For the first time in 20 years, UC Davis will be looking for a new head football coach as it begins play in the more competitive Big Sky Conference while remaining committed to the teacher-coach model of the “Davis Way.”

Coach Bob Biggs, a UC Davis football legend as a player (quarterback) and coach, is retiring at the end of the 2012 season after 20 years as head coach and his 35th year overall with the program.

“The person who is going to carry on our football tradition is going to match success on the playing field with our academic integrity,” Director of Athletics Terry Tumey said in a recent interview. “Their philosophy of how they will weave and build a program for success on and off the field will be a key differentiator for earning this position.”

Tumey added that the successful candidate will have a clear understanding of the “student-first” philosophy in place at UC Davis and the role of a teacher-coach.

In addition to all the traditional responsibilities of a head coach for a Division I football program — running the program in full compliance with all rules and regulations, recruitment, scheduling, practice planning, and budgeting — the new UC Davis head football coach will continue to have teaching responsibilities, as Aggie coaches have had for years.

“Looking ahead,” Tumey said, “our commitment to academic excellence and integrity is what will truly define Intercollegiate Athletics overall, and will serve as a model for other college athletic programs throughout the country.”

The committee advising Tumey on the recruitment also emphasizes the university’s commitment to success on and off the playing field. The three members:

• Jeff Weidner, a professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior, and director of the Physical Education Program, who also serves as UC Davis’ interim faculty athletics representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association
• Steve Currall, dean of the Graduate School of Management
• Student Bobby Erskine, a senior defensive end on the football team who also serves on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee

Tumey envisions a tight timeline for the recruitment: He hopes to be able to narrow the list of candidates to three to four by the end of October, and to name the new head football coach by mid- to late November. “That means we need to be nimble,” he said. And because UC Davis will be recruiting in the heart of the college football season — when many candidates are likely to be coaching or working elsewhere — the university’s approach to this recruitment will be different than many high-profile positions it has recruited for in the past.

Specifically, Tumey and the recruitment committee will travel to the hometowns of the candidates to interview them, instead of bringing the candidates to campus. It’s a practice that Tumey said is typical of most high-profile college coaching recruitments across the country, to protect the candidates, their universities and their football programs mid-season.

Former UC Davis and College Football Hall of Fame Coach Jim Sochor supports Tumey’s approach.

“The head football coaching position is a very important hire, because the morale of the campus and the spirit of the campus is tied to athletics and, particularly, football,” Sochor said. “Terry is working very hard to find the right person to come in and fit in to the Aggie way of doing things and the Aggie spirit, with a real regard for the history of the program. So, it’s a very important process, and this needs to be a very sensitive search and a well thought out search.”

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