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RSVP to Wednesday's FREE National Signing Day Celebration at El Macero Country Club (5:30-7:30 p.m)

Editor's Note: This is the first of two "Inside Aggie Nation" articles focused on UC Davis football's recruiting, leading up to National Signing Day. Today's installment explores what kind of student-athlete fits the bill at one of the top five public universities in the country.


The speculation and guesswork is almost over. Next Wednesday, in a high-energy event at El Macero Country Club, UC Davis head football coach Dan Hawkins will unveil his latest recruiting class.

In chasing a meaningful diploma and opposing running backs, young men who come to toil on the Aggie gridiron have done the university proud for more than 100 years. Winning far more often than not and regularly excelling in the real world upon graduation, the student-athletes who head to UC Davis are a special lot, even before their arrival on campus.

Upon their exit, local graduates leave with a powerful education, an appreciation for a new family (met on the playing field and in the classroom) and a renewed sense of pride. Around these parts, we call it Aggie Pride.

So who do Hawkins and his staff hope to find when they're putting together their cast of 100 players?

"For us it's about the right fit, so you're trying to look at the overall picture of the values of a family and their kid," says Hawkins, who just finished his third season at the Davis helm.

"What they're about and what they feel is important, and are they after the type of education that we have? And are they into, and qualify for, that kind of academic rigor?"

Hitting the books is of at least equal value to hitting that opponent on Saturday.

Jerry Brady, outside linebackers coach and assistant director of operations and recruiting, was on the phone in his car in Burbank this week when he checked in about what he is looking for on his Southern California recruiting swing:

"Especially with our academics, we have to find the guys or they won't make it," says the former Los Angeles Valley assistant who was one of the first in Aggie camp to tout three-year Aggie QB standout Jake Maier. "There's a quality balance of athletics and academics, and we have to find the guys who fit what we're about."

Tim Plough, the associate head coach who was an Aggie QB (2006-08), says UC Davis is looking for those "just-right guys" 24-7, year-round.

Every coach is on the same page, as evidenced by Brady's comments: "We do as much homework as possible. We get to know (players') families, know their coaches. If they have a trainer, we should probably know (that person), too."

So, character and intelligence? Check. And coach, if they can spin the ball, that's a bonus?

"It's not a bonus anymore," explains Hawkins. "It's all part of it at UC Davis. You've got the kid who says, 'I'm mostly concerned about getting a great education.' Well, there's a lot of places you can go for that, right?

"We want the kid that wants a great education and wants to play great football and is into our kind of culture."

And what is that culture?

"There are places you can go and play better football," continues Hawkins, once a thunderous Aggie fullback himself. "There are places you can go and get our type of education, but we want the kid that wants this balance of excellence, where it all matters."

Take Maier, for example, the three-year starter who is about to earn his degree in communications.

Maier led UC Davis to a 10-3 record in 2018 while sharing a Big Sky championship and earning All-American and Walter Payton Watch List honors along the way. As he reworked the Long Beach City College passing record books as a freshman, word got out, and several four-year schools were tugging at the guy's jersey.

"When I met with the coaches here, originally, my family and I could tell UC Davis was different," Maier recalled recently, adding that when he eventually visited campus, he was sold.

"I always got the straight story. No promises, but (coaches told me) if I worked hard enough, I could earn the starting job.

"I always felt supported, appreciated. If I were to do it all over, I'd be an Aggie again."

Maier will leave town as the school's all-time passing-yardage leader, with a chance to play professional football. From a big-picture perspective, he says his education provided him with a foundation to head into coaching or teaching.

Hawkins weighed in on which comes first at UC Davis during the recruiting pitch — then during a player's stay — education or athletics ...

"I refute the notion when people say it's school first here," Hawk says with a chuckle. While the coach admits there is no right answer to a question like "Who's more important? Your kid or your spouse?," he says the marriage of education and athletics at UC Davis is second to none.

"You can't do seven things great, but you can do a few things great, and we want the kid and the family that say, 'I want to (be at) a great school, I want to experience great football and be around great people in a great culture," Hawkins says.

"If they want that, they're our kind of guy."

Next week: We'll talk with Dan Hawkins, Jerry Brady, Tim Plough and Cody Hawkins at what goes into bringing football players to UC Davis, the mad scramble that is 11th-hour recruiting leading into Wednesday's National Signing Day and the celebration of the new class of incoming Aggies.

One of the most well-known and respected sports writers in the industry, former Davis Enterprise sports and managing editor Bruce Gallaudet joined the UC Davis Athletics staff as its feature writer in the summer of 2018. Since then, visitors to UCDavisAggies.com have enjoyed his unique perspective on campus student-athletes, coaches, teams, individuals, programs, events and projects that represent the fifth-ranked public school in the nation.