Already, the UC Davis Aggies have played a more interesting — or, at least, unique — season than most other teams in college football.
How many programs, after all, can say they’ve played more than three quarters of football that didn’t actually count? The Aggies led Mercer, 23-17, with 7:36 remaining in the annual FCS Kickoff game in Montgomery, Ala., when lightning struck the area. After a long delay, the Week 0 game was declared a no contest. (Mercer, then the No. 11-ranked team in FCS, had a first down at the Aggies’ 48-yard line when play halted.)
Perhaps that rendered last week’s result — a 31-24 victory over Utah Tech, in which UC Davis trailed by 17 and scored the game’s final 24 points — downright ordinary.
The win bumped second-year coach Tim Plough’s team to No. 5 in the FCS coaches poll; the Aggies rank No. 8 in the Stats Perform top-25. They finished 11-3 last season and advanced to the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs, and return 13 offensive and defensive starters this year, per the school’s official game notes.
Here is what else to know about Washington’s Week 2 opponent for Saturday’s 8 p.m. game at Husky Stadium (Big Ten Network).