UC Davis sets sights on Big Sky title with top-20 ranking and preseason All-American QB

Football has taken Dan Hawkins to 20 countries across the globe to talk about the benefits of blocking and tackling, of teamwork and what the game can do for a man and a team.

The latest venture for the UC Davis coach was a summer trip to Ecuador with his son, Cody Hawkins, the former Aggies offensive coordinator now preparing for his first season as head coach at Idaho State. The global trek wasn’t all about football. The Hawkins family found time to visit the Galápagos Islands.

Back home in Yolo County, Dan Hawkins last week reflected on the making of a champion. It takes everyone to make it work, he said, from coaches to players to staffers who work the phones and set up the games, and a worldly view of appreciation helps, too.

This includes Aggies strength and conditioning coach Jeff Bourque, whom Hawkins said with enthusiasm when asked if he’s an unsung anchor of the program, “Oh, totally!”

Hawkins recalled that conditioning was different when he was a fullback for the Aggies in the early 1980s under famed coach Jim Sochor. He said star running back Shawn Rogers did 29 pull-ups before the 1982 season, a head-turning effort.

“I did nine,” Hawkins said with a laugh. “Back in the day, players used to play their way into shape. Now, guys are in shape coming into camp with year-round conditioning. Everybody’s ready to run an Olympic 400-meter race.”

He added of Bourque’s impact: “You don’t want to wear guys out, to grind them. The science of conditioning is so different. We don’t want Jeff to be a prison guard, the dungeon master. I want our players to come in and be fired up to work out.”

UCD bounds into its Thursday night season opener at Texas A&M University-Commerce with a veteran group expecting the program’s second Big Sky Conference championship since 2018 and third FCS playoff showing in that time. UCD is ranked in the top 20 in various FCS preseason polls.

Mike Cody takes over as UCD’s offensive coordinator and will continue to coach the offensive line. The offensive trenches are a team strength with leaders Jake Parks, Nico Sarale and Jordan Ford, a senior out of Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks.

“I lean on those guys a lot,” Cody said, adding, “the offensive linemen are the heartbeat of the team. The team goes as the offensive line goes, and when we’re playing well up front, it’s a fun thing for us.”

Preseason All-American Miles Hastings returns at quarterback for UCD and is on the Walter Payton Award Watch List, which goes to the top offensive player in the country at the FCS level. Hastings led the Big Sky with 3,048 yards passing and in completion percentage at 69.8%. Hastings had 20 touchdown passes and six interceptions, and he’s become a leader in the mold of Jake Meier, an all-time Aggie quarterback star now in the Canadian Football League.

“He’s very much like Jake,” Hawkins said. “Confidence, leadership, getting us ready. He’s eerily similar to Jake. He wasn’t very vocal, either, but he runs the show.”

UCD must replace all-time Aggies rushing leader Ulonzo Gilliam Jr., who chugged and bolted for 4,617 yards and 51 total scores in his career, though Lan Larison is back and will be turned loose. He earned All-Big Sky honors his past two seasons, a jet with his speed and burst. He has 14 career touchdowns for UCD, 11 on the ground, two receiving and a sizzling 97-yard kickoff return in 2021.

Also in the backfield mix are Matteo Perez and Jeremiah Chukwodobe. The Aggies also have two locals ready to contribute in Kai Acia of Del Oro High in Loomis and Darian Leon-Guerrero of Vacaville High.

C.J. Hutton of Folsom High returns after leading the Aggies in 2022 with 506 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Trent Tompkins, whom Hawkins has called “Magic” for his ability to make plays, is also back. Tompkins can catch the ball and can turn games on kickoff and punt returns. Justin Kraft of Whitney High also returns.

The defense is led by nose tackle Chubba Maae, end Zach Kennedy, linebackers Teddye Buchannan and Nick Eaton of Whitney High, who has played in 42 games with the Aggies, and defensive back Rex Connors, a freshman All-American last season.

Hawkins praised Connors, comparing him with an all-time Aggies great in Bo Eason, an All-American defensive back in 1983 before a four-year NFL career.

“Rex can run and he can hit — just a ball player,” Hawkins said. “I sent Bo Eason a picture of Rex and told him that Rex has hair that’s a little longer but that he’s a lot like you.”