Plough excited about 24-man Aggie football recruiting class

16 freshmen, plus transfers from Cal, Minnesota and Missouri, add talent and depth for 2026

Tim Plough couldn’t hide his enthusiasm as he revealed his latest trove of Aggie football recruits to an enthusiastic audience of boosters over a fried chicken lunch Wednesday afternoon at Sudwerk.

As the UC Davis head coach looks forward to his third season guiding Aggie fortunes, he indicated that this may well be the best recruiting class in school history.

Tim Plough

His talk was part of the monthly, open-to-the-public, “Lunch with the Ball Coach” that takes place on the first Wednesday of every month.

Wednesday’s session drew an overflow crowd, though the staff at Sudwerk was well prepared for a mob and everyone went home full of food and full of optimism for Aggie football come fall.

“We concentrate our recruiting at the high schools, where there are now more great players available to us since many FBS schools are recruiting primarily through the transfer portal,” Plough explained.

The Aggies do explore the portal looking to fill specific gaps, but generally bring in only a handful of transfers, frequently at the graduate student level.

“I’m always excited when the class comes together after a year of hard work from our staff,” said Plough.

“Our staff did a tremendous job of identifying not only talented football players, but great young men who will help us continue to build an environment that represents everything we love about Davis.”

One rating service lists the Aggie class as the fifth-best nationally in the Football Championship Subdivision, where UC Davis competes.

“We got a group of guys coming in from the high school level, which is where we want to primarily recruit to build our team. But we also were able to add a few transfers to finalize our roster in areas where we needed a little more depth. With those two factors coming together, I’m excited about this group and I truly believe it’s a special class.”

Of the 24 newcomers, 16 are true freshmen currently completing their senior year of high school, three are transfers from the Football Bowl Subdivision, three more previously played at FCS schools and two are from the community college ranks.

Plough was especially thrilled that talented tight end Jake Houseworth, who spent last season at Cal, has signed with UCD.

“He was the top player we were recruiting last year and we didn’t get him, but now he’ll be here,” said the Aggie coach.

Houseworth, out of Fortuna High School in Humboldt County, was a three-star recruit when he signed with Cal.

Plough was also excited about Minnesota transfer Jackson Kollock, who played high school football in Laguna Beach before becoming a Golden Gopher. In his high school career, Kollock threw for 7,087 yards and 94 touchdowns and added another 21 TDs on the ground, as Laguna Beach High went 27-5 over his three seasons there.

“It will be great to see him compete for our quarterback job,” said Plough.

The third FBS transfer is placekicker Robert Meyer out of Missouri, who prepped at Colfax High School. As Missouri’s starting placekicker last season, Meyer hit 10 of 14 field goal attempts and was 36 of 38 on PATs.

FCS transfers include defensive backs Drew Faulkner and John Hayden, both from the University of Idaho, and running back Chauncey Sylvester from Weber State.

Linebacker Jack Knudtson comes to UC Davis from Saddleback College.

Among the freshmen, the Aggies welcome Jack Brant out of Timberline High School in Boise, rated as the top quarterback in Idaho after throwing for 2,156 yards and 25 scores last season while adding 539 yards and 12 TDs on the ground.

Also in the rookie class is elusive running back Coby Herman out of La Costa Canyon High School in Encinitas. Herman, a threat as a rusher and as a receiver, averaged 9.8 yards per carry while accounting for 42 touchdowns during his high school career.

The Aggies open the 2026 season August 29 with a Big Sky battle at Portland State, and open their six-game home schedule Sept. 19 against Stetson. Other home games include Big Sky opponents Montana, Eastern Washington, Northern Colorado, Utah Tech and Cal Poly.

Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com