Debate class

I chose to punt on a full-blown Great West Football Conference preview this week. It seemed not to fit given that UC Davis' real goal this year was to make the postseason and the GWFC is about to swap out two members. But UCD's league opener at No. 3 North Dakota State corresponds with the halfway point of the season. It's as a good a time as any to try and forecast the rest of the season. Even at 2-3 and inconsistent, it's not necessarily difficult to see the Aggies stringing together some victories in the coming weeks. I don't even have to frame my argument with a bunch of "if" statements or demand wholesale changes to personnel to do it.

UCD matches up pretty well with all the teams in the Great West. Three of them -- the Bison, Cal Poly and South Dakota State -- are essentially ground-oriented teams. This is not to belittle those passing games (especially NDSU's with Steve Walker), but those teams would rather control the game on the ground. The Aggies are pretty good at pretty good at preventing teams from doing that. Meanwhile, the defenses UCD will face are all really skilled, but not necessarily physically overwhelming the way San Jose State was. The Aggies are as balanced as they've been in the past three years and as long as they can maintain that, they can be a difficult team to stop.

Of course I can also argue the other side equally strongly. This is a mistake-prone UCD team that hasn't shown on any consistent basis it can kill off games. The Bison are ranked third and are too good. Cal Poly has a big-play passing game to Ramses Barden that can hit the Aggies where they've struggled. And South Dakota State just has UCD's number after the last two seasons. The Aggies could be 3-6 by the end of the month.

The reality is probably going to be somewhere in between. From my point of view, at least it won't be boring.