Father goes to practice; Son goes to Disney World
After taking a week off along with the rest of their classmates, the members of CU’s football team put on their hard hats and got back to work on Monday for spring practice.
The practice was the team’s eighth of the 2007 spring practice session and their first since March 22.
The break gave players and coaches a chance to get away and take a week off of football before resuming the final eight practices of the spring. For the coach/player and father/son tandem of Dan and Cody Hawkins, the break meant the chance to go down to the University of Florida and take a peek at the defending National Champion Florida Gators.
The father and son traveled down to Gainesville and observed some Gator practices. Dan Hawkins said the experience was worth the trip.
“It’s good to just get out and compare notes and see how other people do things,” Hawkins said. “It makes you think about what you do and why.”
Coach Hawkins said he got to sit in on meetings with coach Urban Meyer and his staff to see how Florida ran its practices. Hawkins was around the program for over three days and said he just tried to be an observer.
“I just went to a lot of meetings and soaked it up,” Hawkins said.
When asked why he picked Florida, Hawkins said, “You just gravitate to guys who march to the same drum.”
While Coach Hawkins was mostly all business on the trip, his son Cody had the opportunity to relax and celebrate his birthday. The red shirt freshman quarterback for the Buffs said he enjoyed a day at Disney World and did some other fun things before spending time with the Florida football team later in the week.
Hawkins, who is in competition with junior college transfer Nick Nelson for the starting quarterback job in the fall, said seeing how the national champions operate was fun.
“It was cool to see how the national champions run things and how they took so much pride in their school,” Cody Hawkins said. “The players are so dedicated and enjoy being there a ton.”
Cody Hawkins is among a group of CU players that have talked this spring about the desire to do something special in Boulder and while a lot of people would say Florida is way ahead of the Buffs in that right; Hawkins would disagree.
“Seeing their facilities and knowing the improvements coming soon to ours, I really don’t feel like there is anything they’re doing that we can’t,” Cody Hawkins said. “They have a new weight room coming and their coaches’ offices were nicely decorated but it wasn’t anything special.”
In addition to viewing the Gators’ facilities, the younger Hawkins said he had the opportunity to hang out with buddy Tim Tebow, who is slated to be the Gators starting quarterback in the fall. Hawkins and Tebow know each other through a TV show both participated in on ESPNU the summer before their freshmen seasons.
“It was fun hanging out with (Tim),” Cody Hawkins said. “We just shared stories about adjusting to college football.”
Spring break now behind them, Dan and Cody Hawkins now return their thoughts and efforts to continue improving as a team in spring ball. Coach Hawkins said the first day back from spring break was pretty good.
“The first day back after spring break is usually tough sledding, but they bounced around and (the coaches) got some things out of them,” Hawkins said.
Cody Hawkins agreed with the coach’s assessment.
“I think today went pretty well. I mean you never execute as well as you want to but for being the first day back, I thought we did a good job,” Cody Hawkins said.
Contact Campus Press staff writer Stirling Wade at stirling.wade@thecampuspress.com.
