Holy Crap: Dan Hawkins is not fired
November 26th, 2009 at 3:27 PM ^
That's the exact thing I just said (holy crap that is). I should have figured there was no way they were going to fire him on Thanksgiving. The money issue has to be the deciding factor. He's way too expensive to can right now.
EDIT: RalphieReport (the SBNation Colorado Blogger)'s headline:
Colorado's Press Release Insults Our Intelligence, Continues to Show Goal Is Not to WinLink
November 26th, 2009 at 3:28 PM ^
They can't afford his buyout.
November 26th, 2009 at 3:31 PM ^
I'd be surprised if CU has the huge bag of money for buyouts that places like ND do.
November 26th, 2009 at 3:33 PM ^
depleted the CU coffers.
November 26th, 2009 at 3:44 PM ^
but then I realized that Colorado has probably had enough of ex-Boise State coaches.
Hawkins's record over four years is 16-32, with this season being 3-8. God help us if RR doesn't do vastly better after four seasons, but if he doesn't there's no way he would be brought back. Four seasons is enough to establish a winning program at a place like Michigan.
November 26th, 2009 at 3:34 PM ^
I really fail to understand the mind of athletic directors. Not just Colorado mind you; they seem to continuously make bonehead mistakes.
Dude needs to go.
November 26th, 2009 at 3:36 PM ^
I wonder if there's a deep pocketed booster withe memories of the McCartney era who will pay for the buyout after this announcement?
November 26th, 2009 at 3:58 PM ^
it takes time to build successful teams. hopefully for Colorado's patience will be rewarded. i think that would be a good lesson for everybody.
November 26th, 2009 at 11:06 PM ^
The problem is like Charlie Weis, his teams are going downhill. When I was there in 2007 it took us all 12 games to get 6 wins, and they haven't been back to a bowl since.
November 26th, 2009 at 4:14 PM ^
I heard something watching one of the buff's games this year that the athletic department lost just under 3 million this year. I would bet that with the 3 mill buyout is the only reason he's coming back.
November 26th, 2009 at 4:22 PM ^
Wow. This was just a strange situation with the media saying he was ok and then his boss saying that his fate had yet to be determined and then finally he's safe...odd.
November 26th, 2009 at 4:46 PM ^
Read Brian's article on the Ralph Friedgen situation at Maryland. Basically, they aren't going to can The Fridge because they don't have the money to buy the guy out. Maryland is spiraling downward and the AD doesn't have the means to get rid of him.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:00 PM ^
Barry Alvarez went 10-1-1 in his fourth year and never really looked back.
Ferentz went 11-2 in his fourth year, with a pretty good record since. I would bet that the vast majority of coaches generally considered successful are showing very positive results by the fourth year or sooner. Beamer is the only exception I can think of offhand; it took him until his seventh season to really get untracked, although he did have two winning seasons before that seventh year. It would be an interesting historical thing to research.
I wonder if athletic departments are going to start balking at the huge payout terms coaches are demanding. Not firing a coach for reasons of patience may make eminent sense, but not firing an underperforming coach purely for reasons of buyout, as in Friedgren's case, is just nuts.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:07 PM ^
I would assume you'll start to see ADs start exercising much more sense when writing the original contract, and not providing these huge buyouts. Charlie's crazy contract extension at ND(in the middle of his first year) might signal the last hurrah for these unwarranted contract extensions.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:17 PM ^
I'm a little torn on this one. One of my best friends is a CU alum who constantly gripes about the job Hawkins has done. He inherited a pretty crappy situation after Barnett left (scandal and years of two-star stacked recruiting classes). Hawkins improved the talent/recruiting but made the boneheaded decision of playing his son (who is not a D1 quarterback by any stretch of the imagination) and has made some other odd personnel choices (like never playing Darrell Scott despite lack of a rushing offense). He also runs an offensive system that none of his players seem to understand or be able to execute at which point he puts walk-on types in at wide receiver while the talented recruits sit on the sidelines.
That being said, the team has played hard late in the year and returns a ton of players next season (every guy on the offensive two-deep except for two tight ends and a ton of defensive players as well). I guess they figure the team can only get better next year and that they'd rather give Hawkins a shot at redemption while keeping the $3 million. I also don't think they have the money to go out and hire a big enough name to make dumping Hawkins worthwhile to the fanbase.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:23 PM ^
and I never would have guessed that Hawkins would struggle like this, but he did inherit a crappy situation. I could never figure out why he played his son at QB other than the fact it was his son. I saw Cody play in a few games and he never looked as good as Tate did this year for us. Considering the number of players coming back for CU, I would have to guess 2010 is a make-or-break year for him.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:31 PM ^
I know Hawkins recently stated that he regretted recruiting his son to CU, among other things. Do you think if things had gone differently that the Buffs would be in a different place at this point?
My good friend is a Colorado fan and he always jokes that they "win the first half" of games, so I suppose that's something.
November 26th, 2009 at 5:36 PM ^
What makes it even more mind boggling is the fact that Tyler Hansen is actually a pretty talented QB (big arm and solid mobility). It took me about five minutes seeing him play to know he had a much greater chance of success than Cody, no matter how well the coach's son might know the playbook. Still, Cody started at the beginning of the year (after Dan burned the kid's redshirt last year, only to replace him again late in the season with his untalented son).
They've won a couple Big 12 games against decent teams with Hansen in there, and you see the difference he makes with the emergence of Markques Simas (a very talented kid who Hawkins Jr. couldn't get the ball to because of his lack of arm strength).
November 26th, 2009 at 6:01 PM ^
that he had Hansen sitting on the bench in favor of Cody... makes me wonder how Hawkins managed to do so well at Boise State. That's just a horrendous lapse in judgement. I wonder if he simply continued what Dirk Koetter had started, rather than having to really build anything from scratch.
November 27th, 2009 at 1:06 AM ^
I live in CO and can say that people sort of expected him to be fired, but actually seem like they don't feel anybody else could do much better (other than benching Cody Hawkins)... Dan Hawkins has been given his time, but people are torn on whether or not things will improve if Cody is out of the picture. Obviously Tyler Hanson is about 10x better as a QB... the question is whether or not the Buffs can hold up to Big 12 competition on a regular basis.
November 26th, 2009 at 6:16 PM ^
Hawkins was never a coordinator at BSU and really doesn't have a history as an X's and O's coach. Under Koetter (who built the BSU program) he ran recruiting and did administrative stuff as Asst. Head Coach, but in terms of actually coaching players he only coached special teams and tight ends. After going 8-4 (6-2 in conference) his first year as the head coach, he hired Petersen as the OC and went 45-7 the next four years (losing just one conference game).
Between inheriting Koetter's program and benefiting from Petersen's play-calling, I think Hawkins had the perfect situation to succeed at BSU (though this is only apparent with the benefit of hindsight with respect to Petersen's continued success).
November 26th, 2009 at 10:58 PM ^
What was up with DK? It appears he was the first of this string of Boise St coaches who went on to be tested at a BCS school (unless you count Houston Nutt, who was there for just 1996). It's seems like DK might not have gotten a very fair shake at ASU. Anyone have any insights?
Bruce Snyder was fired after 8 decent seasons, including 1996 when he was 19 sec away from winning an NC. It seems like he was a really good guy, but I digress. In any case, he was fired by the new athletic director with a game remaining, after the AD had joined a few months earlier and said that he wouldn't fire Snyder until after the season. The AD? Gene Smith, the current athletic director at Ohio St.
November 27th, 2009 at 12:52 PM ^
Nutt was actually there for two years, just one in 1-A
November 26th, 2009 at 8:03 PM ^
Here's what I don't understand. You have a coach like Charlie Weis coaching at ND. Is he really going to leave if you don't give him a 10 year extension? If I was an AD, I'd give a guy 2 year extensions at a time. If you want to keep coach and he wants to stay you'll find a middle ground. If he wants to leave, he's gone anyway.
November 26th, 2009 at 8:19 PM ^
He was going to leave. He came to the AD with an offer from the Saints and told them he was going to take it unless they opened up their pocketbooks.
Or so I've heard.
Notre Dame couldn't afford to call his bluff if he was indeed bluffing.
November 26th, 2009 at 8:33 PM ^
Pretty hard to believe that one. Weis was a rookie coach and it was the middle of the season. It's hard to imagine that an NFL team would really be contacting him then, much less making an actual contract offer. And while Weis may be a scumbag, it's hard for me to believe that he'd pull that on his new employer (and alma mater). He was still enjoying a honeymoon with fans and alumni.
I think it's more likely that ND's administration was so giddy over the way ND started that season that it decided to lock Weis up at any cost.
November 26th, 2009 at 8:26 PM ^
He's lucky because job security now is non existent and finding a new job is hellish. Maybe Charlie will luck out too! :P
November 26th, 2009 at 10:57 PM ^
too bad...big dan hawkins news = lots of replays of go play intramurals brother on espn.