DAVIS - Dan Hawkins has been named the replacement to Ron Gould as head football coach of the UC Davis Aggies.
Hawkins, who began his coaching career at UC Davis, will be introduced at a press conference on campus Tuesday morning.
“We are very excited to welcome Dan Hawkins back to UC Davis to lead an exciting new era of football at his alma mater,” UC Davis Athletic Director Kevin Blue said in a statement. “Dan is a highly experienced head football coach who possesses in-depth expertise about what it takes to be successful in the modern era of Div. I college football."
The 56-year-old Hawkins played fullback for the Aggies under the late head coach Jim Sochor from 1981-82. A year later, Hawkins was an assistant coach under Sochor and his career soared from there.
Hawkins' head coaching career started at Sacramento's Christian Brothers High School in 1986, where he spent two years before bouncing to several lower collegiate programs.
Following a head coaching stint with Willamette from 1993-97, Hawkins joined Boise State as an assistant coach to Dick Koetter in his first season with the Broncos. Three seasons later, Koetter bolted for Arizona State and Hawkins became head coach.
With Boise State, Hawkins compiled a 53-11 overall record, a 37-3 mark in the Western Athletic Conference and led the Broncos to four bowl games before being named head coach at Colorado, where he stayed from 2006-10.
It was at Boise State where Hawkins would hire another product of UC Davis to be his offensive coordinator: Chris Petersen, who succeeded Hawkins as head coach in 2005.
Petersen is now head coach of the Washington Huskies, who will play in the Pac-12 championship this Saturday.
After serving as an ESPN college football analyst, Hawkins was ready to return to the sidelines. He had recently agreed to be the offensive coordinator for Butch Davis at Florida International, although it was never formally announced by the school.
UC Davis finished 3-8 in 2016 under Gould, who was fired on Nov. 21.
Tuesday's introductory press conference will be open to the public. It takes place at 10:00 a.m. in the Bruce Edwards Club Room at Aggie Stadium.
Follow Sean Cunningham on Twitter: @SeanCunningham
