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Editor's note: This is the first of a series looking at the evolution of the UC Davis football program. It's transition to Division I, life in the Big Sky, it's recent 10-win season and a peek into the foreseeable future.

It was a football season no one saw coming, unless you were inside Aggie Nation...

UC Davis was coming off a 5-6 campaign in 2017 — the program's seventh consecutive losing season.

Big Sky Conference media and coaches, annually asked by the league to break out their crystal balls, saw business as usual for UCD. Their preseason polls — from a circle of media experts and league coaches each picked the locals to finish ninth among 13 circuit members.

Apparently few were paying attention...

The Aggies sported All-American wide receiver Keelan Doss. The year before, campus had brought home former Davis fullback Dan Hawkins to coach at his alma mater. Conversely, Hawkins hired added an almost all-new staff and signed some game-changing talent — not the least of whom was former Long Beach City College quarterback Jake Maier.

While 2017 seemed "business as usual" to the pundits, there was an in-house sense of growth. Remember, a play here against Eastern Washington and a play there versus Sacramento State and UC Davis would have been 7-4 in Hawk's first year back. From afar, the Aggies didn't seem to be sneaking up on its conference brethren as few saw the caldron Hawkins was stirring.

Now everyone knows about UC Davis football...

After the Aggies went 10-3, tied for the Big Sky championship and made it to the final eight in the postseason, word is out. Doss continued his march to playing on Sundays, earning his second-team All-American designation. He leaves Davis with records for receptions (321), receiving yards (4,069) and 100-yard games (19). The Alameda native also established school Big Sky era marks for receiving touchdowns (28), total touchdowns (29) and all-purpose yards (4,218).

Maier, whose 3,931 passing yards were third among Football Championship Subdivision QBs, threw for 34 touchdowns (the division's second-best total).

Both Maier and Doss were equally as prolific the year before ... still no one really saw it coming.

So, how did this Aggie transition come about?

In 2016, UC Davis finished a 3-8 season in which it surrendered almost 40 points a game.

Director of Athletics Kevin Blue was compelled to end coach Ron Gould's four-year stint at the helm, a stay in which the Aggies went 12-33.

Blue had replacement candidates in mind, but time was of the essence. High on the list was Hawkins — but five years before, the personable former Boise State and Colorado head man had told Davis "thanks, but no thanks."

Blue had been in town (from Stanford) less than six months. He had a lot of research left about Aggie football. But one thing was clear, he needed a game-changing coach. The more Blue asked around, the more he heard the name Dan Hawkins.

"I talked with dozens of people within the school ranks, current and previous benefactors, former athletes and people within our academic ranks," Blue remembers.

Hawkins and Blue met face-to-face for the first time just before Thanksgiving.

This time Hawkins was interested, but Blue would have to act fast — Butch Davis had just hired the ex-ESPN analyst as his offensive coordinator at Florida International University.

"You have until midnight Sunday," Hawkins said he told Blue. "I'm on a plane to Miami Monday morning. Got my ticket right here."

After initial contact with Hawkins on Monday, Nov. 21, the following Sunday was intense for Blue. As contract negotiations with Hawkins continued, all the time Blue heard "tick, tick, tick" in the background. The Hawk would take flight if nothing was resolved between him and UC Davis that day.

"An extended amount of time with Hawkins in person provided me with the confidence that he would be a good fit for our football program," Blue explained.

So what was the difference between his brief encounter with Davis five years prior and Blue's invitation?

"For (UCD) to be able to expedite things — understanding my situation — that was a beacon to me that UC Davis was progressing, moving forward and understanding the nature of the industry and the business of things that have to happen and the timeliness in which they have to happen," reports Hawkins.

When the Aggie coach first came to Davis to chat with former AD Terry Tumey and other folks around the program — just before Gould was hired — Hawkins felt there were too many obstacles to overcome.

"Small and large," he says of the challenges facing Aggie football in the transition between the 20-year reign of Bob Biggs and what would become the Gould era. "It just wasn't the right place at the right time for me ... or for Davis, really."

But that all changed with Blue, according to Hawkins:

"I'll be honest with you, when Kevin was able to go and hire a football coach in one week? That shocked and impressed me."

A week after Gould was let go, the Beiber native was introduced as the new Aggie football boss.

On Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, Dan Hawkins told the Aggies "giddyap!"

Note: Next week's Part II will look at exactly how UC Davis football was redrawn on the map, this time in Division I fashion. The following week, we'll look at the future — from facilities to schedules to sustainability.


— 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