Aggie Pride on full display as 2025 UC Davis football camp heads into second week
Aggies prepare for earliest game in school history against Mercer, August 23
UC Davis began its "fall" football camp in the middle of summer, July 23 to be specific, but won't play its first regular season game until August 23, a full month later.
So what happens during that 31-day period when every team in the country is undefeated and optimism runs high?
For sure, it varies from school to school, but many coaches emphasize team-building activities away from the practice field in the hope of creating a bond of brotherhood that has everyone on the same page.
At UC Davis, that translates to a two-word motto known as "Aggie Pride." Players and coaches alike cite it frequently in every sport where UC Davis fields a team.
"Everything we do and how hard we work comes down to Aggie Pride," noted senior defensive back Jayden Stanley.
"We know we might have a target on our backs after the season we had last year, but that's a good thing. It makes us work every day and push every day to get even better."
Senior tight end Winston Williams agrees with his teammate.
"Last year was a great season, but it doesn't matter what you did last year now. We just need to keep that Aggie Pride mentality in everything we do," said Williams.
UC Davis opens the season with three straight road games against Mercer, Utah Tech and Washington, and head coach Tim Plough said that game plans have already been put together for all three games.
"That may change a bit from what we see in practice, but we'll play the first two games with no 2025 film on either team. We will get film from one game that Washington plays."
The Huskies, now in their second year in the Big 10, open August 30 against Colorado State before hosting the Aggies September 6 in Seattle.
The Aggies open against Mercer, of Macon, Georgia, August 23 in Montgomery, Alabama, but Plough noted that after the first two weeks of fall camp, the third week will be spent specifically preparing for Mercer as if the game were actually on August 16.
They'll fine tune things from there and travel on Thursday, August 21, to Montgomery, a day earlier than they customarily leave for an away game.
The Aggies are coming off an 11-3 campaign in 2024, Plough's first as head coach, which represents the most wins for UCD in the FCS era. (The 1982 team went 12-1 in Division II.)
"To have that kind of success helps build confidence that we're doing things the right way," Plough noted.
Going into last season I needed to know if the things I believed in and the things I was taught as a player and a coach would work in 2024."
And work they did.
Being back on the practice field for the start of fall camp was a much anticipated happening for both Stanley and Williams.
"It's always exciting," said Stanley. "It felt like the night before Christmas."
Added Williams, "It doesn't matter how old you are, it's like being a little kid again."
Those "little kids" will grow up in a hurry between now and August 23.
Reach me at bobdunning@thewaryone.com
No opponent will have a smile as grand as Williams’.