Colorado University Athletics
Hawkins? Final 2006 Press Conference
BOULDER ? University of Colorado head football coach Dan Hawkins held his end-of-the-year press conference Monday at the Dal Ward Athletic Center to recap the 2006 season and discuss the Buffs’ busy off season. The following are quotes from the session:
Head Coach Dan Hawkins
ON THE END OF THE 2006 SEASON?“It’s kind of like the Monty Python episode where the guy is laying there with no arms and no legs going ?Come back you coward!’ That’s me. You are never always sure what life’s adventures are going to bring you. Some are more glorious and some are more painful. But it was never a frustrating or disappointing thing because you clearly want to win more games but you clearly have a vision for what’s supposed to happen, how it’s supposed to happen, how it all works, how it all goes together, how that whole thing fits and you just keep pushing forward toward that eventual vision. Sometimes you meet more resistance than you expect. I’ve always said this job is sometimes like herding squirrels and sometimes three or four get out from under you and that takes you a little bit more time. I think we clearly have a vision for what it looks like and how to get there and I feel very strongly about that.”
ON GRADE HE WOULD GIVE THE 2006 SEASON?“F...minus. I’m one of those guys where you can’t put makeup over a pimple. When you’re 2-10 you’re 2-10. I think you face up to that and you own up to that. I think the critical thing is knowing why you’re 2-10 and how not to be 2-10 and I think that is important.”
ON WHY HIS TEAM WAS 2-10?“That’s a long and complicated formula and to some degree a lot of it is not stuff that you want necessarily in the front page of the paper. So I think a lot of that is behind the doors kind of things. This thing is never linear. It’s not like you solve this and then you solve that and you go to that. There are a lot of small things that you have to come to grips with.”
ON LEVEL OF COMPETITION IN THE BIG 12 COMPARED TO THE WAC?“You are seeing several teams who either were in the top 25 or flirting with the top 25 and that’s different. I think when you look at the lower half of the conference you are seeing in general more speed and more size than you do in the WAC.”
ON WHAT HE HAS LEARNED THIS SEASON?“Just ask my therapist. That would be [athletic director] Mike Bohn. I guess one of the reasons that I came here was I knew it was going to be the ultimate challenge in many ways?culturally, socially, athletically, academically. [I knew] that it was going to test me and there certainly was a side of me that really welcomed that because I think there are guys that thrive on that a little bit. I’ve always been the guy that when people tell me that I can’t do something it tends to raise my horns a little bit. As I look at this season I’ve had to smile a little bit a go ?Okay, you got everything you wanted right here buddy. You got everything you wanted and more.’ So even though it can be very painful at times, I think you take a certain amount of pride and determination that you know what’s going on, you know how to get out of it?it takes a better man to get out of it. All of those things that you clearly stand for in life and in football you have to stand up and demonstrate as an individual. It’s like when I jumped out of the airplane [when he went skydiving with his daughter in the spring]. I didn’t really want to do it and my daughter said ?If you don’t do it then everything you tell your team doesn’t mean anything.’ And you’re going ?Well, OK I hear you. Touch? and let’s go.’ But I think that our staff stayed very positive through the whole thing, I think our team kept coming back, I think we kept looking for answers, I don’t think anybody ever cashed it in, mailed it in. People kept scratching and clawing and looking for solutions and I think there is some merit to that. The reality sometimes in these situations is that you have to go through a little bit of a fire; you have to go through a little bit of a baptism to maybe really find out what everybody is about. From that standpoint there have been good things. The fans have been great, Mike [Bohn] has been awesome, our staff has been good, our team didn’t go in the tank?there are a lot of those things that were great despite not playing the kind of football you want to be playing.
ON WHETHER HE EXPECTS HIS STAFF TOP COME BACK INTACT?“Totally. WILL ANY PLAYERS ASK FOR A RELEASE??“It probably is too early to tell. But that’s always part of the cleansing process as well. Although I don’t anticipate and issues there you never totally know because clearly you have to go to another level of commitment, another level of dedication, another level of belief. So when anybody has doubts in their minds that’s hard to commit to. We will see where we are at there. No [I don’t see any of those doubts], not necessarily. I will force the hand.”
ON WHETHER THE SENIORS BECAME ?HIS GUYS’?“To me they were always my guys. I always said that, I always believed that and I always embraced that. A very good group of kids, truly. They kept coming back. [Senior offensive lineman] Brian [Daniels] is a very special guy and he will probably have a chance to play at the next level. He’s a smart guy and he is going to be a great credit to the University. All of those guys?I liked coaching them. None of us liked the results but they will be able to write a few short stories here at some point.”
ABOUT AWARDING SCHOLARSHIPS TO WALK-ONS?“I think at
ON WHETHER HE HAS BEEN PLEASED WITH HIS TEAM’S STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING?“Well I like the fact that we have a true freshman corner [Jalil Brown] that squats over 600 pounds. Of our true freshmen that [power] cleaned the other day we had more than half the amount of kids that pulled 300 off the ground than we did in the spring on the entire team. Those things mean something in a lot of ways. Not just the shear strength of your team, but you’re talking about injuries and confidence and all of that. It’s big.”
ON HIS PERSPECTIVE OF THE BCS NOW THAT HE IS AT A BCS SCHOOL?“It’s kind of like a lot of things in life. There is probably no clear-cut answer to it. Should you have a playoff system? Maybe. A lot of people are advocating for that. We’re going to face the same issues. I think it’s awesome that everybody has a chance to get in there [BCS bowl game]. What the answer is to solving it, I don’t know.”
ON RECRUITING THE VOID LEFT BY SENIOR PK MASON CROSBY?“Well for as long as I’ve coached, you’ll probably never find a guy like Mason again. So to try to match somebody up to those standards I don’t know if that’s always exactly fair. I think Kevin Eberhart is a capable kicker and he is a good player. Unfortunately for him, when he was rolling into
ON WHETHER HE IS INTERESTED TO SEE HOW BOISE STATE WILL PLAY AGAINST OKLAHOMA OR NEBRASKA?“Oh they are going to bring it. I’m not sure who they are going to play but they will bring it.”