Aggies-Hornets square off Saturday in a rivalry that's 70 years old
Playoff seedings on the line for Aggies in regular-season finale
With all sorts of things on the line, including pride, UC Davis will close its regular season schedule Saturday in a Big Sky Conference football showdown at longtime rival Sacramento State.
Game time at Hornet Stadium is 2 p.m. The game will be telecast on ESPN-plus and KMAX, Channel 31, and carried on Sactown Radio (1140 AM) with Scott Marsh and Scott Gordon calling the action.
In the last four meetings between these two, both teams had Football Championship Subdivision playoff aspirations. This time around only No. 5 UC Davis has such hopes and dreams.
The Aggies, coming off a heartbreaking 30-28 loss to No. 2 Montana State, are 9-2 overall and alone in second place in the Big Sky at 6-1. They are virtually assured of a bid to the 24-team FCS playoff, win or lose, but a win will guarantee them a first-round bye and at least a home game in the second round. They could also tie for the league championship should Montana State lose to Montana on Saturday.
Several seasons ago Sacramento State was the gold standard that other Big Sky schools aspired to.
Former head coach Troy Taylor, now at Stanford, came aboard in 2019 and inherited a team that had been winless in the Big Sky the previous season. In a turnaround for the ages, the Hornets tied for the league title with a 7-1 mark, including a 27-17 win over UCD.
The Hornets skipped the 2020 season due to Covid, but put together back-to-back 8-0 seasons in 2021 and 2022, beating the Aggies in both seasons and running their Big Sky winning streak to an unheard of 19 games.
At that point, Taylor took his considerable talents to Palo Alto and Andy Thompson was named as Hornet head coach.
