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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the final installment in a four-part series looking at the rise of UC Davis football.
In sports, every now and again lightning strikes.
Occasionally, school athletics programs will emerge from hibernation and do magical things ... then, the following season, drift back into slumber.
But if a university has a game plan in which that watershed season was a result of careful planning, student-athlete support on and off the field, acquisition of the finest mentors and underpinnings that include next-level facilities ... well, that lightning strike can be coaxed into a long-lasting storm of success.
At UC Davis, word about academic excellence has been out for eons.
One official campus sales pitch says the university delivers "a small-town community feel while providing a world-class academic experience."
For the record, the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education rank UC Davis No. 5 among public universities in the nation. An estimated 100 graduate programs and more than 100 majors in four colleges and six professional schools give UC Davis world-class reputations in engineering, agriculture, veterinary science, plant and animal studies, and many more disciplines.
In UC Davis' ascension to international acclaim, its Athletic Department has always been another worthy avenue in Aggie Nation.
It wasn't until a little more than a decade ago that the decision to join Division I ranks in sports was made. Now UC Davis has not only become competitive at that lofty elevation, its lightning strikes have now been accompanied by rolling thunder.
As we've explored in the first three parts of this series, this university has created a legacy of success throughout its 100 years of playing football. The sense of Aggie Pride developed long before legendary coach Jim Sochor arrived in town almost 50 years ago. But Sochor and his successors gave definition to the term.
In Division II, UC Davis football won 18 consecutive conference crowns, enjoyed 37 straight winning seasons and garnered enough support to build Aggie Stadium by 2007.
To be sure, the transition to Division I included some turbulence — but along the way the Athletic Department secured the services of nationally regarded coaches and funding support for much-improved facilities (including a revamped softball field, aquatics center, baseball field upgrades and a new field hockey layout).
But football languished. A string of losing seasons demanded a coaching change for the 2017 season. The choice was bold — former Boise State and Colorado head man
Dan Hawkins, himself a product of the Sochor years.
The transformation was breathtaking. The Aggies went from a 5-6 season in The Hawk's first year to the recent 10-3 light show that saw UC Davis earn a share of the Big Sky Conference championship, advance to the Elite Eight and finish with a No. 6 Football Championship Subdivision national ranking.
But how to maintain this new level of accomplishment?
Director of Athletics
Kevin Blue knows the formula that Aggie athletics — not just football — can use to excel going forward. But specific to football, a sport that begets success throughout the rest of the department, Blue and UC Davis believe the foundation has been laid on concrete.
Hiring the best and brightest to coach Davis programs will always be high on the priority list. Terrific facilities for training, sports medicine and game-day experience are boxes that Blue and Company will continue to check far into the future.
The best education available — a meaningful experience that prepares student-athletes for life after sports — is the No. 1 priority for Chancellor Gary S. May and Blue and his staff.
Integrity. Keeping UC Davis at the top while ensuring the good character of everyone involved.
Oh, yes. And appropriate funding ...
Blue, a former Stanford administrator, has found endowment money for key coaching positions, catalyst gifts for projects and revenue from sponsorships while creating increased attendance at sporting events.
"We have a mind-set that we're going to be successful at football in the modern Division I era and an understanding of what that takes," Blue told me. He added that "Perhaps, even complementary to that, is a robust focus on academic success at the university.
"That's sort of fancy language for being sure that people know we're going to try and win in D-I college football — and we're going to try and win and do it the right way in accordance with the university's academic strengths and values."
Blue says to move forward every year, it is necessary to get everyone to understand the mission and involve as many like-minded participants "from the community — our supporters for whom we are very grateful."
Support from Mrak Hall, first from Interim Chancellor Ralph Hexter two years ago and then from May, was imperative.
Blue notes: "Gary views the athletic program in the same way we do: an asset that can help with university and community in several respects, not the least of which is enhanced recognition for the academic programs of UC Davis that comes with the notoriety of having visible athletic programs."
In 2017, more than 10 million television viewers watched the UCD men's basketball team play two NCAA postseason games. This fall, Hawkins' football team drew large ESPN audiences in the playoffs.
"Success with our basketball teams and success in football have certainly helped with increasing the profile of UC Davis ... emphasizing the quality of our athletic program," Blue says. "Chancellor May believes in this and is very supportive as a result."
May told me earlier that athletics serve as a kind of a "front door" to a university.
That support from Mrak Hall has allowed Blue to go forward with many facilities projects — such as the new $40 million training, office and sports medicine facility to break ground this year. Benefactor/alum Bruce Edwards, long a supporter of Davis athletics, kicked off that partnership with UC Davis Health by providing the department's largest gift in history.
"Having everybody aligned and working hard ... is extraordinarily important," Blue points out. "I'm very thankful for the staff we have here: committed, and they come to work with a very positive attitude.
"They work to make a difference. They want to make the organization great, which is something we're all having fun being a part of."
Blue isn't leaving a stone unturned in building toward the future.
He's created the Aggie EVO System in which UC Davis prepares student-athletes for their launch into the real world upon graduation.
"Thanks to a collaboration of alumni, university resources, corporate partners, coaches and Student-Athlete Outcomes staff, all Aggies are guided over four years to acquire the skills, knowledge, opportunities and tools to better know and navigate the world of work," says the university's official introduction to the two-year-old program.
Education, positive coaching influence, a setting second to few in the world, a constantly evening playing field ...
"We don't have to beg people to come here," Hawkins says. "And we find the right fit of kids and families who are into that environment: who want to be the best versions of themselves in a program that emphasizes that."
Hawkins ticks off the benefits at UC Davis: a good education, the EVO program, "And, hey, guess what? You can play championship football."
The coach knows the football future is on solid footing.
"Get into the playoffs, win in the playoffs, get drafted in the NFL. All those things are there," Hawkins says. "(It's) a really, really uncommon situation in modern-day college athletics.
"The right kids and their families get it."
So what does the immediate future hold?
"Our competitive goal is to win the FCS national championship," Blue says, "and on an annual basis be contenders for the Big Sky championship and be in the postseason year after year.
"That's what we're striving for, but (staff doesn't) think about it that often, to be honest. We try to think about the next day and how we're going to improve.
"We're all trying to keep our heads down and do our best."
While raising eyebrows along the way.
— UC Davis contributor Bruce Gallaudet authors "Inside Aggie Nation" each week and pens "Aggie Corner" on Fridays in The Davis Enterprise. A former managing editor and sports editor of The Enterprise, Gallaudet has been covering Davis athletics for 40 years. Reach him at bgallaudet41@gmail.com or 530-320-4456.
