UC Davis football coach Dan Hawkins: ‘This is the best Aggies team in history’
Dan Hawkins has seen his share of talented UC Davis football teams, some of them up close and personal. The sixth-year Aggies coach often prefers the blunt approach, so he put it out there clear as a bell Monday with a ringing endorsement of his product.
“With all due respect to the Aggies teams of the past, I think this is the best Aggie team in the history of Aggie football,” Hawkins said in a media session on campus as his club prepares for its opener at Cal on Saturday. “We have more quality players up and down our roster than we’ve had here in the Division I era.”
Hawkins is right. There is depth unlike before. There is skill, speed and ferocity that is not to be confused with teams from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s or 2000s. If the 2018 team wasn’t UCD’s best, then the 2021 version was, and the current edition figures to be even better. Hawkins was a bruising fullback for the most-celebrated UCD football team, the 1982 crew led by 1983 NFL first-round pick quarterback Ken O’Brien. That team reached the NCAA Division II finals.
UCD moved up in classification, from Division II to Division I, in 2004 after winning 31 conference championships, including 20 in succession through 1990. In his second season as head coach in 2018, Hawkins led UCD to its first FCS championship, the Big Sky Conference title. The title ended a drought for UCD as it takes time to move up in class and to compete against those bigger, stronger and faster. Last season, the Aggies reached the FCS playoffs for the second time.
The Aggies this season are experienced on both sides of the ball and bound into Berkeley as a dangerous, two-touchdown underdog. In 2010, Cal waxed UCD 52-3 in Berkeley. In 2019, UCD led at Cal 10-0 before falling 27-13. In 2021, UCD beat a Tulsa team 19-17 that eventually won a bowl game.
Crazier things have happened.
“They’re going to be well-coached,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said in a media session. “They’re going to play extremely hard. They have good players. We know some of their players well.”
Wilcox also knows Hawkins well. Hawkins brought Wilcox into coaching, as a graduate assistant at Boise State in the early 2000s. Wilcox knows Aggies tight end McCallan Castles. He played two seasons at Cal before his transfer at UCD, where he excelled last season and is a preseason All-America candidate.
Cal knows all about UCD linebacker Evan Tattersal, who played four seasons for the Bears and arrived in Yolo County as a graduate transfer. And Cal is familiar with Ulonzo Gilliam, Jr., the second-leading rusher in the history of UCD with 3,434 yards. Gilliam rushed for 89 yards and a score at Cal for UCD in 2019.
“He’s a very good player, a productive guy for a long time,” Wilcox said.
Gilliam is a three-time captain, testament to his impact and team-wide reputation.
“He’s the only Aggie to be a three-time captain in the modern era of Aggie football,” Hawkins said. “That says a lot. He’s a good player and a great leader.”
Cal is 10-0 all time against UCD. The Aggies are 2-23 against Pac-12 teams, including a win over Arizona in 1921.
UC Davis (0-0) at Cal (0-0)
When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
Where: Berkeley, Memorial Stadium
On air: Pac-12 Network, KHTK 1140 Radio
Quick hits: UC Davis went 8-4 last season and returns Gilliam Jr., a preseason All-American, in the backfield, but who will start at quarterback?... UCD is ranked No. 25 in two FCS polls. ... UCD is 6-12 in openers since starting Division I play in 2004. ... Cal went 5-7 in 2021. ... The Bears will not have defensive lineman star Brett Johnson, maybe the team’s top player, this season due to injury. ... Jack Plummer takes over at quarterback for Cal after Chase Garbers left for the NFL.