Tim Plough was willing to wait for the cows to come home in order to UC Davis to finish Saturday’s game against Mercer in Montgomery, Ala. And the second-year head coach was willing to do that even with the Aggies on the verge of squandering a 20-point lead in the 11th FCS Kickoff Classic.
UC Davis led 23-17 when lightning strikes forced a stoppage of play with 7:46 to go in the fourth quarter. A pass interference call against UC Davis cornerback Ty Richardson allowed Mercer to escape a second-and-23 and gave the Bears a first down at the Aggies 48 when play was halted.
Both teams had retreated to their respective locker rooms when Plough was informed UC Davis would have been declared the winner if there were five minutes to play or the Aggies were ahead by two scores. Plough preferred to earn a victory on the field and would wait as long as necessary.
Plough went as far as to call the pilots of the team’s charter plane to find out how long they could wait before having to scratch the flight. Staying overnight to resume the game Sunday was out of the question for the Aggies because they could not afford a third night in a hotel.
The game was stopped at 9 p.m. CDT. Plough was determined to wait as long as possible after the pilots told him they could take off as late as 1 a.m. The game could have resumed if there was not a lightning strike within eight miles of the stadium for 30 minutes. The lightning did not cooperate.
City officials canceled the game at 11 p.m. because the lightning persisted and “they did not want the game to go past a certain time,” Plough explained. “We could wait it out forever. I felt we were clearly the better team in the game, so it would have been nice to come out of there with a victory.”
UC Davis seemed to have cornered the market on momentum after blocking a punt for a safety in the third quarter for a 23-3 lead. Running back Jordan Fisher made the big play on special teams by snuffing John McConnell’s punt without leaving his feet. The ball bounced out of the end zone.
That was the Aggies’ first blocked punt for a safety since 1977. And with it came a free kick, giving UC Davis an opportunity to extend its sizable lead if the offense could capitalize on it. A promising drive ended in frustration, however, when Hunter Ridley missed a field-goal attempt from 38 yards.
Mercer dodged a bullet and then fired one of its own. Autavius Ison pulled the trigger by bolting 69 yards to score with 5:28 left in the third quarter. One big play did not make UC Davis linebacker Porter Connors panic because “we’ve got to have that next play mentality and move on from it.”
A “tush push” touchdown by quarterback D.J. Smith on the final play of the third quarter pulled Mercer within six points. UC Davis went three and out on their ensuing possession as Plough tried to keep track of which players were available and how many had gone to the locker room for IVs.
The humidity took a toll on the Aggies, but the defense mustered the energy on Mercer’s ensuing possession to deny the Bears on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 at their 35, Safety Rex Connors stopped Tyrell Coard on third down and his brother Porter foiled a fake punt play on fourth down.
UC Davis kept its defense on the field instead of calling for the punt return unit just in case Mercer gambled. The snap went directly to Mic Wasson instead of punter J.P. Pickles and Porter Connors went directly to Wasson, who was stopped inches short of a first down after a chain measurement.
Thirty-five yards were all the Aggies needed for a touchdown to likely put the game away. UC Davis settled for Ridley trying a 39-yard field goal, but the ball was tipped by Mercer’s Jordan Swain. Plough pleaded for a penalty because Swain had made contact with long snapper Joseph Adema.
The game was halted two plays later. Jacob Psych sacked Smith for a 13-yard loss on first down and Mercer then got a break when cornerback Ty Richardson was called for pass interference. The penalty gave the Bears a first down at the Aggies 48, but then the whistles blew to stop the game.
Plough never doubted his team would prevail and became even more confident once the players returned to the locker room. Matt Kitchen, the Aggies director of football operations, anticipated the nasty weather might interrupt the game and arranged to have food on hand in case of a break.
UC Davis did not come away with a victory, but Plough learned more about lightning in one night than he ever wanted to know. “They don’t give you that in the head coach handbook,” he joked. “We knew the weather can change dramatically and we had already prepared for that to happen.”
Porter Connors did not think of the game as a waste of time even though any statistics would not count. His brother had 12 tackles and Porter added eight. Redshirt freshman Caden Pinnick threw for 141 yards, rushed for 62 and accounted for two touchdowns in his first start at quarterback.
“Here at Davis, we’re not really like a results-based team,” Porter Connors said after practice Tuesday. “It’s basically like we’re more focused on how well we play and whatever the result is we’ll learn from it.”
