DAVIS, Calif. – Dan Hawkins, University of California Davis head football coach, announced Tuesday that he is stepping down after seven seasons of leading the Aggies to pursue other interests and also to spend more time with his family.
 
Hawkins, 63, wrapped his UCD coaching career where he began it with a 44-31 record, finishing 2023 with a 7-4 mark and tying for fourth in the Big Sky Conference with a 5-3 log, narrowly missing being selected for the FCS playoffs.  His teams were 31-22 in league play, finishing in the upper half of the Big Sky in all but his first season.  The Aggies won his last three games, including the season finale over rival and playoff-bound Sacramento State in the Causeway Classic, 31-21. 
 
"I was honored to carry Aggie football forward and now will hand off to another," Hawkins said. "This is not a retirement or stepping aside from being involved with Aggie Athletics. Rocko is allowing me to stay on board as a special assistant. I've got plenty of juice and life left in me to help the Aggies, and embrace any other adventures that lie ahead.  I will continue to pursue my life's passion of making a positive difference in the lives of others. The journey continues!" 
 
UC Davis also won what was referred to as the "Hawkins Bowl," when the Aggies defeated Idaho State, 21-14, in Pocatello.  The Bengals are coached by Hawkins' oldest son, Cody, and it was believed to be the first father-vs.-son coaching match-up since 2007, when Tommy Bowden's Clemson Tigers beat his father Bobby's Florida State Seminoles, 24-18, in the last of nine "Bowden Bowls."
 
Hawkins took over his alma mater's program in 2017 after the Aggies had endured six straight losing seasons.  After going 5-6 his first season, he led the Aggies to a 10-3 mark in 2018, opening the year with a 44-38 win at San Jose State.  After tying for first in the Big Sky Conference with a 7-1 mark, UCD qualified for the FCS playoffs, where it defeated Northern Iowa in the first round, 23-16.  The Aggies succumbed to fourth-ranked Eastern Washington, falling 34-29 in the final minute in their second round match-up.  The Aggies were ranked as high as No. 4 in the FCS poll that season before finishing No. 7.
 
UCD also earned an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs in 2021, finishing with an 8-4 record after losing at defending national champion South Dakota State, who eventually lost in the semifinals.  All told, Hawkins had five winning seasons in the seven, winning at least five games every year with the exception of 2020, when the Aggies were 3-2 in the COVID-19 shortened campaign that was actually played in the spring of '21.
 
He exits as the third winningest-coach in UCD history with the 44 wins, behind Jim Sochor, his college coach, who was 156-41-5 from 1970 through 1988, and Bob Biggs, who was 144-85-1 from 1993 through 2012.  Hawkins .587 winning percentage is fourth among those with four or more seasons, behind Sochor (.785), Bob Foster (30-11-1, .726; 1989-92) and Biggs (.628).
 
"Dan has led our football program to great heights during the last seven years," says Rocko DeLuca, UCD's director of athletics.  "He has had a lasting impact on the entire program, including all the student-athletes he has ever coached. We are indebted to him for his years of dedication and passion for the Aggies, and excited to see what this well-earned and well-deserved next chapter brings."   

A 1984 UC Davis graduate, he had started his coaching career as the Aggies' freshman coach in 1983, and after earning his degree, as the linebacker coach for the '84 season.  He continued to coach the frosh squad through 1985. 
 
After his first stint at UCD, he served as head coach at Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento in 1986 and 1987, winning the Sacramento City High School Championship in '86.  He then spent time as both an offensive and defensive coordinator.   From 1988-91, Hawkins was the offensive coordinator at the College of the Siskiyous (Calif.), helping lead the team to the Golden Valley Conference championship in 1991. In 1992, he was in charge of the Sonoma State University defense before taking over as head coach at Willamette University.
 
In five seasons (1993-97) at Willamette, he compiled a 39-12-1 mark and won consecutive conference titles between 1995 and 1997.  Hawkins rose to prominence at Boise State, where he served as tight ends coach for three seasons (1998-2000), as well as coordinating the Broncos' special teams in addition to holding assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator duties. 
 
Hawkins was named head coach ahead of the 2001 season, and in five years in Boise, his teams went 53-11.  Those included three 11-plus win seasons, and 31-game winning streaks in both Western Athletic Conference play as well as at home on Boise State's famous blue artificial turf field.  Boise State won or shared four WAC titles, including three outright under his direction, and were 37-3 overall in league play.
 
He was hired by the University of Colorado in 2005, and in just under five full seasons in Boulder, he was 19-39.  Though things didn't always click on the field, he had three top-30 recruiting classes for the Buffs.  A signature moment with the Buffaloes was when Cody led a 17-point comeback to defeat No. 3 Oklahoma, 27-24, in 2007.  In the process, the elder Hawkins was just the third CU coach to beat Nebraska and Oklahoma in the same season, joining Sonny Grandelius (1960-61) and Bill McCartney (1990-91), with Cody just the third quarterback to do the same, with Gale Weidner and Darian Hagan.
 
Before returning to college coaching with his alma mater, he spent time as both a studio and color analyst for college football games on ESPN, and also hosted College Football Playbook with Mark Packer and Braden Gall on Sirius XM radio.  He still dabbled in coaching, as he led the U.S. National Football Team to a gold medal at the 2015 IFAF World Championship and coached with Nike/ESPN at SPARQ, NFTC, The Opening, and the Elite 11 QB high school prospect combines.
 
Overall, in 22 seasons as a collegiate head coach, the four teams he piloted combined for a 155-93-1 record (a .624 winning percentage), including a 99-55-1 tab (.642) in conference games.  Those well exceed the minimum criteria for coaches for the College Football Hall of Fame.
 
A native of Fall River Mills, Calif., he graduated from Big Valley High School in Bieber, Calif., in 1978, where he lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track.  Hawkins played fullback at College of the Siskiyous in Weed, Calif. (1978-80) prior to attending UC-Davis.  He lettered two times at fullback for the Aggies, where as a senior, he was a member of UCD's 1982 NCAA Division II national final runner-up team.
 
He has been married to the former Misti Rae Ann Hokanson for 41 years, and they are the parents of four grown children, daughters Ashley and Brittany and sons Cody and Drew.