On Nov. 16, 2024, the No. 2-ranked Montana State football team played a night game at No. 4 UC Davis in the second-to-last week of the regular season.

Before the game began, Davis celebrated its senior day. MSU head coach Brent Vigen was struck by the size of the crowd taking part in the festivities.

“We ran by all those parents and kids as we walked out, there must have been 30-plus (seniors),” Vigen said Monday.

The Aggies not only lost dozens of seniors from their 2024 roster. They’ve suffered 15 season-ending injuries so far this fall, according to Davis head coach Tim Plough, most notably All-American safety Rex Connors, who got hurt in September as a ball carrier on offense in the fourth quarter against Weber State.

All those sidelined players partly explain why No. 9 Davis (7-2,

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