Aggies move up to No. 4, put seven-game win streak on the line Saturday
No peeking ahead - Northern Colorado is challenge enough
Riding a seven-game win streak and ranked No. 4 in the country in the FCS Coaches poll, UC Davis, 7-1, hopes having time off during its bye week will have everyone healthy and anxious to play as the Aggies entertain Northern Colorado, 1-7, in a Big Sky Conference showdown Saturday at UC Davis Health Stadium.
Game time is 1 p.m.
"You have to win at home and do well on the road if you want to win the conference championship, and we've put ourselves in a position to do that," said first-year Aggie head coach Tim Plough.
The Aggies are tied for the league lead with No. 2 Montana State, both at 4-0, while Northern Colorado brings a 1-3 mark into Saturday's game.
That lone UNC win, however, was over perennial Big Sky power Weber State, a significant outcome that is not lost on Plough.
"This is a very good Northern Colorado team and we'll have to be at our best," said the Aggie coach. "We need to take full advantage of the time we've had off and I expect this to be our best game because we've had a lot of time to prepare. We're excited to be playing meaningful games in November."
The NCAA FCS selection committee has released its first and only Top 10 rankings and lists UCD at No. 5 behind North Dakota State, Montana State, South Dakota State and South Dakota.
Big Sky members included in the committee's rankings are No. 7 Idaho and No. 10 Montana.
The Aggies defeated Idaho, 28-26, earlier this season, and will travel to Montana Nov. 9 and then host Montana State Nov. 16.
Meanwhile, UC Davis has unleashed a full-on media campaign to let the rest of the college football world know that Lan Larison is a more than worthy candidate to earn the Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision.
Larison, the only Idahoan on the Aggie roster, was the Big Sky Conference's Offensive Player of the Year last fall despite missing three games with an injury.
But the Walter Payton is a national award, something no Aggie has ever won. This, however, may be the year.