UC Davis’ Hunter Ridley & Jackson Cloyd earn Big Sky Weekly Honors

Nov 11, 2024, 9:50 AM

(UC Davis Athletics)

Sactown Sports

This story was initially published by UC Davis Athletics

Three field goals from 40-plus yards made by junior kicker Hunter Ridley and a performance that saw senior linebacker Jackson Cloyd spend much of his evening in the Grizzly backfield earned the No. 4 UC Davis football pair Big Sky weekly honors following the Aggies 30-14 win at No. 7 Montana.

Ridley nailed field goals from 42, 41 and 40 yards, including hitting a buzzer beater at the end of the half to solidify an Aggie lead. His 40-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter put the final touches on the Aggie win on national television.

🎯😤

Hunter Ridley and Jackson Cloyd have been named the Big Sky Conference Special Teams and Defensive Players of the Week!!

📰 – https://t.co/SWdF2GzdBE #GoAgs | #Shredville pic.twitter.com/ZSKVznPaus

— UC Davis Football (@UCDfootball) November 11, 2024

The Aggie linebacker found himself making plays all night, as part of an Aggie defense that held Montana to a season-low 286 total offensive yard Cloyd finished with two sacks, three tackles for loss and five total tackles.

Cloyd becomes the third Aggie to earn Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week, joining redshirt junior linebacker David Meyer (Sept. 9, Nov. 5) and junior linebacker Porter Connors (Sept. 2).

For Ridley, he becomes the first Aggie to earn Big Sky Special Teams Player of the Week honors since punter Daniel Whelan earned the honor in 2021 and he becomes the first Aggie kicker to earn the honor since Isaiah Gomez took home the award several weeks prior to Whelan in that 2021 season.

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Using 17 unanswered second half points, fueled by a stingy defensive performance UC Davis football silenced the crowd at Washington-Grizzly stadium in a 30-14 win over No. 7 Montana that played out in front of a national audience.

“That is a good team and as we all know, this is a difficult place to come and win a football game. It didn’t go our way early, but I thought that our team rallied and I thought the defense was tremendous, making plays when they had to,” UC Davis football head coach Tim Plough said of his team’s efforts.

“Coach [Bobby] Hauck is the best and he’s someone I look up to and hope we can build our program into something like what they have here. I also thought it was a great for the Big Sky to be on ESPN so the country could see the atmosphere they have here. But overall, I’m really proud of the team and we look forward to getting home safe and then hopefully keep it rolling.”