith Williams and Kevin Piggee on the 1991 RB depth chart... Jackson and Austin are both enshrined in the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame... Gilliam also has 135 career receptions, needing just two to catch Josh Weinstock (1989-92) for the No. 10 spot.

WR Jared Harrell added another six receptions to his team-leading total, bringing his career sum to 144... He ranks ninth at UC Davis, nine 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.

LIVING IN THE RED
UC Davis scored two touchdowns and a field goal on three red-zone opportunities against Idaho, improving its season success rate to 20-for-22 (90.9 percent)... Perhaps more impressive is the red-zone defense: opponents have scored eight times on 14 opportunities for a .571 success rate... The Aggies rank sixth nationally and tops in the Big Sky Conference in this category.

AMONG THE LEADERS
As mentioned above, UC Davis leads all FCS teams in interceptions and winning percentage, while also ranking among the top programs in turnover margin and turnovers gained... The Aggies also rank in the national top 10 in first downs offense (4th, 118), kickoff returns (9th, 29.0 average), and blocked kicks (t10th, 2)... Individually, K Isaiah Gomez is T7th in field goals (1.80 per game), CB Jaylin White is part of a large tie for 4th in passes defended (1.8 per game), Lan Larison ranks 9th in kickoff returns (30.7), Ulonzo Gilliam is 17th in total rushing yards (422), Daniel Whelan is 17th in punting (43.7 average).

ABOUT IDAHO STATE
Idaho State still seeks its first win after Big Sky Conference losses to Sacramento State (23-21) and Northern Arizona (48-17) during the past two weeks... QB Tyler Vander Waal, last spring's Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year, exited the Sept. 25 loss to the Hornets due to injury... Freshman Hunter Hays took over the reins, and has completed 29 of 55 passes for 315 yards, two TDs and five INTs in the past two weekends since.

For additional notes, plus stats, depth charts, roster and other information, please visit the full set of game notes here. 

ABOUT UC DAVIS:
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.

Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO system helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.