UC Davis football’s best season ends in South Dakota loss, undone by turnovers and an injury
UC Davis coaches stressed this week that the Aggies had to be at their best to extend perhaps the greatest season in the 109-year history of the program.
UCD was not at its best on Saturday afternoon, turning it over six times and playing without its top player the final three quarters due to injury, helping the No. 4-seeded host South Dakota Coyotes beat the No. 5 Aggies 35-21 in an FCS playoffs quarterfinal inside the DakotaDome.
Aidan Bouman passed for 253 yards and three touchdowns, Travis Theis rushed 18 times for 86 yards and two scores, and the Coyotes moved to 8-0 this season in the DakotaDome to advance to the program’s first FCS semifinal. South Dakota will play at top-seeded, unbeaten Montana State next Saturday.
UCD finished 11-3, the best showing for the team in its 20-year history at the FCS. But the Aggies’ chances of a rematch with Big Sky Conference rival Montana State, which beat UCD 30-28 to win the Big Sky title on Nov. 16, was undone Saturday by turnovers.
Miles Hastings passed for 345 yards in his Aggies career finale. The third-year starter had three touchdown passes, hitting Trent Tompkins, Chaz Davis and Matteo Perez, but he was intercepted five times. He finished the season with 4,493 yards and 38 touchdowns in producing one of the greatest quarterback careers in program history.
UCD missed All-American running back Lan Larison, who suffered an ankle injury in the first half. UCD coach Tim Plough has regularly called Larison “the best player in the country” after he set scores of single-season and career all-purpose records for the Aggies.
Larison led UCD in rushing this fall with 1,465 yards and 17 touchdowns and in receiving with 61 catches for 842 yards and six scores. He had seven carries for 40 yards against South Dakota before the injury, as the Aggies managed just 88 on 29 carries.
Tompkins led the Aggies with a career-best 11 reception for 110 yards in his Aggies finale, and Rex Connors had 15 tackles for UCD, and Kavir Bains and Gaven Cooke each had interceptions for UCD.