No one needs to help UC Davis head coach Tim Plough understand the importance of his Aggies’ next game when his FCS No. 4 squad hosts No. 2 Montana State.
“I know the game at the end of the year with the team across the causeway (Sacramento State) is important, but in my mind it’s a one-game season, right,” Plough asked rhetorically after the Aggies dispatched No. 7 Montana 30-14 late Saturday night in Missoula. “Both teams are undefeated (in the Big Sky Conference), Montana and Idaho got two losses, so we beat (Montana State) we win the conference even if we lose the last (Sacramento State) game.”
The Aggies (9-1 overall) and Bobcats (10-0) roll into the game with perfect 6-0 conference marks and the teams have combined to win 19 straight games. The 19-1 combined record (the lone loss was UCD’s loss to open the season at FBS UC-Berkeley) may be the top mark in history for a Big Sky game against FCS opponents (19-0).
In 1994, the University of Montana played Boise State, and the Grizzlies were 8-0 while the Broncos were 7-1. The previous week of the same season UM played Idaho and both teams were 7-0. In 2012, MSU played Eastern Washington, and the Bobcats were 6-0 and the Eagles were 4-1 with a win over FBS Idaho and a loss to Washington State.
There may be no other team in the country that’s hotter than UC Davis as the Aggies, who are in the midst of a season-ending gauntlet playing at UM then hosting MSU before finishing with their rival, have outscored their last four opponents by 124 points. They’ve played two common opponents (Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado) with MSU and have statistically outplayed the Bobcats in both games.
“We’ve been working hard for a moment like this,” Plough said. “We know (the Bobcats) are a great team.”
The Bobcats lead the BSC in nearly every statistical category and are coming of a monumental win over Sacramento State in which they broke the school record for wins to start a season, tied the record for rushing touchdowns in a game (7) and had the second-most rushing yards in a game (511) in school history.
“They’re a tremendous team so we got a great challenge,” Plough said. “Glad we’ll be at home and hope we can shock the world and pull this off.”
One thing the Aggies won’t have to deal with will be any raucous fans trying to distract them.
“Saw (the Bobcats on TV) today while I was sitting in the hotel room (in Missoula) while people were banging on our roof at the hotel all day and making us move out of our rooms a couple hours early,” Plough said with a smile. “(I was) watching that game with headphones in.”
Montana State, meanwhile, is trying to stick to its tried-and-true approach. The Bobcats simply keep their collective eyes on what’s directly in front of them whether it’s tying their shoes or running a play in a game.
“We’re really trying to stay pretty dang simple-minded but it’s all on the line this week and ‘one-and-oh’ means good things,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said while repeating his team’s ‘one-and-oh’ mantra.
“I guess whoever wins will have the outright bid. I know we’ll have another game left. It’s facts. We want to get another win, it’s really that simple. Winning the Big Sky Conference is a significant goal of ours. With that on the line this weekend, along with the auto-bid and all of that it’s another step in the direction of where we want to go.”
The Bobcats were stung last year when a promising, dominant start was sidetracked late in the season after they plowed through a controversial 20-16 road loss to South Dakota State and resounding road wins over Weber State (40-0) and Sacramento State (42-30). MSU would drop a close 24-21 game at Idaho before losing its last two games, including a 35-34 loss to North Dakota State after a missed extra point in overtime.
“At the same time, I told our guys this morning, it doesn’t mean we gotta try harder all of a sudden this weekend,” Vigen said. “You know we don’t have to come up with a bunch of new guys or anything like that. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and maybe just do it a little bit better.
“I look at what we did at Eastern last week to this week and I think we did things better. You know we showed signs of improvement here in November and we need to continue to do that because our intention is to play beyond November and to do what you want to do then; you need to do what you need to do now.”
The Aggies were snake bit last season as well. They lost star running back Lan Larison to a leg injury during a close 27-24 loss to Eastern Washington. A week later, with Larison on the sidelines all game, they lost to Montana 31-23. UC Davis would rattle off four wins over its last five games, including a solid 31-21 win over playoff-bound Sacramento State that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Despite that, the Aggies were not invited to the FCS playoffs as an at-large team, while the rival Hornets got in.
That snub has not been forgotten in the UC Davis locker room and the last three games of the season were on their minds. The early season losses to EWU and UM were both at home, which made them even more costly.
“We talked about it before the season,” Plough said. “We’ve gotta take care of business and win our home games. Try to put ourselves in a good spot so that when we get to the end of our conference, we can feel like we can compete in those games (UM, MSU, Sacramento State).”
That job appears to be more than accomplished as Plough has his team at the cusp of winning the Big Sky Conference in just his first year leading his alma mater.
The Aggies host the Bobcats this Saturday at 6:00 at UC Davis Health Stadium.
