Mighty Montana State rolls into town for Big Sky title showdown with UC Davis
League championship and playoff seeding on the line for two of the nation's best
Wow.
Montana, then Montana State, then Sacramento State right in a row.
Bang, boom, pow.
Montana on the road, Montana State at home, Sacramento State on the road.
Who dreamed up this murderer's row of a schedule to end the regular season for UC Davis?
Montana advanced all the way to the national championship game in 2023
Montana State advanced all the way to the national championship game in 2021.
Sacramento State won three straight Big Sky championships, concluding in 2022.
Aggie fans need to take a deep breath and realize that our local heroes already took care of one of these monsters of the midway last Saturday night in Missoula with an impressive 30-14 win over then-No. 7 Montana.
Now No. 4 UC Davis faces an even stiffer test in No. 2 Montana State, a team Aggie coach Tim Plough claims is "arguably the best team in the country."
No one who has seen the Bobcats play this fall will argue with Plough's assessment.
The Aggies are 9-1 and winners of nine straight, something that has never happened in the Division I era.
Montana State is 10-0 for the first time in school history.
"Something has to give," said Montana State head coach Brent Vigen.
Noted Plough, "Getting to play in a game like this with so much on the line is really cool. Hopefully, we can rise to the occasion and get the job done."
ESPN's GameDay will not be at UC Davis Health Stadium for this classic battle Saturday evening, but it should be.
Game time is 5 p.m. and you'll need a note from the mayor of Davis or the chancellor at UC Davis explaining your absence if you miss this one.
Games like this come along only once in a lifetime. Or maybe never.
Last weekend Montana State rushed for 508 yards in a 49-7 shredding of Sacramento State.
On that same Saturday, the UC Davis defense held Montana's highly regarded offense to just 77 yards on the ground.
To quote Coach Vigen again, "something has to give, but with Davis you have to be ready for just about anything."