Colorado QB learns to read the ‘dad look’

If there were any doubts about University of Colorado redshirt freshman quarterback Cody Hawkins being a chip off the old block, they were answered during a recent interview when he was asked about the year he was born.

“I’m an ’88er, year of the dragon,” he said. “I feel very privileged.”

Hawkins’ dad, of course, just happens to also be his head coach with the Buffaloes. Since arriving from Boise State, where he went 53-10, Dan Hawkins has already made significant strides in turning around a program embroiled in controversy over recruiting practices and rape allegations by former female kicker Katie Hnida.

Since replacing Gary Barnett, who stepped down in 2005, Colorado went 2-10 overall and 2-6 in the Big 12 last year, but beat Nebraska in its season finale last month to reach six wins and become eligible to play Alabama in the Independence Bowl.

But what’s Dan Hawkins best known for this year? An outburst right around the time his Crimson Tide counterpart was answering questions for using the word “coonass.” What set him off was a letter an anonymous parent sent, protesting players getting only a two-week break in their offseason conditioning program after previously having three.

The coach started off calmly, and then couldn’t help it: “It’s Division I football! It’s the Big 12! It ain’t intramurals!

“You’ve got two weeks after finals, you’ve got a week of July Fourth and you get a week before camp starts. That’s a month. That’s probably more vacation then you [reporters] get. And we’re a little bummed out that we don’t get three weeks?”

“Go play intramurals, brother. Go play intramurals.”

And fans thought Ralphie the Buffalo could be intimidating? However, months later Cody Hawkins did a dead-on impersonation of his father’s intramurals speech on “College Football Live,” but only after shutting the door.

“I guess there is a little bit of both worlds,” Cody Hawkins said. “There were times where he thought something was good or something was funny and I could definitely tell because of a dad look where I could tell without him actually saying anything. Then there are some coach looks, too, that you don’t get sitting around the dinner table because I don’t think as a father he has ever wanted to cut my head off, but as a quarterback there are a few times he may have wanted to.”

There haven’t been too many times Cody Hawkins has seen the glare/look, like in second grade when he figured out what a crank call was and got caught. Nowadays it usually only happens with a bad turnover, and during the first half of the season there were plenty of those.

The freshman finished the regular season with 15 interceptions, one short of the school record, but hasn’t had a pick in his past 70 attempts. He also threw for 2,693 yards in his father’s wide-open offense.

“The fourth-down play against Miami-Ohio is probably the stupidest play I had,” Cody Hawkins said. “We were winning by 40 or something so even if I check it down there it keeps from giving them any momentum so that was a time he really looked through the back of my skull and roasted me with his laser beam vision.”

Two other games probably best illustrate what kind of player the quarterback is under pressure.

When Colorado stunned No. 3 Oklahoma at home, 27-24, he appeared to trip, but then suddenly popped up and threw a 27-yard pass to wide open Tyson DeVree for a 7-3 lead.

The other was against Texas Tech, a 31-26 victory that Cody Hawkins hardly remembers after almost getting his head knocked off by a non-family member in an opposing uniform, and also had a Kleenex shoved up his nose for the rest of the game.

“I got hit and I started to notice that I was spacing out a little bit,” he said. “Then I was talking to [wide receiver] Scotty [McKnight] and I couldn’t stop thinking about board games and other weird stuff. It was weird. I just had to read the card and do exactly what the card said because I couldn’t really remember practicing those plays during the week. I made it out, we won and I’m all good now.

“I was totally fine a couple days later.”

But what else would one expect from the son of the man who had his team wear T-shirts reading “The Real Blackshirts” against Nebraska, a blatant slap to the Cornhuskers’ defense, which ended up on the losing side of a 65-51 shootout.

It’s hard to argue with the results, though, as the Independence Bowl is seen as an important step for both the father and the son, especially after Dan Hawkins called last offseason the toughest of his life after not being bowl eligible.

“Over Thanksgiving we had the opportunity to go to a bowl so he was on lock down mode, getting ready to beat the Huskers,” Cody Hawkins said. “Then a couple days after that he actually went to the museum with the rest of the family as opposed to being at home going like this [rubs temples] with the TV off and listening to Kenny G and Van Morrison all the time. I think he is OK now, he is just focused on recruiting and winning the bowl game and hopefully it’ll be a lot happier holiday season than it was last year.”

Reach Christopher Walsh at christopher.walsh@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0196.