2018 UC Davis Aggies football team

The 2018 UC Davis Aggies football team represented the University of California, Davis during the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Aggies were led by second–year head coach Dan Hawkins and played their home games at Aggie Stadium as members of the Big Sky Conference. They finished the season 10–3, 7–1 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for the Big Sky championship with Eastern Washington and Weber State. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where, after a first round bye, they defeated Northern Iowa in the second round before losing in the quarterfinals to Eastern Washington.

2018 UC Davis Aggies football
Big Sky co-champion
FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals, L 29–34 vs. Eastern Washington
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 7
FCS Coaches	No. 8
2018 record	10–3 (7–1 Big Sky)
Head coach	Dan Hawkins (2nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Tim Plough (2nd season)
Defensive coordinator	Robert Tucker (2nd season)
Home stadium	Aggie Stadium (Capacity: 10,743)

2018 Big Sky Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 6 Weber State +^		7	–	1					10	–	3
No. 2 Eastern Washington +^		7	–	1					12	–	3
No. 7 UC Davis +^		7	–	1					10	–	3
No. 17 Montana State ^		5	–	3					8	–	5
Idaho State		5	–	3					6	–	5
Montana		4	–	4					6	–	5
Cal Poly		4	–	4					5	–	6
Northern Arizona		3	–	4					4	–	6
Portland State		3	–	5					4	–	7
Idaho		3	–	5					4	–	7
Northern Colorado		2	–	6					2	–	9
Southern Utah		1	–	7					1	–	10
Sacramento State		0	–	7					2	–	8
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Although North Dakota was classified as an independent, games against them still counted as Big Sky Conference games. Rankings from STATS Poll

Previous season

The Aggies finished the 2017 season 5–6, 3–5 in Big Sky play to finish in eighth place.

Preseason

Polls

On July 16, 2018, during the Big Sky Kickoff in Spokane, Washington, the Aggies were predicted to finish in ninth place in both the coaches and media poll.[1]

Coaches poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Eastern Washington	134 (6)
2	Weber State	124 (3)
3	Northern Arizona	121 (3)
4	Idaho	101 (1)
5	Sacramento State	94
6	Southern Utah	91
7	Montana	82
8	Montana State	76
9	UC Davis	64
10	Cal Poly	40
11	Northern Colorado	30
12	Idaho State	29
13	Portland State	21

Media poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Eastern Washington	651 (27)
2	Weber State	636 (19)
3	Northern Arizona	535 (1)
4	Montana	496 (2)
5	Idaho	483 (3)
6	Southern Utah	449 (1)
7	Sacramento State	415
8	Montana State	391 (1)
9	UC Davis	331 (1)
10	Idaho State	170
11	Cal Poly	169
12	Northern Colorado	166
13	Portland State	103

Preseason All-Conference Team

The Aggies had two players selected to the Preseason All-Conference Team.[2]

Keelan Doss – Sr. WR. Also selected as the preseason offensive player of the year.

Wes Preece – Jr. TE

Award watch lists

Award	Player	Position	Year
Walter Payton Award[3]	Keelan Doss	WR	SR
	Jake Maier	QB	JR

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 30	7:00 p.m.	at (FBS) San Jose State*		CEFCU Stadium San Jose, CA		W 44–38	12,675
September 8	7:00 p.m.	San Diego*		Aggie Stadium Davis, CA	Pluto TV 245	W 54–21	7,305
September 15	11:00 a.m.	at No. 9 (FBS) Stanford*	No. 23	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA	P12N	L 10–30	31,772
September 22	7:00 p.m.	Idaho	No. 21	Aggie Stadium Davis, CA	ELVN	W 44–21	8,179
October 6	11:00 a.m.	at Northern Colorado	No. 16	Nottingham Field Greeley, CO	Pluto TV 241	W 49–36	4,155
October 13	4:00 p.m.	Idaho State	No. 14	Aggie Stadium Davis, CA	Pluto TV 245	W 44–37 ^OT	10,849
October 20	4:05 p.m.	at Cal Poly	No. 10	Alex G. Spanos Stadium San Luis Obispo, CA (Battle for the Golden Horseshoe)	Pluto TV 244	W 52–10	8,503
October 27	1:00 p.m.	at Montana	No. 6	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	SWX	W 49–21	24,141
November 3	1:00 p.m.	Northern Arizona	No. 6	Aggie Stadium Davis, CA	Pluto TV 245	W 42–20	7,890
November 10	1:05 p.m.	at No. 5 Eastern Washington	No. 4	Roos Field Cheney, WA	SWX	L 20–59	8,789
November 17	1:00 p.m.	vs. Sacramento State	No. 9	Mackay Stadium[lower-alpha 1] Reno, NV (Causeway Classic)	ELVN	W 56–13	2,482
December 1	4:00 p.m.	Northern Iowa*	No. 7	Aggie Stadium Davis, CA (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	ESPN3	W 23–16	8,306
December 8	1:00 p.m.	at No. 4 Eastern Washington*	No. 7	Roos Field Cheney, WA (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)	ESPN3	L 29–34	5,503
*Non-conference game Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Pacific time

1. The game against Sacramento State on November 17 was moved to Mackay Stadium in Reno, Nevada due to unhealthy air quality as a result of the Camp Fire in Northern California.[4]

• Source: Schedule

Game summaries

at San Jose State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Aggies	14	21	2	7	44
Spartans	14	7	10	7	38

San Diego

	1	2	3	4	Total
Toreros	0	0	21	0	21
Aggies	7	13	7	27	54

at Stanford

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 23 Aggies	3	0	0	7	10
No. 9 (FBS) Cardinal	0	17	10	3	30

Idaho

	1	2	3	4	Total
Vandals	0	7	0	14	21
No. 21 Aggies	14	13	17	0	44

at Northern Colorado

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 16 Aggies	14	14	14	7	49
Bears	0	10	0	26	36

Idaho State

	1	2	3	4	OT	Total
Bengals	9	14	7	7	0	37
No. 14 Aggies	7	7	8	15	7	44

at Cal Poly

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 10 Aggies	0	31	7	14	52
Mustangs	10	0	0	0	10

at Montana

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Aggies	3	0	10	36	49
Grizzlies	7	14	0	0	21

Northern Arizona

	1	2	3	4	Total
Lumberjacks	0	6	0	14	20
No. 6 Aggies	21	0	7	14	42

at Eastern Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Aggies	10	7	3	0	20
No. 5 Eagles	7	14	14	24	59

vs. Sacramento State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hornets	3	7	3	0	13
No. 9 Aggies	14	21	7	14	56

FCS Playoffs

vs. Northern Iowa–Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
Panthers	6	0	7	3	16
No. 7 Aggies	10	6	7	0	23

at Eastern Washington–Quarterfinals

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 7 Aggies	0	14	7	8	29
No. 4 Eagles	7	7	0	20	34

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	RV	RV	23	21	19	16	14	10	6	6	4	9	7	7
Coaches	NR	RV	RV	25	22	21	19	16	13	9	7	11	7	8

References

1. "Eastern Washington Picked to Win the Big Sky".
2. "Doss, Buss Headline Big Sky Football Preseason All-Conference Team".
3. "FCS football: 2018 Walter Payton Award watch list". August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
4. "Causeway Classic relocated to Mackay Stadium in Reno, Nevada". www.ucdavisaggies.com. UC Davis Official Athletics Site. November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 16, 2018.