Bob Mattos will be there in spirit on Saturday afternoon for the 66th Causeway Classic.

His sons say this is so, and so do those who played for Sacramento State’s winningest football coach, who doubled as one of the university’s most engaging personalities.

Mattos led the Hornets from 1978-92 with all manner of sneer, snarl and bark to go with equal parts shoulder-pad slapping affection. You didn’t want to disappoint the old coach, and you certainly didn’t want to piss him off.

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Mattos had humble beginnings with the Hornets, going 0-10 his first season in 1978. Then he basked in the glory of triumph, none more significant and satisfying than beating UC Davis in the 1988 Causeway, and later in that season in the Division II playoffs for the royal double bonus.

Mattos’ son, Bruce Mattos, still cherishes The Bee photo of the coach getting carried off the field by the team after Sac State halted UCD’s 18-year stranglehold on the series in that 1988 tilt, the coach’s grin and fist pump washing away a decade of defeat to the Aggies. Bruce Mattos has that photo displayed on his Facebook page.

But we all lost Mattos too soon. Those closest to Central Valley born-and-raised man think of him every day. Mattos died 10 years ago from brain cancer at 68. He caught his final Causeway on TV from his Wilton home months earlier, too weakened to attend. He watched amid tears, understanding that his time was near. Sac State rallied to beat UCD in that 2009 game, 31-28 — the same score of the 1988 regular-season Causeway win.

“I’m just a pig farmer from Newman,” Mattos used to say in downplaying his role in Hornets history.

A humble Hornet champion

He was much more than that, of course. We deem him a humble Hornet champion.

So here we are, 31 years after Sac State’s two greatest wins in program history, and the Hornets barrel into Hornet Stadium with a great deal to play for. This is now the defining moment in program history, supplanting the 1988 games against UCD.

Should the Hornets, ranked a program-best No. 4 nationally at the FCS level, topple UCD, Sac State will pull a nifty triple play that no one in their sane mind saw coming back in July following a 2-8 season. A victory ensures Sac State (8-3) would earn immediate regional bragging rights to go with at least a share of the Big Sky Conference championship and one of the 24 FCS playoff spots.

UCD, meanwhile, can jam up the party by ending its season with a victory, which could also bounce the Hornets right out of playoff contention. A year ago, UCD beat Sac State to secure its first conference championship at the FCS level.

If Sac State fans have been waiting for this moment, then they should show it by filling up Hornet Stadium. You wanted a good product, with local recruits and a home-grown coach, and nice weather? It’s all here on display.

A Sac State triumph would ensure the program’s first league crown since the John Volek-coached bunch of 1995 and just the fifth since the program started blocking and tackling in 1954. Translated, the Hornets have been mired in mediocrity or misery for a lot of years.

The Mattos-Taylor connection

Sac State’s last playoff berth? The 1988 squad led by Mattos. The current edition is coached by Troy Taylor. He is not a pig farmer from Newman, just an aspiring lad from Rancho Cordova and Fair Oaks who wanted to play college football and later coach it. Taylor is living out his dreams.

Mattos recruited Taylor to quarterback the Hornets out of Cordova High School in 1985 while Taylor led the region’s first 14-0 team. Taylor went on to start four years at quarterback at Cal, and he’s left his magical touch at all of his stops — Folsom High, Eastern Washington, Utah and now here.

“This game Saturday is a defining moment in Hornet football history,” Bruce Mattos said Monday afternoon. “My dad would be so proud of what’s happened. He always said the Causeway was for bragging rights for all of Sacramento. UCD set a standard of excellence back then, and we were always the under dogs. I had a conversation with Dad years ago and he said the Causeway wasn’t a rivalry until 1988.”

That is true.

Mattos lost his first 10 Causeway games to UCD, a streak that swelled to 18. Plenty of Aggies and alums gloated. That all changed at Toomey Field in 1988.

With time running out, Mark Young pulled in a Brian Pandergast pass and bolted 53 yards into the end zone for the turning play of the series, a three-point victory that still resonates for anyone who played it or witnessed it. Before that early season game, UCD coach Jim Sochor joked, “There’s no rivalry until they beat us.”

After that loss, the classy Sochor conceded, “It’s offcially a rivalrly now.”

Friendly rivals

Mattos and Sochor became friends. They golfed and dined together. The topic wasn’t always football, either.

Sac State beat UCD 35-14 in the 1988 playoffs, and then Mattos won three more against the Aggies before retiring. Mattos once told me that losing to UCD “tore my soul to bits every time.” And beating UCD twice in 1988, “kept me employed and sane!”

Mattos specifically recruited the speedy Young out of Sacramento City College, by way of Cordova, to beat UCD. In the UCD rematch, young scored on a reverse and on a 75-yard touchdown strike from Tony Trosin. Young said then that he wanted to “show off my shake and bake.”

Young still has some shake and bake, and his Facebook page is dotted with Causeway memories, including images of Mattos. Young still holds Mattos dear to his heart.

“I know Coach Mattos would love this team, what Coach Taylor has done,” Young said Monday afternoon. “I still get emotional talking about Coach Mattos. He was in my life since I was 10 years old. He and my dad were the most important men in my life. Beating UCD meant everything to Mattos, and it will mean everything to us on Saturday if we do it again.

“And I’ve known Troy Taylor since he was a little kid. Even when he was in high school, you could see he had that poise to be great.”

Young recalled how passionate Hornets alum climbed on top of a table to pound their chest about Sac State pride before the 1988 Causeway. This included the late/great Lloyd Snelson, who was so into his school that he had a Hornet tattoo placed on his fanny. Snelson’s kick lifted Sac State to its first program victory in 1954.

Young is cheerful these days even though he’s in for the fight of his life. He has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He undergoes treatment three days a week. Young is 53 but looks game ready. He will attend Saturday’s game, flanked by an army of Hornet alums. Bruce Mattos and brother Doug will also be there, thinking of their pop.

“I’m an upbeat guy, and this diagnosis was depressing, but I’m OK,” Young said. “The best thing is I’ve had plenty of time to watch our Hornets. It’s mind-boggling. I love it. We’re all so giddy and pumped. Let’s go!”