UC Davis turns BYE week focus to consistency, Southern Utah

UC Davis used its bye week to get healthy, take a closer look at its own tendencies and prepare for a difficult road test at Southern Utah. For head coach Tim Plough, the reset also gave the Aggies a chance to find more consistency as they head into the second half of the season.

“Really, just comes down to us being more consistent,” Plough said on Sactown Sports’ The Carmichael Dave Show with Jason Ross. “After two weeks of prep, I hope that we would play our best football game.”

Plough said UC Davis is beginning to get some defensive players back, which should help its depth. The team also spent the bye evaluating what it does well and where it can improve. That includes studying its own tendencies, something Plough said he can sometimes take too far.

“I’m definitely a guy that’ll take a deep dive and try to find some patterns and either fix ours or use theirs against them,” he said. “But I’m also the same kind of guy that could overdo it and overprepare and paralysis by analysis.”

(UC Davis football)

For Plough, the goal is to understand those patterns without losing sight of what makes a team effective. He pointed to great teams that keep doing what they do, even when opponents know what is coming. The Aggies’ focus, he said, is on executing better when both teams have the right call.

Plough also said UC Davis’ offense tends to find its identity as the season goes on, in part because its best plays depend on the quarterback. The Aggies are still learning what their young quarterback does best, then building the game plan around those strengths.

“He’s not playing at the standard that I want our quarterbacks to play at, but that doesn’t mean he’s not playing really well,” Plough said. He noted the quarterback had 14 touchdown passes and four interceptions, adding that he expects more growth as the freshman gains experience.

The Aggies know they can’t afford to look too far ahead, even with an opportunity to make a push in the conference standings. Plough called that kind of scoreboard watching “rat poison” and said the focus has to stay on the next game.

That will be especially important against Southern Utah, where Plough expects a challenging road environment. He described the long walk from the locker room to the field, the elevation and the elements as potential distractions for his team.

“There’s a lot of elements to take your focus away from the game,” Plough said. “We got to keep our focus inside the circle on us and the things that we need to do to win the game.”

Listen to The Carmichael Dave Show with Jason Ross from 6 – 10 a.m. PDT, Monday through Friday, on Sactown Sports 1140.

2026 UC Davis Football Schedule

• Saturday, October 17th – @ Southern Utah – 5:00 PM PT
• Saturday, October 24th – vs. Northern Colorado – 4:00 PM PT
• Saturday, October 31st – @ Weber State – 12:00 PM PT
• Saturday, November 7th – vs. Utah Tech – 4:00 PM PT
• Saturday, November 14th – @ Idaho – 1:00 PM PT
• Saturday, November 21st – vs. Cal Poly – 1:00 PM PT

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