Take note: New Davidson football coach Saj Thakkar has a plan he believes in
Saj Thakkar was hired as Davidson’s head football coach in December, but he started planning for the position before it was even a thought.
It was 2018 and Thakkar had just been named Harvard’s running back coach. He estimates that’s when his extensive note-taking started.
“If you’re the quarterbacks coach or the running backs coach, you got to try and be the best at your job that you can,” Thakkar said. “But also you have some downtime in that job, and I always knew I wanted to be a head coach.”
So, he began talking to numerous people on staff, picking their brains about schemes or film. He wrote down what he liked and disliked about the way practices were structured, developing his coaching identity before he even had the chance to lead a program.
“There’s a fine line between wanting to do something then there is of actually being prepared to do it, right?” Thakkar said. “I think one of the things in my career that I’ve done well is kind of found that balance of doing the best I can for the person I’m working for in the program I’m working for, but also having that end goal in mind and kind of putting that plan together. So, when the opportunity arose, I was ready for it.”
Now a month away from his coaching debut at Davidson, the 34-year-old isn’t overwhelmed by his first Division I head coaching gig. Instead, he already knows what he wants and what he has to do to get there. He spent two years as the head coach at Bentley University, a Division II program in Waltham, Massachusetts, before joining the Wildcats. He led Bentley to a 14-6 overall record, where the team finished second in the Northeast 10 Conference both years. That came after five seasons with Harvard, and three with SUNY Maritime in the Bronx, a Division III school with under 1,700 students. His first job was a product of sending 150 emails to various coaches asking them for an opportunity.
Now, over 10 years later, Thakkar is ready for the next step.
Thakkar had never visited Davidson before he interviewed for the position, but he felt like it aligned with his past jobs at Bentley and Harvard. Davidson has strong academics and athletics. It’s not affected by the transfer portal. There’s still a resemblance of the same team year-to-year.
“Being at a place where you’re getting really the best of both worlds here, like you’re getting people that not only on the field want the Division I experience (and) want to compete for championships at the Division I level, but they also understand they’re coming here for more than just football.”
Through his note-taking and familiarity with this type of program, Thakkar developed three simple core values that will define his program — connection, toughness and competitive excellence. He’s not the type of coach to come up with a fancy hashtag or saying, which he often jokes about with his players.
So, in line with those three core values, Thakkar didn’t spend the entire winter recruiting for the first time.
Instead, the coaching staff stayed in Davidson with the team, waking up at 6 a.m. and attending workouts four days a week. The head coach conducted one-on-one meetings with every player. He learned about them, their families and why they’re at Davidson.
“We were with out team just building those relationships, letting them know that we were here for them, and that this wasn’t a transactional thing,” Thakkar said.
He also wants his team to be mentally, emotionally and physically tough. He believes that a team is only as tough as all the players on the team. He wants his team to develop that toughness in the weight room and by watching film. Anything that helps his players become “bigger, faster and stronger.”
Thakkar thinks the third value is the most important, and what will help set the team apart.
“We need to be a team that loves to compete,” Thakkar said, “(They understand) not just how to compete and win, but when you enter competition and you lost, how you handle that, how you bounce back from it, being able to control your emotions.”
The Davidson coaching staff often tells players their allowed to have a bad play, but not a bad game. Thakkar thinks it’s an important life lesson as well. Things may not always go your way, but his players can’t let that affect the next play.
While the head coach’s plan is set, Thakkar wants to also use this season as a learning opportunity. He wants to change the things that don’t work, and evolve the things that do. He never wants his program to become complacent, especially when he’s not guaranteed to do this forever.
“The thing about the head coaching jobs is it’s kind of like you got one shot to do it,” Thakkar said. “And if you don’t do well your first time, you may never get that opportunity again. And that’s why I think it’s important to be prepared for the job that you want, because if you’re not, you may never get that opportunity again.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
