MISSOULA, Montana — Bobby Hauck nearly remembered every detail of the last time he served as a head coach in Davis, California.
Montana’s veteran head football coach recollected that the last time he took the Griz to one of the idyllic college towns on the West Coast came in 2008. It was actually 2009.
Hauck definitively remembers the lights going out at Aggie Stadium. He accurately recalled that his team won by seven points, although he said 20-13 when the final score was 17-10.
The point is the last time Hauck took Montana to play UC Davis, the Aggies were not yet a part of the Big Sky Conference. UCD had only been a Division I program for six years following a run of unprecedented D-II success.
“Lightning storm. We had a play left and the lights went out. We had 20 minutes to try to figure out what they were going to run on their last few plays,” Hauck reminisced on Monday as his Griz begin preparations to head to California. “It was a tough game and we expect the same.
The Aggies bring a No. 4 national ranking into the game, a number that held this week despite UC Davis losing last weekend. The Aggies went toe-to-toe with FCS juggernaut North Dakota State, two-time reigning national champions. Davis had the ball trailing 20-16 with three minutes, 45 seconds left. But All-American quarterback Jake Maier threw an interception that gave NDSU the ball in the red-zone.
Three plays later, Trey Lance scored the game-sealing touchdown to boost the Bison to a 27-16 victory.
Over the last two seasons, Davis has seen a meteoric rise to the ranks of the nationally elite. A program that never won more than six games at the D-I level suddenly burst onto the scene, defeating FBS San Jose State to begin last season on the way to 10 wins, including a 23-16 win over Northern Iowa in the second round of the FCS playoffs. The Aggies took the No. 6 seed into the tournament after posting a 7-1 Big Sky Conference record to share the league title with Eastern Washington and Weber State. Davis’ run ended with a 34-29 loss at EWU.
During the final season of Hauck’s last tenure — he left for UNLV, where he spent five seasons and then the next three at San Diego State before returning to his alma mater — it would’ve been unthinkable that a transitioning program like UC Davis would be more stable than the once-proud Grizzlies.
But it’s No. 18 Montana that enters Saturday’s game fighting to re-earn the respect it once owned. Montana posted a 3-1 record in non-conference play but is still looking to vanquish the demons of last season. In 2018, Hauck’s first season back in nine, Montana lost three straight home games on the way to missing the playoffs for the thirds straight year.
A program that once advanced to the postseason 17 years in a row between 1993 and 2009 gave up 46 points in the final 17 minutes of a 49-21 loss to UC Davis in Missoula last season. That collapse symbolized Montana’s disappointing campaign. And it heightens the level of focus entering Saturday’s game at Davis.
“This is a huge game for us to start conference play and we have a tough opponent in Davis,” UM senior quarterback Dalton Sneed said. “There’s nothing more to it than we are ready to get out there and play.
“The guys are happy with where we are at but we are still extremely hungry. This game has been looming for us for a year now and we have been sitting on it. We weren’t happy with the result last year. We are just happy to get out there and show what we can do.”
QUICK HITS
Location: Davis, California
Nickname: Aggies
Founded: 1905 as a land-grant university adjacent to Davis, California, a quant farming town of 65,000 non-students in Yolo County 15 miles West of Sacramento. Davis is part of the University of California (UC) system and has the third-largest enrollment in the system behind only UC – Los Angles and UC- Berkeley. Davis has been labeled one of the “Public Ivies”, a publicly funded university considered to provide a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivy League.
Enrollment: 39,152 including 30,718 undergraduates and an endowment of $1.4 billion.
Stadium: Aggie Stadium a 10,743-seat multi-purpose stadium on campus built in 2005 and renovated in 2007. Eventual plans include the venue being built to hold 30,000 seats. The field within the stadium is named for Jim Sochor, UC Davis’ legendary cocah who led the Aggies to 18 straight conference championships and a rare reign of Division II.
The Coach: Dan Hawkins, third season at UC Davis, his alma mater. The eccentric, brilliant head coach returned to his alma mater after an eight-year exodus from college football. During his early days, Hawkins cut his teeth as a fullback for Sochor in 1981 and 1982.
He joined Sochor’s staff in 1983, serving as a compelling branch in a coaching tree that also includes Washington head coach Chris Petersen, TCU head coach Gary Patterson, former USC head coach Paul Hackett and former Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti,
“They have a really experienced staff so they know how to get them lined up,” Hauck said. “Hawk has had his way of doing things for a long time and it’s evolved here or there but he has certain beliefs. He’s a football guy through and through. He loves the game. His approach is unique to him and it’s working really well at Davis.”
Hawkins’ first job as an offensive coordinator came at his junior college alma mater, Siskiyous CC between 1988 and 1991. In 1992, he joined Tim Walsh’s staff at Sonoma State as the defensive coordinator And in 1993, he landed his first head coaching job at Division III Willamette.
In Salem, Hawkins led the Bearcats to a 40-11 record that included three straight Northwest Conference titles to finish the run. Willamette advanced to the Division III Elite Eight in 1996 and lost in the D-III national title game in 1997.
From 1998 until 2000, Hawkins served as the offensive coordinator on Dick Koetter’s staff at Boise State, helping the Broncs to back-to-back 10-win seasons.
Between 2001 and 2005, BSU won 53 of 64 games, including 37 out of 40 in Western Athletic Conference competition. Boise went 31-1 in league play, claiming four straight league championships Hawkins’ final four seasons at BSU. Two of the 11 total losses came in the final two bowl games.
In 2006, Hawkins ceremoniously took the Colorado job. After winning just 19 games in 58 tries and posting a 10-27 Big XII Conference record, he was unceremoniously fired in 2010.
He stayed away from college coaching for nearly a decade before returning to his alma mater. He did a stint as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 2013, coached the United States National Team in 2005 and served as the OC of the Vienna Vikings in 2016, all the while working as a commentator for various college football coverage outlets.
Now he’s back at Davis and has the Aggies in the midst of an impressive turnaround. After a 5-6 finish in his first year, UC Davis is 12-4 and the No. 4 team in the FCS.
THE OFFENSE – Players to watch
Jake Maier, quarterback, 6-0, 200, senior — The cerebral senior makes up for his average size and his average athleticism with the highest football IQ of any signal caller in the league. And despite the fact that he is only middle of the road (at best) when it comes to mobile quarterbacks in the Big Sky Conference, Maier stands in the pocket as strong as any signal caller in the league.
To hear Hauck say it, Maier is unflappable.
“They have great players across the board and it starts with Maier at quarterback,” Hauck said. “It’s well documented what he can do. He’s a guy who doesn’t get rattled. He’s just a playmaker. He can throw the ball from all sorts of angles and he’s accurate. I’ve been impressed with him since he was a sophomore when we played him down in San Diego.”
The Aggies took on San Diego State when Hauck was the special teams coordinator for the Aztecs back in 2017. Maier completed 19-of-24 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns but his team fell 38-17.
Maier went on to throw for 3,669 yards and 26 touchdowns on the way to earning Big Sky Newcomer of the Year after transferring from Long Beach City College. When Hawkins took over for Ron Gould, he hired offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tim Plough. Together, the trio has devised an offense that Hauck said “they do more than I’ve ever seen.”
“He’s started three years for them and any time you’ve been in a system for multiple years as the starting quarterback, there’s more they can do. And they do everything,” Hauck said.
Last season, Maier threw for 3,931 yards and 34 touchdowns on the way to leading the Aggies to a share of the Big Sky title, a first-round bye in the playoffs and a playoff victory. The 10-win season helped Maier earn Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year honors.
This fall, Maier has thrown for 1,233 yards and seven touchdowns. He is 1,167 yards away from 10,000 for his career, meaning he will only need to throw for 146 yards the rest of the season to reach the elite mark.
Julian Harrell, wide receiver, 6-2, 200, junior — If you just took a brief glance at UC Davis’ offensive alignments last season, you might’ve had a hard time deciphering between 2018 FCS consensus All-American Keelan Doss and Harrell, the player the Aggies hope is Doss’s heir apparent.
The 6-foot-3 Doss is an inch taller. But their body composition and structure and the way they move is very similar. And the way Davis hopes to use Harrell this year is in Doss’s prolific role from the last two seasons.
“I thought he was a good player a year ago and I think he’s even better this year,” Hauck said of Harrell, a third-team All-Big Sky selection last season. “I don’t see them missing Keelan Doss at all with him.”
That might be a bit of hyperbole from Hauck’s part to be fair. Last season, Doss caught 118 passes for 1,334 yards and nine touchdowns. He had six game with at least 10 catches, six games with at least 100 yards and a 16-catch, 205-yard, two-touchdown effort in a win over rival Sac State.
In his career, Doss caught 321 passes for 4,069 yards and seven touchdowns. He earned Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year honors as a junior after catching 115 passes for 1,449 yards.
Harrell could see a big jump in production with Doss now playing for his hometown Raiders. Doss hails from Alemeda, California right outside Oakland. Harrell, who prepped at Los Angeles-Area powerhouse St. John Bosco Pre, caught 62 passes for 896 yards and five touchdowns last season.
He caught a career-high 10 passes in UC Davis’ win at Montana.
Wesley Preece, tight end, 6-5, 238, senior — Over the last 27 games of Preece’s career, he has caught 20 touchdowns, including nine in each the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The towering, athletic Rocklin, California native has established himself as one of the top red-zone threats in the FCS.
“He is a big target and a guy who they like to throw to down in the red zone,” Hauck said. “DBs have a hard time defending him because of his size and catching ability.”
Last season, Preece earned second-team All-American honors by catching 29 passes for 337 yards. He picked up of those scores on his career-long reception against the Griz.
As a sophomore, he was Maier’s second-favorite target behind Doss with Harrell redshirting; Preece caught 36 passes for 568 yards. He was a third-team All-Big Sky selection.
He has caught three touchdowns in a game on three separate occasions.
Ulonzo Gilliam, running back, 5-9, 185, sophomore — UC Davis’ offense is so complete and diverse that it’s imperative that you include their four most dangerous skill players.
“They have more offense than I’ve ever seen,” Hauck said. “They do everything. They are a hard prep.”
And Gilliam is one of the best running backs in the league, part of a trio of tailbacks who took the league by storm as freshmen.
Josh Davis of Weber State finished third in the league with 1,362 yards and scored nine touchdowns for the co-league champions. Isaiah Ifanse became the first Motnana State freshman to surpass 1,000 yards rushing in a single season. He finished with 1,057 yards and seven touchdowns despite battling a hamstring injury for the second half of the season.
But Gilliam was the most polished and diverse of the trio. He piled up 976 rushing yards, 385 receiving yards and scored a team-high 17 touchdowns. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry, 6.8 yards per catch on 57 receptions and nearly 105 yards from scrimmage each outing.
“He’s as good as anybody in the league, certainly,” Hauck said. “You couple that with an offensive line that plays really hard and they have so many returning starters, that’s a really complete offense.
He rushed for 89 yards on 18 carries and scored a touchdown against Cal. He rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns against San Diego. He scored a touchdown in a win against Lehigh, his fourth this season. All told, he has 353 yards rushing, 77 yards receiving and four total touchdowns.
THE DEFENSE — Players to watch
Eric Flowers, outside linebacker, 6-1, 215, senior — Conventional wisdom pointed to the fact that Davis would have to score an abundance of points to get past NDSU. Instead, the Aggies went toe-to-toe in a slugfest in one of the toughest programs in the history of the FCS.
The Aggies held NDSU to 198 yards rushing, just the ninth time in the last 35 games the Bison have not surpassed 200 yards rushing. The Aggies out-gained the hosts by matching the physicality.
Flowers spearheaded that effort. He had nine tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and forced a fumble to lead a defense that allowed 16 first downs and 354 yards of total offense.
The former junior college transfer had 76 tackles and a tackle for loss during his first two seasons at Davis. He had seven tackles last season against Montana. His 24 tackles this season leads UCD.
Devon King, cornerback, 5-10, 165, sophomore — The hyper competitive and aggressive man cornerback earned Freshman first-team All-American honors from Hero Sports last season after starting 11 of 13 games as a rookie. He led the league with three forced fumbles and also earned two interceptions. He also piled up 49 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and a sack.
“They are pretty multiple and they are not afraid to man you,” Hauck said. “In fact, I think that’s their preference. They have some guys who can get there so they don’t have to cover too long. They get after you.”
King has 23 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions and two forced fumbles this season already.
Nick Eaton, outside linebacker, 6-2, 215, redshirt freshman — After qualifying for his redshirt despite appearing in three games, Eaton looks like the most talented replacement for Mason Moe on the edge of the Davis defense.
This season, the local product from nearby Rocklin, California has a team-high 3.5 tackles for loss, including 2.5 in UCD’s win over Lehigh. He has also forced two fumbles for a defense that has forced six total.
Photo attribution to UC Davis Athletics; or noted. All Rights Reserved.
