While second-ranked Montana State is the only undefeated FCS team in the nation, No. 4 UC Davis is the hottest.
What the Aggies (9-1 overall, 6-0 Big Sky) have done over the past four games is nothing short of stunning. They’ve won convincingly when they should (56-10 over Cal Poly and 59-7 over Northern Colorado) and they’ve been impressive on the road (48-38 at Eastern Washington and 30-14 at Montana).
The common theme that sets those four games apart from the five wins before that has been the Aggie’ defense against the run. UC Davis has gone from winning those first five games by 38 points to winning the last four by 124 points. The lone blemish is a season-opening 31-13 loss to Cal in a game they trailed just 14-13 midway through the third quarter.
In the last four games, the Aggies have allowed just 450 yards rushing on 131 carries for an average of 3.4 yards per carry. Controlling those numbers for when the starters are in and it’s just 305 yards on 113 carries (2.7 ypc). The Aggies gave up just 77 yards to Montana on Saturday night.
“I’m not sure our defense gets enough credit, because of maybe some of the games we’ve had offensively or because I’m a quote – offensive coach,” UC Davis head coach Tim Plough said. “(Defensive coordinator) Matt Coombs is a tremendous coach, he’s been a tremendous coach for a long time.”
Last week the Aggies put an emphasis on stopping the Montana run game, especially running back Eli Gillman, who came into the game averaging 77 yards per game with a 7.3 yards per carry. They would hold Gilman to just 21 yards on eight carries and he had one run of 24 yards, so his other seven totes were for -3 yards.
“Our defensive front with (nose tackle Princeton) Toki and (tackle Evan) Bearden, and (end) Zach Kennedy, I think they’ve been solid all year,” Plough said. “I think they’re all-conference-type players and they stood up to the challenge. We knew one of the keys was we had to slow down (Gillman) and keep him out of the end zone, and I thought we did a great job of that all night.”
The hot streak has materialized somewhat out of nowhere. The Aggies were coming off a 28-26 win over Idaho at home, then nearly lost to Portland State after a controversial call on a what would’ve been a Vikings’ touchdown pass went their way. UC Davis had held only one opponent – hapless, one-win Utah Tech – under 20 points entering its game with Cal Poly.
That 56-10 thundering of the Mustangs put the Aggies back on track as they went on the road to face Eastern Washington. While the Eagles got to within a touchdown early in the fourth quarter, the Aggies didn’t blink as they scored two touchdowns in a 3:29 span to regain control at 45-24 midway through the final frame. The Davis win over EWU also marked the first time in UCD history the Aggies beat the Eagles.
The Bobcats have seen a lot of UC Davis due to having followed them in playing Big Sky opponents three times this season and therefore viewing them as they scouted their next opponent.
Having a solid run defense will come in handy this week against MSU, which owns the top rushing offense in the nation. MSU averages 334 yards rushing per game and is getting 7.4 yards per attempt. The Bobcats put plenty of what they do on film last week against Sacramento State as they ran for 511 yards on 51 attempts. MSU had runs of 78, 64, 57 and 48 yards in that game.
MSU head coach Brent Vigen is aware of the prowess of the Aggies’ defense and how good it is from top to bottom. He’s especially cognizant of the UC Davis front four.
“Defensively, they’ve been really consistent, really good particularly against the run,” Vigen said. “That says they’re playing well up front, they’re big. It’s a defense where I wouldn’t pull out any one or two individuals and that’s a credit to what they’re doing. They play a lot of guys, they have good size up front and they’re active. They tackle well and they have good coverage ability at the same time.
“They have a big front, so that in itself is a challenge. They pick and choose when to move those guys and it’s all coordinated, it’s not movement all of a sudden and they’ve got a wide-open gap and some poor safety has all this space to fill. They do a good job of bringing edge pressure that causes problems, and they tackle well.”
The Aggies played Montana in a marquee ESPN2 game Saturday night and the game put on display the front’s ability to be disruptive.
“They controlled the line of scrimmage,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said following the loss. “We weren’t getting any knockback on them. They were successful in terms of shedding blocks and getting to the ball carrier. They gave us a couple of difficult looks and we didn’t handle them very well. We missed some targeting on a couple of things after they moved fronts when they motioned and again, it’s more about them just doing a nice job of controlling the line of scrimmage and getting off blocks.
Like most high-end units of a college football team, the UC Davis defense runs like an assembly line which has multiple sections operating in unison with each other. The pass defense ranks second behind MSU with a 115.4 efficiency rating.
The Aggies are all over the Big Sky Conference statistical leader boards. Defensive back Rex Connors is the leading tackler in the Big Sky at 9.3 per game. Linebacker David Meyer is second in the league at 8.8. Meyer and Porter Connors are tied for the league lead in interceptions with three apiece. Defensive back Kavir Bains leads the BSC in passes defended (1.2), while Connors is fifth.
“They’re planning well and they’re executing the plan well,” Vigen said. “I don’t think they really depend on any one or two guys, it’s really a pretty well-oiled machine across the board. They cover well enough where they can put some pressure on their corners from time to time.”
UC Davis is good enough defensively that it doesn’t need to take chances or try to fool opposing offenses.
“They haven’t been this bunch where they have to (leave their corners in man-to-man defense) because they’re so committed and they’re doing all kinds of crazy things that’s a little bit out of character,” Vigen said. “That’s typically what we’ve seen (from other teams) and then all of sudden we hit all these long runs like we hit the other day (against Sacramento State) because a team is doing things a little bit out of character, and they don’t get guys in gaps they’re supposed to get in. Ideally, we can create that situation, but (the Aggies) haven’t presented it to this point.”
The Bobcats will fly out on Friday to begin preparing on location in Davis for their titanic matchup with the Aggies on Saturday at 6:00 local time.
