Best, Hawkins Share #BigSkyFB Coach of the Year Honors
OGDEN, Utah (November 21, 2018) – The Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year honors for 2018 will go to Eastern Washington’s Aaron Best and UC Davis’ Dan Hawkins.
The award voted upon by league coaches, resulted in a split decision. It is the first honor for both head coaches. As if it the programs had the same author for their story, both the Eagles and Aggies have more in common than just coach of the year honors.
So, what are the similarities of the two programs:
- Best and Hawkins are both in their second year as a head coach at their institutions
- Both are coaching at their alma mater
- Identical records of 9-2, 7-1 BSC
- First playoff appearance as a head coach of their teams
- First-round bye for the programs
- One got the Offensive MVP, the other earned the Defensive MVP
That’s just a few things to name, but all the more in understanding why the two are sharing top coaching honors.
Best has led his Eagles back to the postseason after missing out on the playoffs last season, which left a bitter taste in Cheney. Eastern Washington was voted as the preseason favorite and lived up to it. They began the season 2-0 with wins over Central Washington and Northern Arizona – both ranked teams at the time. With only two losses coming in the third and seventh games of the season, the Eagles changed quarterbacks due to injury and you wouldn’t have even known as the Eagles who rank No. 2 in the FCS in total offense week-in and week-out average 553.2 yards of offense per game.
The Eagles are the only Big Sky program that has been ranked in the top 10 of the FCS polls all year long. Eastern Washington has been slotted as high as No. 3 in the coaches’ poll, where they have been for the last three weeks, including a top five ranking for five consecutive weeks.
With a Big Sky championship trophy back in Cheney, a playoff game coming up, and a No. 3 overall ranking in the field, Best and his coaching staff have the Eagles fired up to get back on the red field an kick off.
With a big win late in the season over UC Davis to hand the Aggies their only conference loss, Eastern Washington positioned itself to earn at least a share of the title and they did so with a 51-point win in their regular season finale.
Hawkins led his alma mater to the best season so far in school history since UC Davis joined the Aggies joined Division I. The impressive season of the Aggies has Hawkins named as a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award given to the top coach in the FCS.
The Aggies were picked to finish ninth by the coaches and media in the Big Sky preseason polls. From a bottom of the pack pick to a three-way tie for the 2018 Big Sky Championship isn’t bad. Out of all the voters, there was only one media member who picked the Aggies to win it all. Clearly, they knew something the other voters didn’t as they nailed it right on the head.
UC Davis opened the season recording the first FCS over FBS win in 2018 when they defeated San Jose State, 44-38. They then followed it up with a 54-21 win over repeat FCS Playoff participant San Diego. The Aggies were tripped up at No. 9 Stanford, but they did not fall, theoretically, as they rebounded with a six-game win streak.
From a team that had previously posted back-to-back 2-9 records to now with the same players achieving a program-record 9-2 overall and 7-1 league record, the Aggies have shown that with patience comes progress.
The Aggies had never been ranked in the FCS Top 25 polls prior to the season. They have now been ranked for 11 straight weeks and have reached as high as No. 4. Their ranking, performance and quality of schedule earned UC Davis, not only a trip to the playoffs, but a first-round bye.