Sources: UC Davis football coach Dan Hawkins stepping down; Aggies courting Cal assistant?

After seven seasons and six consecutive winning campaigns, UC Davis football coach Dan Hawkins has resigned to spend more time with family, including his grandchildren in Idaho, The Sacramento Bee has learned.

Sources told The Bee that UC Davis has interest in negotiating with Tim Plough to become the 18th coach in the 108-year history of the football program, and he would be a familiar face. A tight ends coach at Cal, Plough is a one-time Aggies quarterback who had two assistant coaching stints with UC Davis, the second one under Hawkins.

UC Davis athletic director Rocko DeLuca told The Bee by phone after a flight to Southern California for conference meetings that he has not had “any conversations with any candidates but will be doing so at the end of the week.”

He would not confirm or deny that Plough might be high on the list.

“It’s an open search,” DeLuca said. “We have a great tradition with UC Davis football and Hawk has done a great job elevating the program. Our goal is to find someone to take the ball from the fullback and keep going forward. We’ll have interest in the position. We’re one of the top FCS programs in the country and we’re not backing down from our goal of winning championships and national championships.

“We’re going to move as fast as we can, but also take the time to make sure.”

Cal is 6-6 and bowl eligible, but if Plough, 38, does become the next Aggies coach, he would take over the program immediately to make the transition as seamless as possible. The immediate tasks for the next coach would include recruiting with the early signing period set for Dec. 21-23. A second signing period runs from Feb. 1 to April 1. Plough helped recruit some of the current Aggies. He is familiar with the school, players, some coaches and the Big Sky Conference.

Hawkins did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Bee. He met with his team in a meeting at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday to update everyone. UC Davis will hold a news conference 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Bruce Edwards Club Room on campus.

Hawkins said in a UC Davis news release later Tuesday that he isn’t entirely leaving the Aggies.

“I was honored to carry Aggie football forward and now will hand off to another,” Hawkins said. “This is not a retirement or stepping aside from being involved with Aggie Athletics. Rocko is allowing me to stay on board as a special assistant. I’ve got plenty of juice and life left in me to help the Aggies and embrace any other adventures that lie ahead. I will continue to pursue my life’s passion of making a positive difference in the lives of others. The journey continues.”

Hawkins, 63, told some Aggies players and coaches of his plans Monday. He was under contract to coach through 2027, and he pondered retiring from his head coaching post a year ago. The only thing Hawkins loves more than football is family, and it isn’t even close.

He has grandchildren in Boise, where he was the Boise State head coach from 2001-05, going 56-11 with four Western Athletic Conference championships. He also has two grandsons in Pocatello, where his son, Cody, just completed his first season as head coach at Idaho State after six seasons coaching with his father at UCD.

The grandsons from Boise joined Hawkins at the media table for his last postgame news conference at UC Davis after the Aggies capped a 7-4 season with a 31-21 victory over rival Sacramento State in the Causeway Classic. The boys smiled and nodded as their grandfather spoke of the joys of growing a mustache for a playoff march.

Hawkins said throughout the season that he and his wife, Misti Rae Ann, miss their children and grandchildren. The family has traveled the world together, including Hawkins and son Cody coaching football games or conducting camps and clinics.

Hawkins said at the end of the regular season that coaching against his son in a Big Sky Conference game on Nov. 11, a 21-14 Aggies victory, was the most difficult and emotional game he has coached in his 40 years on a sideline. In the week leading up to the game, and after, father and son said they are each other’s best friends.

Hawkins still owns a home in Boise, which served as home base during previous coaching stops and when he had a broadcasting stint with ESPN before coming to UC Davis following the 2016 season. It was a full-circle move for a man who grew up in the Northern California town of Bieber, located in Lassen County, where he lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track and field, and where teenagers piled into pickup trucks with gun racks in the rural ranching region to head off to games located hours away.

Hawkins played fullback for UCD in 1981 and ’82 and got his coaching start with the Aggies under Hall of Fame coach Jim Sochor. Hawkins coached Christian Brothers High School of Sacramento to the 1986 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I finals, looking not much older than his players. He later went 39-12-1 at Willamette University in Oregon, where he led the 1997 team to a 13-1 record and the NAIA finals.

After his Boise State run, Hawkins coached rebuilding Colorado from 2006-10. He was ecstatic to land the UCD gig, wearing an old Aggies jersey and letterman jacket for his introductory news conference, where he enjoyed a reunion with old coaching pals such as Bob Foster, a mentor when he played and coached at UCD.

The Aggies went 5-6 under Hawkins in his first season in 2017. The following year, the Aggies went 10-3, winning a share of their first Big Sky championship. That halted a streak of seven consecutive losing seasons at UCD. The Aggies went 5-7 in 2019, 3-2 in the COVID-shortened spring season of 2020, 8-4 in 2021, 6-5 in 2022 and 7-4 this season. Hawkins’ career record is 156-92-1.

DeLuca, the UC Davis AD, has known Hawkins for years, dating back to the Colorado days.

“I definitely appreciate what Hawk has done for UC Davis,” he said. “It’s been fun to see him have success at a place he deeply cares about. The win over Sac State was certainly a nice cap to his career. I’m sure Hawk has more football in him.”

A Southern California native, Plough played quarterback at UCD from 2003-07, starting as a senior after sustaining a number of injuries. He started his coaching career at UCD in 2008 and was calling plays for the Aggies by the time he was 25, doing so from 2010-212. From 2013-16, Plough was an assistant coach at Northern Arizona, where he became friends with Andy Thompson, the first-year Sacramento State coach who was a longtime assistant at NAU.

Hawkins hired Plough in 2017 to help turn the UCD program around. He was the Aggies assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2019 and 2020, using a wide-open, up-tempo offense designed to gas defenses, something the Aggies called “Shredville.”

Plough served as offensive coordinator at Boise State from 2021-22 before making the move to Cal.