Jacob Psyk’s bright white cleats were a dead giveaway Friday at UC Davis. The graduate transfer from Harvard has received new gear since joining the Aggies for his final college season. He wore the cleats for the first time at practice on Friday and expected someone would notice they are new.
Psyk will only need those cleats when the Aggies practice on grass at Bob Biggs Field as they did Friday. The practice was the second “OTA” (organized team activity) in the three days of training camp. Coach Tim Plough explained the objective is for the players to learn as much as they sweat.
There is much for the Aggies to learn between now and the season opener against Mercer on Aug 23 in Montgomery, Ala. The OTAs are an opportunity for the coaches to introduce new plays and schemes and then see how many players can executive all that in a full-scale practice the next day.
“It’s a good amount of stress on the players early on in camp from an installation standpoint. What can they retain and come back a day later and apply it?” Plough said. “The players that can do that are the guys we can depend on. The guys that struggle with that tells us they might not be ready moving forward.”
Even a player such as Psyk has much to learn. The defensive end was a first-team selection in the 2024 All-Ivy League voting after recording 26 tackles, including 11 for losses, and 6.5 sacks. Every team has its own way of running drills to teach technique, so Psyk pays close attention in practice.
Pysk brought a pass-rushing drill to a halt Friday by going to defensive coordinator Matt Coombs, who was running the drill, to ask questions. Coombs will take the time to explain whatever is being asked of the players. “If there’s stuff that’s not clear or they’re uncertain about,” he said. “We want them to speak up and let us know.”
As Psyk figured it, asking questions in practice would save time later in the day when the defensive ends huddled with Coombs at a position meeting. Psyk knows better than to be thinking about a drill during a meeting when Coombs will have a fresh batch of information to share with his troops.
“It’s really about being prepared before those meetings. I want to already know what I need to work on,” said Psyk, who is 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds. “I want to be dialed in on that meeting. It’s a new team and new techniques. I don’t want to do it my way. I want to do it how they want me to do it.”
UC Davis was in need of a veteran on the defensive line after losing Zack Kennedy, Princeton Toki and Evan Bearden to graduation. And UC Davis was at the top of Psyk’s prospective landing spots after he graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics and one year of eligibility remaining.
Psyk became accustomed to success at Harvard with the Crimson winning the Ivy League in 2022 and 2024. UC Davis has had success in recent years, finishing 7-1 in the Big Sky Conference and 11-3 overall last year. The fifth-ranked Aggies lost to No. 4 South Dakota in the FCS quarterfinals.
Harvard appealed to Psyk because his family lived in Boston before moving to Sugar Land, Texas, where he attended Strake Jesuit College Prep. He fell for UC Davis because “I really wanted to go to a place where it was a winning culture and everybody loves what they’re doing every single day.”
Making a name for himself at UC Davis became much easier for Pysk when he was one of five Aggies named to the FCS Football Central Preseason All-America team. The other four were safety Rex Connors, kicker Hunter Ridley, tight end Winston Williams and linebacker Porter Connors.
Ridley and Rex Connors were first-team selections. Pysk and Williams were named to the second team and Porter Connors made the third. Rex Connors is also the preseason pick as the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year. UC Davis was picked to finish second Ito Montana State in the Big Sky coaches poll.
