Mitchell Dixon should have asked to keep the ball after his 1-yard reception in the second quarter at Cal last Saturday. The play was significant for the UC Davis tight end because he had not come close to touching the ball in a game since 2022, when he was listed on the roster as a quarterback.
Make that the third-string quarterback who was relegated to taking a few snaps in garbage time of lopsided wins. Dixon last got his hands on the ball in a game when he handed it to Vacaville High graduate Darian Leon-Guerrero on the Aggies’ final offensive play in a 59-17 spanking of Cal Poly.
That was after Dixon’s one passing attempt was intercepted. With how his career has worked out, that pass could very well be the last one he throws at UC Davis. He played in four games in 2022, completing five of 10 passes for 49 yards. The average margin of victory in those games was 36.5.
Dixon could not buy a break until he missed most of the 2023 season with a broken foot. That was just another kick for a player who was already down. The Rio Americano High graduate could have throw in the towel and quit or enter the transfer portal. Neither of those options ever crossed his mind.
The only option that did was switching to another position as the 2023 season approached. Dixon went to the coaches and asked if he could try his luck at tight end. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Dixon had the size to block and the athleticism to be a receiver. And the Aggies were in need of one.
UC Davis had just two healthy tight ends at the time, so Dixon would at the very worst be third on the depth chart with a better opportunity for action than playing third fiddle as a quarterback. Any chance Dixon had of supplanting starter Miles Hastings or backup Grant Harper had expired.
The ultimate decision would not be his. “If they were 100 percent about me being a quarterback, then we’d never talk about it again,” Dixon said. “I knew (tight end) was a huge team need. I was totally willing to try it. I want to do whatever I can to make the team better. It was we before me.”
Offering to play tight end did not alleviate Dixon’s disappointment in putting his quarterback days to rest. “I didn’t handle that well at all. I mentally checked out,” he recalled. “It could have gone 100 different ways. I could have just thought that I’m getting my degree for free and that would be it.”
Dixon graduated with a degree in managerial economics and is now taking classes for a master’s. He had time when he was injured last season to also study his football career and knows he got a “fair shot” to start at quarterback. “I had God given talent,” he said, “but it wasn’t polished ability.”
Tim Plough was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at UC Davis when he recruited Dixon. Plough returned to his alma mater to become head coach and will lead the Aggies in their homer opener against Texas A&M-Commerce on Saturday. Dixon will be in the lineup at tight end.
Plough was surprised to learn Dixon had moved to tight end after resigning at UC Davis in 2021 to become the offensive coordinator at Boise State. Dixon has had several conversations with his new head coach and has the utmost respect for Plough being “straight up with you about your role.”
Dixon knows his role. Two receptions for 4 yards against Cal were hardly noteworthy, but the ball was in his hands for the first time in two years and it sure felt good. The “surreal” experience has put all the adversity from the quarterback battles and his broken foot last year into perspective.
“The world of football is giving me another opportunity,” he said, “to learn from the past.”
