The Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year honors for 2018 are Eastern Washington’s Aaron Best and UC Davis’ Dan Hawkins, the league announced on Wednesday.
The award voted upon by league coaches, resulted in a split decision. It is the first honor for both head coaches. Best and Hawkins have several things in common.
- Best and Hawkins are both in their second year as a head coach at their institutions
- Both are coaching at their alma mater
- Identical records of 9-2, 7-1 in league play
- First playoff appearance as a head coach of their respective teams
- First-round bye for each program
- One got the Offensive MVP, the other earned the Defensive MVP
Best has led his Eagles back to the postseason after missing out on the playoffs last season. Eastern Washington was voted as the preseason favorite and lived up to it. They began the season 2-0 with wins over Central Washington and Northern Arizona – both ranked teams at the time.
With only two losses coming in the third and seventh games of the season, the Eagles changed quarterbacks due to an injury to senior All-American Gage Gubrud and kept rolling. EWU is rank No. 2 in the FCS in total offense with an average of 553.2 yards of offense per game.
The Eagles are the only Big Sky program that has been ranked in the top 10 of the FCS polls all year long. Eastern Washington has been slotted as high as No. 3 in the coaches’ poll, where they have been for the last three weeks, including a top five ranking for five consecutive weeks. EWU is the No. 3 seed in the FCS playoff field.
UC Davis head coach Dan Hawkins at the 2017 Big Sky Kickoff/ by Brooks Nuanez
With a big win late in the season over UC Davis, to hand the Aggies their only conference loss, Eastern Washington positioned itself to earn at least a share of the title and they did so with a 51-point win in their regular season finale over Portland State.
Hawkins led his alma mater to the best season so far in school history since UC Davis joined Division I. The impressive season has Hawkins named as a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, given to the top coach in the FCS.
The Aggies were picked to finish ninth by the coaches and media in the Big Sky preseason polls yet surged to a co-conference championship.
UC Davis opened the season recording the first FCS over FBS win in 2018 when they defeated San Jose State, 44-38. They then followed it up with a 54-21 win over repeat FCS Playoff participant San Diego. The Aggies were tripped up at No. 9 Stanford, but they did not fall, rebounding with a six-game win streak.
The Aggies had never been ranked in the FCS Top 25 polls prior to the season. They have now been ranked for 11 straight weeks and have reached as high as No. 4. Their ranking, performance and quality of schedule earned UC Davis, not only a trip to the playoffs, but a first-round bye with the No. 6 seed in the bracket.
