UC Davis football returns 21 starters, looks to move up in FCS rankings from 23rd spot
College coaches expect players to mature, to be better and wiser than they were the year before. They expect the same of themselves, too. Sometimes it takes a decade or so for that to settle in to make for peace of mind.
As a hard-charging UC Davis fullback in the early 1980s, Dan Hawkins reveled at the chance to crash into someone wearing opposing colors, but he was a fit of anxiety before kickoff. He was antsy, fidgety, pacing like an expectant father at the hospital ward.
Now, the fifth-year Aggies coach shares stories of how he once approached games, and how not to be exactly like him.
“I don’t know if I ever had my mind right as a player,” Hawkins said this week as UCD prepared for its season opener Thursday at Tulsa. “I’d get extremely nervous before games. I tell our guys now that I was so afraid of failing that many times after games, I was relieved the game was over, that I played well, or was distraught if I didn’t play well.”
As a coach, Hawkins has nerves — it’s human to have nerves before kickoff — but he doesn’t fret to the point that it dulls his focus. He stresses to his players to let the coaches sweat the details and to just play.
“I’ve matured as a coach over the years, and you spend time as a younger guy just worrying,” Hawkins said. “Now it’s just trying to get the guys to be the best version of themselves and to not get hung up on, ‘We’re gonna win this game!’ That doesn’t get into my mind.”
If the Aggies are the best version of themselves, then expect another run at the Big Sky Conference championship. UCD won a share of that crown in 2018, an achievement for a program that began in 1915 and has won 31 conference titles. Hawkins earned national coach of the year honors. UCD dipped a bit in 2019 amid a sea of close games that went the wrong way, finishing 5-7.
There was no 2020 season due to the pandemic. UCD went 3-2 in the spring season, setting school records for points and yardage in a 73-24 shelling of Cal Poly, and a ton of guys are back this fall to maintain the momentum.
UCD returns all 11 offensive starters from the spring. It returns 10 on defense and three on special teams, including All-American punter Daniel Whelan. Also back are preseason All-Big Sky selections in defensive back Jordan Perryman and defensive lineman Bryce Rodgers.
The Aggies are ranked 23rd in the STATS FCS preseason poll, one of five Big Sky programs in the mix (Weber State is 6, Montana 9, Eastern Washington 11, Montana State 12).
Hawkins said this Aggies group is the deepest he has coached. UCD has quarterback leadership in Hunter Rodrigues, the Whitney High School and American River College product who impressed in the spring. The team has two star runners in the shifty and explosive Lan Larison and the strong and elusive Ulonzo Gilliam, a team captain.
Larison was a freshman All-American from the spring and Gilliam has rushed for 2,534 yards and 25 touchdowns at UCD, ranking fourth and fifth on the school’s all-time career lists, respectively. Only two UCD players have rushed for 3,000 career yards — G.P. Muhammad with 3,589 from 1995-98 and Preston Jackson with 3,325 from 1991-93. Gilliam has two years of eligibility remaining, as no players in college football lost a year due to the pandemic.
“Gilliam and Larison are similar in that they’re really tough, though quiet, and they’re the kind of guys you want to hand the ball off to,” Hawkins said.
Of his quarterback, the coach said, “Hunter loves football. He’s super tough, has all those intangibles. He’s really good.”
Hawkins laughed in recalling a question a fan asked him recently.
“You got ‘em ready, coach?,’” Hawkins said. “No. No I don’t. Well, that doesn’t instill a lot of confidence. Well, we don’t have them ready on Saturday or Sunday the week before a game. We’ll be ready for kickoff.”
Hawkins said he learned long ago to ease up on brutish practices, stopping two-a-days while coaching at Boise State in the early 2000s before it became the norm. A fresh team is always better than a battered one.
“Someone was talking about how the New England Patriots only had about eight days in pads before their first game, and that might be more than us, but that’s OK because we just played not long ago in the spring,” Hawkins said. “Trust me. I want to get tackling and hitting in. I get that. But we’re a lot smarter than we used to be, more mature, been around. You learn.”
He added, “I do love this group. We’re good on offense, good on defense, good on special teams. We have leadership, depth. I love our guys, I really do. I love their focus, their approach, their culture.”