Colorado Coach Dan Hawkins Addresses Outlook of the Team at Media Day

Dan Hawkins has always been one to throw down some crazy quotes. So on Thursday’s annual football media day, would coach Hawk give the media some more wacky quotes?

After his thirty-six minute press conference, it seemed that Hawkins’ only wacky quote was that the practices have moved from flag football to pads. However, he did answer many burning questions about the team.

The Schedule

The Buffs have one of the toughest schedules in the Big-12 facing teams like West Virginia, Florida State, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas A&M. According to Hawkins, he expects his team to be up to the challenge and be ready every day.

“I have said many times, I tell our guys ‘You know life asks to be your best every day, but our schedule demands it.’ I mean you better get after it and you better have you’re a game on every single day.”

Coach Hawkins also stated that his student athletes can’t take days off and need to be at their best. He continued to say that the team can’t celebrate or mourn to long, and needs to just move on and get better.

Darrell Scott

Speaking of celebrating, CU fans celebrated for months when the team landed freshman tailback, Darrell Scott. Everyone was wondering how Scott has been doing in camp and finally they would get a chance to find out.

“I think he is doing a really good job,” said Hawkins, “He is working with Coach Hagan to master the details. He’s fitting in well.”

Hawkins also stated that Scott, has amazing talent, but doesn’t want to rush him. Right now, they’re just making sure he knows “how to take a handoff.”

However, what’s amazed Hawkins the most about Scott is not his talent, but his character, even with all the expectations he’s facing.

“He’s a really good kid. He is a humble guy that has his feet on the ground. Everybody else has these feeling or aspirations about what he has to do, but all we are asking him to do is come in and embrace our culture, which is be a great person, graduate, and win a national championship.”

Who’s the new kicker?

In his two years in Boulder, Dan Hawkins has been gifted with amazing kickers in Mason Crosby and Kevin Eberhart. So what’s his reaction on who will follow in the footsteps of a few CU greats?

“We are not trying to put a whole lot of pressure on the place kickers. Once we get everyone together then we can chart them more accurately.”

Hawkins did say that they will eventually put the place kickers in “pressure packed situations” and see who emerges through those situations.

Cody Hawkins’ improvement

The Colorado coach didn’t say much about his sophomore quarterback, other than he has taken some major steps forward.

“I think he has a little more steam on the ball, and that will help him physically because you’re going to take some shots back there, and having a little bit more armor will help you. It helps your self-esteem either way.”

The CSU game

It seems like the Hawkins family will be focused when they play their first game of the season against Colorado State, but their in-state rival will cause the team from Boulder some problems.

“We don’t know what we’re going to see from them. It will be fun for you guys [the media] because there will be a whole lot of adjustments out there, kind of like a basketball game. They will have a lot of stuff on us, but we won’t have much on them. It will be a cat and mouse game.”

On Friday, it will mark 23 days until the season opener at Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver. Also on Friday, the team will return to practice and continue working in full pads.