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

Note: This is the second installment of a two-part look at recruiting for UC Davis football. Today coaches Dan Hawkins, Jerry Brady, Tim Plough and Cody Hawkins talk about their staff's recruiting responsibilities.

Movies have been made about recruiting college athletes (think "Blue Chips"). Books have been written ("Recruited").

From Amos Alonzo Stagg's days of driving dusty backroads to meet that prized farm boy — or negotiating urban subways to talk with The Next Big Thing — the art of scoring a recruiting coup has been romanticized, and vilified.

Not too many years ago, a coach would have to attend a kid's game to get a clear picture if the potential next-level project had the hops or could spin the ball.

That was then. This is now.

"Nowadays, knowing who the athletes are? It's pretty self-explanatory," says UC Davis associate head football coach Tim Plough. "There's so much film out there. Even when I was coming out of high school (2005), you had to send your tapes out and hope someone would actually watch it."

Now, says Plough, the online service HUDL "has cornered the market." Colleges near and far pretty much know a prospect's physical ability before writing a name down or making a call.

Plough says once a player piques the Aggies' interest from afar, the real fun (grind?) starts.

"I don't think it's a grind for the coach," Plough reports. "Any great college coach needs to be a great recruiter ... have fun with it. I try to tell the young guys on our staff, 'I hope that I'm a better recruiter than I am a coach' because the only way our program is going to survive (against the competition) is if we continue to bring in great people."

With a not-what-was-expected season behind them, the UC Davis football braintrust is looking forward to its annual unveiling of its new recruiting class on Wednesday (5:30 p.m. at El Macero Country Club).

An always exciting night for Aggie faithful and UC Davis coaches, the event will feature head coach Dan Hawkins providing a few words about the 2019 campaign and how his program will fill the voids going forward while mixing in some clips of those soon-to-be Aggies in action.

Hawkins talked about the importance of building enthusiasm around his incoming classes and how giving local fans a sneak peek at the future brings fans to the ballgames, and sometimes unexpected checks to the Blue-and-Gold bank.

"Devon King, Jake Maier, Lonzie (Ulonzo) Gilliam and Nick Eaton." Hawkins checks-off recent Aggie finds. "You have to have great players, so the support for your program — emotionally and financially — is critical. Events like Wednesday are critical.

"It helps to create interia. Everybody wants to go to a program where people are excited about what you're doing ... so yeah, events like this mean something — and we hope it means a lot to the folks (vested) in the program and that they continue to care about who we get for our future Aggies."

Getting the right players at the right time is a year-round process, explains Plough, who points to outside linebackers coach Jerry Brady and receivers assistant Cody Hawkins as recruiting coordinators.

"Coach does things a little differently," says Plough of Dan Hawkins' recruiting setup. "Each coach has a special area within the state. Jerry and Cody are the coordinators. Most programs only have one ... but we have each side of the ball (offense and defense) run by those coordinators."

Brady and Cody Hawkins ensure that each recruit — whether they be maybes written on one of the auxiliary prospect boards or have transferred to the head coach's priority big board — remains on the radar and, when appropriate, in contact with a staff member.

The coordinators are uber-important during the regular season when assistants and Dan Hawkins are focused on weekly game preparation.

So is there a common path to finding and securing that next Aggie footballer?

"I don't think there's ever anything typical about recruiting," the head man told me." For us, it's all about the right fit, so you're trying to look at the overall picture of the values of a family and a kid."

Not only in football but through out UC Davis' 25 Division I programs, the creed around Aggie Nation is character, education, athletic prowess.

"There's not one high school athlete in California we won't watch." reports Plough. "Then we'll be able to evaluate the film and decide 'OK, this guy is a good player, let's make sure he's a great student and meets the academic requirements of UC Davis."

Then the personal vetting begins. Who is this guy as a person? What about his family? What are his motivations and, as Plough adds, "See if he fits the mold for what a Davis guy is."

"For Jerry and I, with everybody that the program is recruiting, we should help in their evaluation, communication with that player and everything else from Point A to Point B ... from the time we identify them as a prospect to signing their letter of intent," explained Cody Hawkins, who was talking with me while driving down to Salinas late last week. "It's a super-busy time right now."

Hawkins said it becomes a higher-stakes game the closer it gets to the Wednesday through Friday early signing date.

"Recruiting at UC Davis is very different, but man, it's an absolute pleasure because the caliber of kids we recruit academically usually means those guys are pretty special.

"We don't recruit against a lot of other Big Sky schools," added the younger Hawkins, who played his college football at Colorado.

Aggie coaches will tell you that UC Davis finds itself in the same recruiting circles as the Ivy League, U.S. service academies and, especially during the Hawkins' years, in competition for players with offers from the Mountain West and Pac-12 schools.

"First and foremost," says Cody Hawkins. "When you see guys on film or hear about players, you're always looking for guys that can help you win a national championship."

After that, it's about the academics, personality, character.

"Everything else has nothing to do with their film," says the receivers coach.

"It's not about catching that big fish. It's about catching the right fish."


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.