Former Colorado coach Dan Hawkins opens up – kind of
It's good to know that former Colorado coach Dan Hawkins hasn't changed since the Buffs fired him in early November.
In an interview with Tom Dienhart from Rivals.com, Hawkins gave multiple answers that never really answered Dienhart's questions.
The evasive answering is nothing new. In the final couple years of Hawkins' tenure at Colorado -- really after his infamous "It's Division I football" rant -- Hawkins shut down. He began giving terse or one-word answers. And sometimes he wouldn't answer the question at all.
He was most defensive about his starting quarterback position, which in recent years came down to his son, Cody, and Tyler Hansen, who is the starter heading into this fall. The consensus among fans, players and even some assistant coaches was that Hansen was the better quarterback yet Cody Hawkins (who now plays semi-pro in Stockholm, Sweden) kept ending up in games. Hansen said in retrospect that he thought the whole ordeal was a "little bit of nepotism."
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But perhaps in the next couple years Hawkins can figure out exactly why things went wrong in Colorado and why he has trouble giving straight answers. Hawkins told Dienhart that he is in the early stages of working on a Ph.D. in psychology. Hawkins also did some work on ESPN's "The Experts" this spring and said he's in talks to do more, though nothing has been finalized. In all honesty, for as much as Hawkins seems to dislike the media, he was pretty engaging while informally talking about college football.
Hawkins said he also spent some time at various spring practices, including Oregon, Oregon State, BYU, TCU, Missouri, Air Force, Colorado State, Colorado School of Mines and Rutgers. It's funny that Missouri was he only Big 12 school Hawkins visited considering the Tigers defeated his Buffs five consecutive times by a margin of 203-40.
Despite everything, Hawkins wants to get back into coaching. He was a finalist for the Texas State job that went to former Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione and said he's had other opportunities. It will be interesting to see if what Hawkins learned at Colorado and during his visits to other programs pay off - and if he eventually shares that knowledge.
Graham Watson is a regular contributor to Dr. Saturday. Follow her on Twitter: @Yahoo_Graham
