Josh Gale has one tackle in three seasons at UC Davis and the senior is not proud of it. Tackles for tight ends are usually the result of being the intended target of a pass that does not reach its destination. Gale learned that last Aug. 31 when he tackled Texas A&M-Commerce’s Daryion Taylor after an interception.
Quarterback Miles Hastings was in a giving mood against the Lions, throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble in the first half. Only the second interception was costly as Emmanuel Adagbon’s 39-yard field goal as time expired in the first half sent the Lions to the locker room with a 31-3 deficit.
UC Davis got away with three turnovers in a 48-10 rout of Texas A&M Commerce. Fortunately for the Aggies, the early turnovers did nothing more than delay the inevitable. “It was nothing they were doing. It was more about the mistakes we were making,” said Gale, who caught three passes for 61 yards and a touchdown in the victory. “It was just first-game jitters. We are just trying to get the rust off.”
Three turnovers were not costly against Texas A&M Commerce, Cal Poly (2021) and San Diego (2019 and 2021). Those are the only four games that UC Davis won with three or more turnovers in the past 10 years. Cal Poly actually led 10-7 midway through the first quarter after turning a fumble by UC Davis quarterback Hunter Rodrigues on the first play from scrimmage into a field goal. Brandon Davis then dashed 55 yards to the end zone after intercepting a Hastings pass. The Aggies responded with 52 unanswered points.
Just like Gale with his first tackle, Hastings was not jumping for joy after beating Texas A&M-Commerce for his first win in six games since 2021 when he has thrown two interceptions. One of those losses was in 2022 to Cal, which will welcome UC Davis to Berkeley for the opener for both teams at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Cal scored three times in the second quarter to lead 17-7 at halftime on its way to a 34-13 victory. By deferring after winning the coin toss, UC Davis received the second-half kickoff with an opportunity to stem the tide. Hastings then threw an interception that Cal’s Craig Woodson returned for a touchdown.
UC Davis trailed 27-13 with 7:02 to go in the third quarter when Hastings engineered a 51-yard drive to give the Aggies a shot at staying in the game. Hastings kept the drive alive on fourth-and-3 at Cal’s 28-yard line with a 4-yard pass to Justin Kraft. His next pass was intercepted by Cal’s Jeremiah Earby.
Hastings was 32-of-50 for 242 yards and one touchdown. The Aggies are 1-6 in games in which Hastings has 40 or more attempts. The one victory was 31-13 at Cal Poly last Sept. 30. Hastings was 27-of-48 for 242 yards and a touchdown. He averaged a season-low 5 yards per pass attempt against the Mustangs.
His average yards per pass attempt dropped from 8.3 in 2022 to 6.5 last year, leaving Hastings 71st among FCS quarterbacks. Villanova’s Connor Watkins and South Dakota State’s Marlk Gronowski ranked first and second at 9.97 and 9.96, respectively. Kaiden Bennett of Sacramento State ranked 28th at 7.74.
Hastings will have to do better than his 4.8 average against Cal two years ago for UC Davis to stand any chance Saturday. Then again, the game could be decided on the ground with UC Davis pitting Lan Larison against Cal’s Jaydn Ott. Larison had just three carries for 14 yards playing behind Ulonzo Gilliam against the Golden Bears in 2022.
Larison missed three games with a knee injury last season and still rushed for 1,101 yards with a career-high 264 coming at Idaho State. Ott was just coming into his own in 2022 and had two 100-yard games, including 104 against UC Davis. He had five 100-yard games in 2023 on his way to finishing with 1,305.
