The Causeway Carriage has been astray from Sacramento State during a five-game Hornets losing streak in the rivalry game against UC Davis.

One of Sac State’s top football rivalries, the Causeway Classic, has even more on the line this year, as Davis is coming off an upset win over Division I-A Stanford.

Former Sac State head coach John Volek coached the Hornets to a pair of victories during his stay from 1995-2002. The Causeway Classic wins under Volek were the only two for the Hornets in the last 12 years.

“I think it’s great for the rivalry because now the game has national playoff implications,” Volek said. “When I was there I thought of it like a Stanford-Cal game-I consider it one of the top-ten rivalries in the country.”

Winning the Causeway Classic in 1996 revived a program that has been struggling. In front of a sold-out crowd at Davis’ Toomey Field, the Volek-led Hornets won 27-24 to snap a four-game losing streak in the classic. Shocking Aggie fans, Derrick Corbin threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Sheridan Mitchell with 2:20 remaining to bring home the carriage.

In 1999, Volek won again with Canadian Football League-bound quarterback Ricky Ray and running back Charles Roberts.

Sac State put up a 21 point fourth quarter to take care of Davis 48-27. Hornet Stadium had a record 20,993 fans in attendance, a record that still stands.

“There’s a correlation between the team’s record and the attendance,” Associate Athletic Director Bill Macriss said. “Hornet fans want to come see the game if there’s a chance the Hornets can win.”

Even when the Hornets were under Bob Mattos, the only coach in Sac State football history to have a career winning record, they were only 5-11 against Davis.

Students such as freshman Anthony Black have little hope in a Hornet win this year, but still plan on attending.

“I’ve seen the games this year and we’re still not there,” Black said. “Davis is bad news and nobody is feeling it. Why would it be any different this year?”

Sensing a possible Hornet win, Macriss said, “Attendance should be higher this year because this could be it and no one wants to miss it.”

Volek said the game takes on more validity with Davis’ move to Division I-AA. Sac State is already Division I-AA and Volek sees nothing but positives coming from the rise of Davis’ program.

“I think there will be an upward trend,” Volek said. “Both teams are making a statement and knocking on Division I.”

Macriss said that now Davis can be used as a measuring stick.

Junior Ian Li, however, feels that the game has become somewhat disconnected from the students.

“I think if it was advertised enough I would want to know about it but there’s no motivation,” Li said. “At other colleges you hear about the big game and you want to go because everyone is going. They need to find a way to make it involve all the students.”

Another factor in keeping the game interesting for local fans is to have local players.

Volek focused on local recruiting when he coached the team.

“When we had Ricky Ray, he was from Shasta,” Volek said. “I think local recruiting is critical. We had 60 percent of our players from the Sac-Joaquin Section.”

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Steven Blakesley can be reached at [email protected]