Boulder – Any football coach who employs his son in the family business must be a little nuts.
Knowing any crazy idea could expose him to criticism, Dan Hawkins nonetheless stood at the edge of the Colorado practice field at high noon and began to undress.
Guess he was trying to explain what it means to be a Buff.
“Look at this,” Hawkins said Monday.
Every coach carries the weight of losing.
But to reveal the heavy burden of that 2-10 record in his first season at CU, Hawkins began to lift his coaching attire over his tummy.
“C’mon, Coach. Keep your shirt on,” I thought, wondering exactly where this show-and-tell was headed.
Hanging from Hawk’s neck was a lumpy, black vest. The flak jacket weighed 20 pounds.
“That’s 2 pounds for every loss right there,” explained Hawkins, laughing.
It’s understandable why a coach who needs to convert infectious enthusiasm into wins might want a flak jacket for protection from the slings and arrows of doubters. But how fast can Hawkins stay ahead of the competition while carrying 20 pounds of dead weight?
“My time in the 40 is not real good outside the flak jacket,” he said. “So I don’t know what it is with it on.”
Hawkins wore the vest throughout the team’s first workout of fall camp. The season opener against Colorado State is a scant 25 days away.
And the Buffaloes still need to find a starting quarterback.
The best candidate for the job might well prove to be a redshirt freshman named Cody Hawkins.
He’s a son of the coach.
We all know the two positions on a college football team that receive more than their share of credit and endure way too much blame are coach and quarterback.
That’s a whole lot of pressure stacked high on the plates of two men at the dinner table in a single household.
“He’s always going to be my son,” Hawkins said.
With a single breath, the second-year CU coach revealed what figures to be the most delicate mission to maintain the trust in his locker room and keep the peace at home. There can be no perception of favoritism in the eyes of teammates, yet any father who has ever yelled from the stands at a child playing sports realizes how blood can boil quicker than water.
The Buffaloes face a tough schedule and a hard climb back to national prominence. Six victories in 12 games would be a major achievement for this CU team.
But the most difficult assignment in the program might belong to Mrs. Hawkins.
“I heard my wife tell somebody recently, ‘I only hope Dan treats my son like every other quarterback he’s ever coached.’ And I told her, ‘I hear you,”‘ Hawkins said.
He won’t be the first big-time coach to have a child on the roster. The wife of Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer has informed Hawkins that she made a family rule there could be absolutely no discussion of the family business at home so long as her husband and son played for the same team.
“When I’m with Cody and it’s in a team setting, I treat him more like a player. When he comes out to the house, I don’t try to bring up football unless he wants to talk about it,” Hawkins said.
“I’ve always been ultra-positive with my quarterbacks. Because you’ve seen it. As soon as there’s a crack in the cement there, and the quarterback thinks the coach doesn’t believe in him or he’s not the coach’s guy, it’s over.”
This working relationship cannot possibly be all business, because the X’s and O’s between Cody and Dan Hawkins ultimately must be run through the heart.
“At some point, Cody still has to have a dad,” the elder Hawkins said. “I can’t just say, ‘I’m not your dad, I’m your coach.”‘
The touchdowns, of course, should be easy to handle.
When a new quarterback inevitably throws an interception at the goal line, however, and hecklers in the crowd shout to take the bum out, how does a 19-year-old kid jog to the CU bench and look his father in the eye?
Love hurts.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
