So, coach, how do your Aggies transition themselves from last year to this, be the same kind of team? "I hope we're not," came Hawkins' reply. "I hope we reinvent ourselves. I hope we take advantage of every day and don't take anything for granted. We can't assume anything. We have to go back to Square One. We talked about that today. You can't say you come in at point M and let's get to point Q. It's all about coming in at point A." Kind of like zero-based budgeting? "Exactly."

One hole needing a patch, although not glaring on this first camp day, is the departure of All-American wide receiver Keelan Doss. Doss is plying his trade with the Oakland Raiders. Losing the Alameda native's career numbers — 4,019 yards and 28 touchdowns — might at first blush seem catastrophic, but Hawkins knows there is plenty of powder left in the keg. "Obviously you have Lonzy (Gilliam) and Tehran (Thomas) as running backs," Hawkins said earlier this summer. "Tight end Wes Preece is back, Jared Harrell, the evolution of Justin Kraft and Carson Crawford. There are just so many of those guys."

Maier — entering his senior season — will have a passel of proven and emerging targets to keep opponents guessing. "There are just so many of those guys," says Hawkins, maybe still understating an embarrassment of riches. "It's a talented, talented group. And so many young guys coming on. "We have a lot of fire power. A group of really good players. A lot of depth."

A feel-good story to keep your eye on: two generations of Davis High offensive linemen are working together. Paul Wulff (Class of 1985) has come to UCD as an offensive-line assistant, where he's working with Nick Amoah (Class of 2017). Amoah is hoping to win a job at tackle in the veteran Aggie trenches. Ex-Devil Wulff is the former Washington State head coach who most recently was an assistant at Sacramento State.

DAVIS, Calif. – Sophomore guards Damion Squire, Caleb Fuller, and freshman forward Oliver Gehrke each earned invitations to compete in various FIBA championship tournaments this past summer as members of Team Canada, Team Great Britain and Team Sweden, respectively.

Carr was sharp, particularly in the red zone, during a non-padded session, spreading the ball around to a host of receivers. There was a jump-and-catch end zone fade to Tyrell Williams, a thread-the-needle bullet inside the 5 to Keelan Doss and a perfectly thrown floater to Marcel Ateman for another score.

There’s also Doss, the undrafted rookie from U.C. Davis by way of Alameda who has shown the ability to make the tough catch and occasionally muff an easy one. That’s what happened Saturday when after making a difficult catch in traffic, he dropped a routine out route along the sideline.
“Just a routine catch. Stuff like that happens, you’ve got to let it go and get on to the next play,” Doss said. Same with the first one, nice catch and everything, but got to move on to the next play.”

A sustainable environmental design major from Rancho Mirage, California, Whelan captured All-Big Sky Conference Honorable Mention in his sophomore season. He averaged 41.5 yards on 77 attempts, pinning foes inside the 20-yard line on 35 occasions and booting 17 punts for 50 yards are more. Whelan continues a strong recenst tradition for the Aggies at the position, as each of his predecessors – Colton Schmidt and Colby Wadman – have gone on to NFL careers.

OUR TAKE: Expectations are sky-high for this program in 2019. And they should be. The trajectory of this program these last couple of years, along with tremendous recruiting, shows the Aggies are a team that will be in the national picture for awhile. And for this specific 2019 squad, which we preseason ranked No. 3, their eyes should be on the ultimate prize. UC Davis feels like it should've been playing in Frisco last year. And the amount of experience and talent back from that team suggests Texas is a realistic destination in January