Catching on to blocking

Devin Gandy does not earn his keep at Sacramento State by blocking. It might be mentioned in the fine print of the job description for a wide receiver, but the Hornets rely on Gandy for his sure hands and game-breaking speed.

Both attributes were evident last Saturday night at Stanford in Sacramento State’s 30-23 victory. Gandy caught a career-high five passes for 64 yards, including a 39-yarder on fourth-and-3 at the Stanford 45-yard line in the third quarter.

Sophomore Devin Gandy has come back from knee surgery to give the Hornets a deep threat at wide receiver this season.

That gave the Hornets a first-and-goal at the 6, but the drive ended when Kaiden Bennett threw an interception. The turnover was not costly because Stanford’s ensuing possession also ended with an interception.

Each team got two field goals after that with Zach Schreiber’s 44-yarder pulling Sacramento State into a 23-all tie with 4:08 to play. The Hornets defense then stuffed the Cardinal to force a punt at the Stanford 19.

Bennett gained 4 yards on first down, but he followed with an incomplete pass to leave the Hornets with third-and-6 at the Stanford 49. Sacramento State was a play away from wasting its best drive start of the night.

The third-down play did not go according to offensive coordinator Bobby Fresques’ plan. Bennett dropped back to pass and noticed tight end Marshall Martin stayed put to block instead of taking off into his route. 

Marcus Fulcher stayed in the backfield to protect Bennett, but the running back missed a block on blitzing linebacker Gaethan Bernadel. Bennett scrambled to his right in a desperate search for an open receiver. 

The only available target turned out to be Fulcher, who had the good sense to flare out to the right. Bennett was nearly sacked as Bernadel pulled him down from behind when he managed to flip the ball to Fulcher.

Gandy was running a deep route on the right, but the sophomore cut it off after looking back to see Bennett was in trouble. After Fulcher caught the pass and found room to run, Gandy transformed into a blocker.

Safety Alaka’i Gilman was the last Stanford player with a chance to stop Fulcher from reaching the end zone. Gandy made sure that would not happen by cutting off Gilman and knocking him out of Fulcher’s way. 

Gilman had a 24-pound advantage on the 170-pound Gandy, but Gandy was prepared to confront the challenge.

Devin Gandy

“We’ve had a big emphasis on blocking the last couple of weeks, especially against Stanford,” said Gandy, who attended Silverado High School in Victorville. “They’re bigger guys because they play in the Pac-12.”

Sacramento State was not intimidated by Stanford’s size in its fourth win against an FBS team since 2011. Stanford was Sacramento State’s third Pac-12 victim, following Oregon State (2011) and Colorado (2012). The fourth victory came against Colorado State last season

By the time the Hornets returned to Sacramento, they were already looking ahead to Saturday’s game at Idaho. The game is one of two Big Sky Conference openers featuring two ranked teams. Sacramento is No. 4 and Idaho No. 7 in the latest FCS poll. No. 3 Montana State will travel to No. 8 Weber State.

Gandy did not play last October when the Hornets beat the Vandals 31-24. Sacramento State blew a 17-point lead but came back to win when quarterback Asher O’Hara’ scored on a 2-yard run with 1:48 to play.

Surgery on his left knee forced Gandy to miss the 2022 regular season, but he played in the two FCS playoff games. He could have returned sooner, but playing in five games would have cost him a year of eligibility. 

The Hornets wanted to have Gandy available in case they had four playoff games, the maximum for his participation without losing a year of eligibility. He marked his return to action with three receptions for 60 yards in the 38-31 playoff victory against Richmond.

His first catch was for 39 yards and erased any doubts about his knee, especially on a rain-soaked synthetic field.

“It was the best feeling because I put in the work to make it back. It was a big play and they knew they could rely on me,” said Gandy, who probably had a better feeling after the surprising victory against Stanford.

Taylor-made job for coach

Sacramento State had no business being in Friday night’s FCS quarterfinal game against Incarnate Word until the final play. Four turnovers, one being a fumble the Cardinals returned for a touchdown, should have spoiled the Hornets’ 12-0 season long before a Hail Mary pass by Jake Dunniway fell incomplete in the end zone as time expired.

The odds of the Hornets overcoming four turnovers to win were about as slim as any chance of Sacramento State persuading Troy Taylor into turning down an offer to become the coach at Stanford. The gossip Friday at Hornet Stadium was that Stanford was simply waiting for the end of Sacramento State’s season to seal the deal with Taylor.

Not only is Taylor more than qualified for the job, but Stanford landed the former Cal quarterback just a year after the Golden Bears gave Justin Wilcox a six-year contract extension. Most folks figured Taylor would only leave Sacramento State for Cal, but the Golden Bears are stuck with Wilcox for the next five years unless they buy him out.

Like most coaches on the hot seat, Wilcox let two of his assistants take the fall when this season took a turn for the worse. Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave and offensive line coach Angus McClure were fired after a 38-10 loss at Oregon State on Nov. 12 left Cal at 3-7 with a six-game losing streak. The Golden Bears salvaged a modicum of pride by beating Stanford 27-20 and Cal fans need to savor that.

Taylor will see to that not happening again any time soon in the Big Game. His three-year stay at Sacramento State ended with a 66-63 loss to Incarnate Word, but Taylor kept the Hornets in the game by realizing his offense would have to keep pace with the high-powered Cardinals when his defense was incapable of stopping them.

Sacramento State lost despite a record-setting offensive show orchestrated by Taylor. The Hornets rewrote their record book with 738 yards of total offense, 109 offensive plays and 49 first downs. The four turnovers were costly as Incarnate Word turned three of them into points, including Kelechi Anyakebechi’s 55-yard return of an O’Hara fumble that stretched the Cardinals’ lead to 59-48 with 8:30 to go in the game.

The touchdown was the fourth in less than four minutes. Sacramento State trailed 45-41 with 12:30 left after running back Cameron Skattebo caught a lateral from Dunniway and lofted a 19-yard scoring pass to tight end Marshel Martin. After the Hornets gambled with an onside kick and recovered it, Martin found the end zone again by catching a 14-yard pass from Dunniway. Sacramento State led 48-45 – for all of 49 seconds.

Marcus Cooper put Incarnate Word back on top with a 67-yard touchdown dash. After Anyalebechi’s fumble return, Sacramento State answered with Dunniway’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Williams and Martin’s 4-yard scoring run with 1:43 left. The Cardinals needed just 76 seconds to go 75 yards for the final score – a 21-yard pass from Lindsey Scott Jr. to Taylor Grimes. Scott has almost as many rushing yards (176) as he did passing (219).

Scott threw four touchdown passes, boosting his season total to 59, and ran for two scores. Incarnate Word will travel to North Dakota State for a semifinal showdown at 4 p.

Aggies want King to have a ball

Devon King thought he had scored against Stanford after receovering what he believed to be a latera, but the play was eventually ruled a forward pass.

UC Davis has lost its past five games against Pacific 12 Conference opponents by an average of 34 points.The closest was a 30-10 loss at Stanford in 2018, and that game could have been much closer. The Aggies led 3-0 for nearly seven minutes, and it could have been 10-0 by the time Stanford got on the scoreboard.

Stanford quarter back K.J. Costello had already thrown one interception when UC Davis linebacker Mason Moe pressured him into a wobbly pass midway through the first quarter. Freshman cornerback Devon King alertly scooped the ball on a bounce behind the line of scrimmage and dashed 18 yards to the end zone.

King was immediately mobbed by his teammates, but the celebration did not last long. The referees huddled and ruled Costello’s arm was going forward when the ball left his right hand. That turned what King thought was a lateral into an incomplete pass. The Aggies have been wondering “what if” for nearly a year.. 

“I always think about it,” said King, who was not only referring to his touchdown return being erased. He also bemoaned the opportunity UC Davis squandered to join FCS teams that have upset ranked FBS squads (Stanford was ranked ninth at the time). UC Davis opens Saturday at Cal, but the Bears are not ranked.

FBS schools pay FCS opponents thousands of dollars to supposedly be easy prey. FCS teams take the money and treat the game as a measuring stick against a supposedly superior opponent. King is not buying that. He believes with every braid in his long hair that the Aggies can beat any team on any given Saturday.

“We’re not just going to show up,” King replied when asked how the Aggies can benefit from facing FBS teams. “Our coaches have told us we can win every game we play, so we’re going to play every game to win.”

The 2019 edition of the Aggies is far different from the teams that lost by 52-3 to Cal in 2010, 48-14 to Arizona State in 2011, 45-0 to Stanford and 53-28 to Oregon in 2016. UC Davis is coming off a 10-3 season in which it shared the Big Sky Conference championship and advanced to the FCS playoffs for the first time.

Although it did not count, King’s fumble return against Stanford revealed his ball-hawking ability. His quick thinking was honed in practice by defensive backs coach Cha’pelle Brown, who was a three-year starter in the secondary for UC Davis coach Dan Hawkins when Hawkins was running the show at Colorado.

“Our coach always preaches to us that whenever we see the ball on the ground, pick it up and run with it,” King explained. “It’s something we work on every day in practice – scoop and score. When it happened in the game, it was like repetition.”

King struck again last Oct. 27 at Montana with two fourth-quarter interceptions to seal the Aggies’ comeback from an 18-point deficit for a 49-21 victory. Two weeks later at Eastern Washington, King stripped the ball from wide receiver Terence Grady at the UC Davis 17-yard-line to prevent the Eagles from scoring.

Isaiah Thomas was bailed out by King against Sacramento State in the Causeway Classic a week later. Thomas fumbled on a punt return, and the ball bounced backward to the UC Davis 24-yard line. King somehow navigated through four Sacramento State players to locate the ball and pounce on it. Instead of a turnover, UC Davis took possession and drove 76 yards for a touchdown to lead 35-10 at halftime.

“It’s just awareness and always trying to be around the ball,” King said. “Whenever you run to the ball, good things happen.”