Ferentz shows supportKirk Ferentz knows how it feels.
The Iowa coach has been where CU coach Dan Hawkins is and empathizes.
He also knows it can get better, and for him, it did.
Daily Camera reporter Kyle Ringo wrote a sterling piece on just that story today, detailing Hawkins' experience as a junior college coach to Ferentz's start in Iowa City in 1999, where the well-respected NFL assistant bolted from the gates with a 1-15 record.
No one is laughing at Ferentz and Iowa now, which has become one of the Big-10's better programs.
Hawkins knows of what he speaks when he says he's been here, as in struggling, before and there is no need to panic. He can confidently make that claim and have credibility because his record shows he always wins. Always.
So a slow start doesn't tell the whole story on him.
It's not enjoyable but you don't get to go from point A to point Z without making all the stops in between.
Ferentz is quoted in Ringo's story as saying "I had a mentor tell me that things typically don't go bad overnight and they don't get well overnight."
True.
Hawkins didn't create this mess, and it doesn't matter that former coach Gary Barnett and his legions of supporters, dissidents, and rebels believe CU would be rollin' if the school decided on the status quo with leadership for the program. Hawkins didn't get stupid overnight. One day, we'll see the fruits of his labor and realize that his success didn't happen overnight.
Woelk says new coaching staff gets it
Accountability.
Mentioned it before, will mention it again.
Neill Woelk did the same this morning in the Daily Camera.
Barnett always found others to blame until his final season, when credit was due to him for changing. After what he went through, he had to take stock of how he was doing things, as we all do during such times, and he did change, no doubt.
Woelk writes the new coaching staff could point fingers at personnel but they haven't. His article says offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich says it's him who should be in the hot seat for the red-zone ineptitude. Coach Dan Hawkins was then quoted in the article as also stepping up into that glare of public and media scrutiny.
"I learned at an early age in this thing to take ultimate responsibility for what's going on," he said.
When people are accountable, you have no desire to point out their mistakes. You don't have to. Took Barnett a while to realize that truth. Hawkins knows it already. That is yet another positive sign, even at 0-5, that this program will eventually sail out of rocky waters.
Woelk on Barnett
It was written here that when Barnett asked for and received permission to talk to the Buffs before the Missouri game, it had to be an awkward moment for all.
Woelk agrees, going a step farther, saying, it was selfishness that drove Barnett to make the request.
"It was simply the latest example of Barnett wanting to feed his ego at the expense of others," Woelk writes.
Yes, apologists can say Bill McCartney wouldn't be denied and Hawkins gave permission so what's the big deal, but the atmostphere regarding Barnett, slimed with scandal and arrogance and an emotional vendetta against the athletic program makes his nerve unbelievable and put Hawkins in a difficult position.
Woelk accurately, astutely points out that Barnett could have shown up at any practice and didn't because it wasn't a grand-enough stage.
Have to agree with Woelk that Barnett "should at least have the grace to keep his distance."
Don't count on it, Neill. Until the former coach is leading a new program he will be consumed with being done wrong. It wasn't his fault, don't you see. And he has his militant supporters drinking from the same well.
Buffs bag another big runner
If there is one thing we should be noticing by now it's that Hawkins has an affinity for big backs.
Thomas Perez, Demetrious Sumler, and now verbal commit Devan Johnson out of Pittsburgh, a 231-pounder. And anyone noticing how Hawkins is beginning to mine that part of the country, not exactly a CU stronghold.
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