Football coach Dan Hawkins evaluated to receive incentive salary
CU head football coach Dan Hawkins may be an employee of the university, but in one way, he is as much a student as his players.
Every six months Athletic Director Mike Bohn evaluates Hawkins’ performance in three off-the-field categories and gives the coach a grade. Instead of a grade from 0 to 100, however, the scale is 0 to 100,000.
Every six months Hawkins has the potential to earn up to $100,000 based on his fulfillment of the three objectives listed in his contract. This creates a $200,000 annual clause in addition to his $900,000 salary.
Bohn evaluates Hawkins on the academic progress of the team, players’ citizenship and the coach’s own conduct.
While the objectives of the incentive section are already listed as part of the coaching duties, Bohn said the $200,000 annual clause in Hawkins’ contract stresses the importance of these particular goals.
“With coach Hawkins, being it was a little bit more money and a little bit more high profile, we wanted to do a better job outlining the specifics associated with our academic progress, our growth of the program, our community service, behavior of the kids,” Bohn said.
Bohn said that along with Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson and himself, the Board of Regents had input on what subjects would be addressed in the incentive sections.
“I recognize that the regents and other leaders on campus asked for more transparency and accountability,” Bohn said. “I believe the process is working well for us.”
Pat Hayes, the chair of the Board of Regents, said the regents wanted more transparency in the high-priced coaching contracts.
“Only because they are usually significant contracts, and the board has a judiciary responsibility to make sure that all of our contracts are in order,” Hayes said. “No specific reason is attached to coach Hawkins by any means.”
Hayes agreed with Bohn that the process is working well.
“Incentives always work nicely, I think, because both sides tend to feel good about what’s happened and how it’s played out,” Hayes said.
Bohn stressed that the intention of the incentives is not to specifically grade Hawkins. He said the intention is to pinpoint what exactly the university wants the coach to focus on. The incentives pick out key parts of the job description and require that Hawkins address the subjects in order to earn the additional $200,000.
In addition to performance-based payouts, incentives for academic progress and building fan support are a common practice throughout Division I coaching contracts. These incentives are built in on top of the coaching salaries, which average $1 million annually over Division I and $1.6 million in the Big 12, according to a 2007 survey by USA Today. The Big 12 is second only to the SEC in highest coaching salaries, where salaries average $1.9 million.
According to the survey, Hawkins falls in the bottom two of Big 12 salaries.
Academic Progress
Of the $100,000 in biannual incentives, Hawkins can receive up to $25,000 for furthering the academic progress of the team.
Tom McGrath, the senior associate athletic director, said academic progress means placing an emphasis on school with the athletes, not necessarily student progress.
McGrath said that Hawkins meets with the football academic coordinators of the Herbst Academic Center at least once a week, which is not required by his contract, and keeps a strong relationship with the academic staff for the football team.
Hawkins said he also makes sure his recruits know even before they enroll that academics are part of the expectations in playing football at CU.
“We tell them when we recruit them we expect them to graduate and want to graduate,” Hawkins said.
Since Hawkins is only just entering his third season at CU, he did not recruit a majority of the upperclassmen. However, he has been able to emphasize academics to all of his current players.
“No games when it comes to academics with him – you’re in or you’re out,” said Chase McBride, a senior on the football team.
McBride added that Hawkins emphasizes having a strong academic start in college, and he has kept freshman players out of practice so they could attend study hall.
“If you don’t get your stuff done, you are not practicing,” McBride said. “You have got to take care of the classroom first. You don’t lift, you don’t work out, you don’t run, you don’t do anything. You just stay in study hall all day, all night, until you get your stuff together.”
Freshman Josh Smith said the coaches’ role is mainly disciplinary, although they sometimes offer advice. He added that as a freshman in college, it can be easy to fall behind quickly.
“Starting off, I wanted to be there to definitely get a well-balanced education and things of that sort, but recently, after getting in trouble a few times, you got to get there to stay out of trouble there now too,” Smith said.
Smith said adjusting to college academically is not easy as a student-athlete because of the time commitment involved.
“Your whole day is mapped out for you from the time you wake up,” Smith said. “It’s your responsibility to make sure you get your breakfast in and lunch in and stuff like that because your classes are pretty much crammed because they all have to be done by 2 o’clock each day.”
While the academic center helps, Smith said it is the responsibility of the athletes to stay on top of their classes.
“The advisers, they try to give you the best advice; the tutors, they try to do their best to help you,” Smith said. “But of course they are not in the classroom, so you have got to continue to show up and be consistent, so you can get some kind of pattern going.”
Hawkins said he is determined to see athletes go to class, and that has stuck out to his players.
“He actually, more than ever since I have been here, he actually has people going around and checking classes and making sure people go to class,” said Hugh Charles, a senior on the team. “He takes those steps in letting everyone know that even though he is out, there is always somebody watching. There are always eyes on you, and you have got to do your work and go to class.”
In the last incentive salary, from July 1 to Dec. 31 of 2007, Hawkins earned $23,000 of the potential $25,000. This was a jump from the previous six months in which Hawkins earned $15,000., totaling $38,000 of $50,000 for 2007.
The average academic bonus in the Big 12 is $25,000, according to a survey by USA Today. This is second-to-last among all Division I conferences. The leading academic bonus is nearly $64,000, in the Big Ten.
The last incentive period for Hawkins was during the football season. Bohn said every athlete was eligible for the entire season. Bohn added that Hawkins did not receive the full amount, however, because academic eligibility of the current athletes is not the only concern of the university.
The Academic Progress Rating begins counting this year. The APR, a number based on graduation rates and the academic standing of both current athletes and those that are transferring out of universities, could lead the NCAA to lower the number of scholarships a university receives for its athletes if it falls below a certain point.
The potential APR challenges Bohn said he foresaw drove his decision to give Hawkins $15,000 in the previous incentive period. While Bohn said Hawkins had done a commendable job in academics, there were potential challenges with the APR.
In this past period there was substantial improvement, but Bohn said the room for continued improvement in relation to the APR, as well as other areas, led him to knock off $2,000.
“When we talk about improvement, we are looking for graduation rates, we are looking for improved attendance and participation, engagement by our student-athletes in class, we are looking for better grade point averages, and we are looking for higher levels of our academic credentials of our incoming athletes,” Bohn said.
As of the 2005-2006 academic year, the most recent APR measure, the CU football team ranked in the 10th to 20th percentile over all NCAA Division I sports, and 50th to 60th percentile within football. According the NCAA, CU’s APR rating is even with the average for Football Bowl Subdivision universities.
Look for the rest of the three-day Campus Press series on Dan Hawkins’ contract this Wednesday and Thursday.
Contact Campus Press Assistant Sports Editor Margot Schneider at margot.schneider@thecampuspress.com.
