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For the fans? From here on out, aren't these are the biggest games in the history of UC Davis football?

Coaches? Whoa, not so fast... Let Father Time say what the end of the 2018 season meant. Right now, it's head down and plow through. There remains work to be done.

Speaking of plow, er, Plough...

I chatted with Aggie offensive coordinator Tim Plough and head coach Dan Hawkins about team versus fan takes on Saturday's Eastern Washington game, the Nov. 17 Causeway Classic and beyond. And, yes, with the Aggies at 8-1 (6-0 in Big Sky Conference) and a No. 4 national ranking, there should be a "beyond."

Since joining the Football Championship Subdivision, UC Davis has sailed into uncharted territory. Shouldn't Saturday's trip to Eastern Washington (7-2, 5-1) be considered the biggest game in program history?

"Sure. I totally get that from a supporter's perspective, and from a fans' perspective," says Plough, the former UC Davis quarterback in his second season as an Aggie assistant. "These games are important. But from the players' perspective, I hope they understand that every game has the same value; every game has the same opportunity."

Plough says this stretch drive — and, dare I add, playoffs — "is going to be built up by a lot of people. But our guys should just find joy in the moment — 'Man, this is really cool' — that playing Eastern Washington in Game 10 was just as important as playing San Diego in Game 2 in the grand scheme of things. It still counts the same.

"We shouldn't build it up in our heads as more than it really is: just another opportunity to go play a really good team. Hopefully, we can play well."

Plough's crew has fashioned the nation's No. 8 offense (485 yards a game) and given opponents a multi-faceted headache. From maestro Jake Maier at quarterback to All-American receiver Keelan Doss and go-to tight end Wesley Preece to three darn-good running backs in Ulonzo Gilliam, Tehran Thomas and Namane Modise, foes never know which song Davis will play next.

"Offensively, we've done some amazing things this year, and I'm super-proud of the players," relays Plough. "But from a selfish standpoint, we can play better … and that's what we try to do every week."

Such is Aggie trust in one another, such is the confidence of this football squad, that UC Davis has followed no particular method of operation in securing its eight victories. To wit, the last four games ...

• On Oct. 13, the locals trailed Idaho State, 37-22, with 13:35 remaining. They rallied to tie things in regulation, then did in the Bengals in overtime by turning a fourth-and-4 into a Gilliam game-winning touchdown.

• Cal Poly led 10-0 the following week. The Aggies said "enough," outscoring their hosts, 52-0, the rest of the way.

• On Oct. 27, it looked like UC Davis had once again entered Dante's Inferno. Behind 21-3 at Montana at intermission, it again felt like "abandon all hope, ye who enters here" at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. But the Aggies laid a 46-0 second-half whipping on the Griz — an onslaught the likes of which Montana had never experienced.

• Then Hawkins and Company flipped the script last week, quickly jumping on Northern Arizona, 21-0, and cruising home to win 42-20.

Pretty heady stuff. Seemingly, each game this fall has provided a unique storyline.

But Coach Hawkins, surely you've heard people say Eastern Washington is the biggest game in Aggie football history?

"I've heard it every place I've been. It's just part of the natural progression," says the coach who played fullback at old Toomey Field in 1982 in a 19-14 playoff victory over North Dakota State before more than 12,000 fans — the largest home crowd in UCD annals.

The win catapulted the Aggies into their only national-championship game (only to lose the D-II contest when eventual pro QB Ken O'Brien couldn't play due to injury).

So... Biggest game on Saturday?

"I think it's incorrect for anybody that's in the arena to think that way," Hawkins told me. "I just don't think a great athlete and a great team … they don't think that way. They think every day is the biggest day of the year and you have to get yourself ready.

"I know that seems corny. Greatest games? Hey, that's where fans and the media can do that sort of thing. We just have to take care of business. If today is Tuesday, we have to do what we do on Tuesday well."

Way back in July, at the Big Sky Conference kickoff weekend in Spokane — a stone's throw from where he'll be Saturday afternoon at EWU — Hawkins said he had a really good feeling about where his Aggies could be at the regular season's end.

This week, Hawkins remembered what he said almost four months ago: "Our culture is really rich. And there's too much talent and leadership here. You never know exactly, but when you have those kind of formulas, things can go well."

But still no bite on where Eastern Washington and the remainder of 2018 might fit in the Aggie football Pantheon...

"I've just got too much Jim Sochor and Bob Foster in me," Hawkins concluded. "You just have to get yourself ready to play, and if you're looking at that team, how good they are and what (a win or the opponent's talent) is supposed to mean… Well, that's not the way you do it."

— Former Davis Enterprise sports editor Bruce Gallaudet writes "Inside Aggie Nation" each week. You can also read his "Aggie Corner" column every Friday or Sunday in The Enterprise (davisenterprise.com). Reach Gallaudet at 530-320-4456 or bgallaudet41@gmail.com