"I am humbled and honored that Coach Plough trusts me enough to bring my family and me back to Davis," said Shelton. "Davis holds a special place in my heart and my family's heart, and I'm excited to get back to working with a special group of student-athletes, coaches, and community. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish in the coming seasons."

"We are thrilled to bring Paul Shelton back to Shredville," said Plough. "The history of QB development at UC Davis is as special as anywhere in the country. Paul has a unique experience of being a key member of our offensive staff in previous years, coordinating our special teams, and gaining head coaching experience back in his home state of Tennessee.

"He has developed NFL players both at TE and at punter in his time at UC Davis. Not only is he an elite teacher/recruiter, but Paul is an elite person. Fired up to have him coordinate our offense and help mentor our quarterbacks."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2024/5/20/football-paul-shelton-returns-as-offensive-coordinator-plough-puts-final-touch-on-staff.aspx

Isaiah Jackson is now the special teams coordinator, they don’t mention if he still coaches inside linebackers.
I’m a little skeptical of Shelton being QB coach in addition to offensive coordinator. I don’t believe Davis has had a qb coach in the last 50 years who didn’t play the position, and there are a bunch of new qbs that need mentoring on not just the offensive playbook but on techniques and intangibles of the position.

Burke was a good QB at Mount Union and a QB coach there. Why not choose him to be QB coach? Cody could have been the Offensive Coordinator for that matter. I don't see how Shelton has more experience for that position than Cody. Cody also has QB coaching and Shelton does not. The move from Davis special teams and TE coach and high school to Offensive Coordinator seems like quite a leap over other more qualified personnel.

Strange that Coach Plough kept this hire secret for so many months. I was anticipating a high profile recruit for that reason.

Shelton and Cody are the only offensive assistants who have worked under Plough where Plough was the OC. And that is a little tentative because they were assistant coaches in 2020 and Plough left before the Spring season. Shelton was a volunteer assistant in 2019, but mostly for special teams. More new faces for Plough than you would expect after being gone for what seems like a short time.

Plough reportedly knows offenses and QBs, we'll see how his manager skills develop.

its critical that Plough gets the best out of the QB position this year. We'll need a QB that's at the top level of the Big Sky to make a run through that late season gaunlet.

Is anyone seriously challenging MH for the QB position?

I've been thinking all off-season how Hastings will run Shredville...it's so not his game...but Plough does have Larison for one more year...it has to be a Larison centered offense right?

We’ve only seen one QB play for Davis under Plough as offensive coordinator, Jake Maier, unless you go back to the Biggs era, And he had Case Cookus at Northern Arizona. So that is the model in our minds of how Plough’s offense looks. But thats a small sample size,
Plough helped Cookus to play at a high level as a freshman, so I suppose if any of the newer guys have what it takes they might play. Assuming that Plough has time to develop QBs.
Davis’ scoring fell off a lot from 2022 last year. If they stick with Hastings and can get him to be as successful as he was two years ago we should have a dynamic offense now with the quality and depth at running back, offensive line and receivers. Davis would have made the playoffs if Larison had remained healthy.

Hastings has had trouble with passes longer than 5-10 yards. Shredville under Maier included a lot of deep balls. I guess Plough could change it up and do the no huddle up tempo offense but keep it to short passes and Hastings could stay in there.

I think the starting QB position is going to be Miles unless one of the other guys really shines during the competition. In addition to skill, the Aggie QB needs to have a great football IQ. Miles has that. I’m hoping Plough can fine tune his deficit areas.

Well, given the experience in place and the skill sets, this will showcase what kind of coordination we'll get on offense to play to Davis' current strengths.

Has anyone seen Hawkins in town lately, or is he living in Idaho?

he’s in town. Up to couple weeks back he was still working in the department, including mentoring some of the younger coaches. I think the assignment is over with the end of the academic year.

I have no idea where to post this, but I do know that the Grad was intimately connected to aggie sports and is sorely missing to most of us. So here it goes. I stumbled upon the plans for the new mall project that is going into the old davis commons mall space and I saw that a central 7500 sf tenant space was in the plans. Not exactly where the grad was, but close and very similar in size to the ole grad. As I don’t live close to davis anymore I have no information about the proposed tenants, but for any locals or near locals, is there any chance that the project will have a similar tenant as the grad? Like so many of us I practically raised my kids with birthdays at the grad and it would warm my heart with any news that something like it could be coming in the future. Anyway, does anyone have any ideas on this?

There's a void. No Grad, no Br. Bs, The Palms Playhouse moved, AJ Bumps, Murder Burger. Where could a large group go to enjoy a communal game or even dancing?

Woodstock's and G St. Wunderbar

Two good spots, also out of town, go try Plainfield Station, a lot of local farmers and weekend bikers like to hang there. it can be pretty quiet, but when it fills up, it's a fun spot.

Pietro aka "Pete" will hook you up.

Thanks for the input, but the Grad was something else. Big long bar, games for the kids, dancing for the Bigger kids; place where aggie opponents would come in for a meal and stand in line with their aggie opponents and be friendly. None of these other places seem to make that fit. But I may be wrong. Sadly, the Graduate in Berkeley has announced it’s closing as well. What the hell?? Question
: is the university mall being rebuilt now?

Never went to their "graduate". Kips, Lair of the Bear, & Henry's (Hotel Durant).

Yeah, the old Davis Grad closed down in 2019 I think, I was working there that summer building a bridge on the south side of campus - went there a lot for lunch for old time sake, the new Athletic Performance Center north of UCDH Stadium was also getting graded and was just beginning to go up. Made me sad, was a huge easy place to watch just about any game available, open at 9 am Saturday, burgers, fries, onion rings, beers and booze - games in the back - we saw some great World Cups there, lots of international students in Davis obviously, huge turnouts, it was funny watching all the Spain fans go out at halftime and be smoking cigarettes in a circle talking about the match. The Brasil matches were a must to go to because all the sparkling ladies would show up and be cheering on the mighty Seleção Canarinha.

Used to be big also for the locals in Yolo County and beyond, they'd come in there late on Saturdays and do country dancing. A lot of farmers and ranchers filled that parking lot on Saturday nights.

I heard they were rebuilding that area - haven't been there since last fall, but I thought there was a plan for a 3 or 4 story condo tower, probably multi-use, with Starbucks etc. down below - very popular spot for coffee and bubble tea drinkers.

Mall building has been demoed, and site clearing is underway. The 3-4 story mixed-use building got shot down by NIMBYs, so we're just getting a replacement strip mall. Yay.

I did some research and it appears that there were 5 related Graduate restaurants at one time: Davis, Chico, San Luis Obispo, Stockton and one in Tucson known as the Wildcat House. The restaurant in Berkeley is Henry's located the the Graduate Berkeley building that was formerly the Hotel Durant and wasn't related to the other Graduate restaurants.

All of The Graduate restaurants related to the Davis Grad have closed:

- Chico Grad closed in 2015. I believe it was open for 37 years.
- San Luis Obispo Grad closed in 2020 after 45 years.
- Stockton Grad closed in 2021 after a homeless man set fire to it after being denied a free soda.

- The Wildcat House in Tucson closed in 2012 after 37 years. In 2015, new owners renovated the building and opened Brother John's Beer, Bourbon & BBQ while keeping some elements of the former Grad as nostalgic remembrances.

It would seem mid rise student housing right next to campus would be perfect, commercial, dorms, and athletic fields next to it. Students would bike to campus or skateboard.

It's tough to damn near impossible to build anything tall in Davis.

Would be nice if they opened up a decent capacity sized bar and grill right there for students.

The irony is that the Cuarto dorms are 3-4 stories, the replacement Orchard Park development is 4-5 stories, and the EX frat house was razed and replaced with a 7-story apartment building, so there are plenty of tallish buildings in that area. Funny (weird) that this particular one didn't get green-lighted.

7 stories is quite an accomplishment for Davis. That must've taken some very good convincing.

SDSU built a really cool student housing/mixed use complex of the sort right next to their main campus with a sports bar, chicken restaurant, breakfast place, and Trader Joe's when I was there -- seems the sort of thing a really smart, modern, and well-received UMall replacement should be.

https://housing.sdsu.edu/communities/south-campus-plaza

Takes a lot of vision and approvals to get that done in Davis I imagine, complicated more by the fact that it would have to be all private unless the university bought up the land.

We don't do cool, we do ugly cement boxes with windows as they say. West Village are tall, uniform boxes. From the outside it doesn't look appealing.

What's the status on the Nishi student housing development across from the alumni center / Solano Housing? Architect maps show about 40 uniform apartment buildings. The birds eye view looks drab and unappealing. It kind of looks like the original Tercero, just 4 times larger. So many other options. If they added some buildings with density, they could then add more greenery and sports courts.