Ty Pennington has twice been named the Offensive Player of the Week in the Big Sky Conference this season. The Northern Arizona quarterback won the award Sept. 15 and 22 after throwing for three touchdowns against Southern Utah and then doing the same to Incarnate Word a week later.
UC Davis quarterback Caden Pinnick joined Pennington on Monday by claiming the award ifor the second week in a row. Unlike Pennington, who did not do much more to win a second time than he did in the first, Pinnick elevated his game to another level for the Aggies in their 34-27 win at Cal Poly last Saturday.
Pinnick was honored last week after accounting for 336 yards of offense and three touchdowns in the Aggies’ 34-12 win over Weber State. He managed to throw for 288 yards and two touchdowns despite completing just 16 of 27 passes. Pinnick also rushed for 48 yards, including a 2-yard score.
Accuracy was not an issue for Pinnick in a 34-27 victory at Cal Poly last Saturday. The Del Oro High graduate was 21-of-26 for a season-high 313 yards and three touchdowns. He also had a season-high 60 rushing yards and one score.
Cal Poly put forth more fight Saturday than it did in losing the past eight meetings with UC Davis by an average of 26 points. The Mustangs pulled even at 20-all in the third quarter, but the game was not tied for long as the Aggies responded with a 75-yard drive to take the lead for good.
Pinnick was 4-of-4 for 57 yards in the drive, including a short pass on fourth-and-1 at the UC Davis 46 that tight end Mitchell Dixon turned into a 31-yard gain. That is the longest reception of the former quarterback’s career. Redshirt freshman Carter Vargas scored on a 9-yard run to make it 27-20 with 11:20 to play.
A 7-yard touchdown run by Pinnick sealed the deal with 6:05 to go. Pinnick has given the Aggies a new dimension with his ability to run. He has rushed for 160 yards, but that is misleading because yards lost on sacks reduce his rushing total. Pinnick has been sacked 14 times for minus-74 yards.
Pennington was sacked twice and did not have a touchdown pass for the first time this season in 13th-ranked Northern Arizona’s 34-10 loss to No. 5 Montana State on Saturday. Pennington will face another ranked team this week when the Lumberjacks travel to Davis to play the No. 6 Aggies.
Pennington, a junior, is a two-year starter at Northern Arizona and was a first-team selection in the 2025 All-Big Sky preseason voting. Pinnick is a redshirt freshman who played in one game last year, so his inexperience was a concern as he battled fifth-year senior Grant Harper to be the starter.
Head coach Tim Plough allowed the competition play out from spring practices to fall camp, but he dropped enough hints along the way to make anyone believe Pinnick would be behind center in the season opener. As so he was. Pinnick is now the conference leader in touchdown passes with 11.
Pennington is second with nine and should easily surpass his 2024 total of 13 with six games left. He is also is on pace to throw for more than 3,000 yards after having 2,288 last season, when he was named the Big Sky Newcomer of the Year. Pinnick could very well earn that award this season.
UC Davis last played Northern Arizona in 2023 and lost 38-21 in Flagstaff. That ended the Aggies’ three-game winning streak in the series. Plough coached at Northern Arizona from 2013 to 2016, serving as the wide receivers coach in the first two years and offensive coordinator in the last two.
