DAVIS, Calif. – With UC Davis football having finished among the best teams in the nation, the postseason awards continue to flow in with Samuel Gbatu, Jr., Jacob Psyk and Ian Simpson all earning second team American Football Coaches Association All-American honors.
 
Psyk becomes a three-time All-American having earned Stats Perform FCS honors (first team) and FCS Football Central (second team) honors to go along with being named a Buck Buchanan Award finalist. Gbatu Jr., adds to his trophy case having already earned FCS Football Central second team All-American honors and Simpson brings home his first career All-American honor.
 
Up front Psyk was nearly unstoppable all season and his non-stop engine earned him unanimous first team All-Big Sky honors. Psyk ended his season with 9.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss, adding to his 48 total tackles (35 solo stops) while he added a pair of blocked kicks and five quarterback hurries.
 
With the most sacks by an Aggie since 2018 and the second most in a single season since 2013, Psyk made his presence known on every snap and he ended the season leading the conference in forced fumbles (three), total sacks and tackles for loss and on the national stage he ranked 13th in fumbles forced, 17th in total sacks and 16th in tackles for loss.
 
Gbatu Jr., who was named first team Big Sky All-Conference, totaled 1,169 receiving yards becoming only the seventh Aggie to finish with over 1,000 receiving yards in a season and the first to do it since 2018 (Keelan Doss). The explosive Aggie also totaled 11 touchdown receptions, tying for third-most in a single season in program history, and his 85-yard touchdown scoring reception against Weber State finished as the ninth-longest reception in the nation this season.
 
His numbers finished top of the Big Sky in receiving touchdowns, receiving yards, receiving yards per game (89.9) and nationally he finished ranked second in receiving yards, sixth in receiving touchdowns and seventh in receiving yards per game.
 
Simpson gives the Aggies back-to-back season with All-Americans at tight end, and his numbers ranked among the best in the conference among tight ends. He finished the year with career highs across the broad, catching 31 balls for 425 yards and three receiving touchdowns. The Aggie tight end was a go-to for quarterback and fellow All-American Caden Pinnick, and he averaged 32.7 yards per game and 13.7 yards per reception. Those numbers placed him first in the conference for receiving yards by tight ends and he sits 21st overall for receiving yards in the Big Sky.
 
ABOUT UC DAVIS ATHLETICS:
UC Davis, the No. 2 ranked public university by the Wall Street Journal, is home to 40,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 employees. Ranked #1 in Agriculture and Forestry as well as #1 in Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis is located in a true California college town nestled between world-class destinations such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe. Over 650 Aggie student-athletes compete in 25 Division I varsity sports, with 16 sports transitioning to the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2026–27.