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Meet Boise State’s head football coach: Dan Hawkins
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On Dec. 2, 2000, Dan Hawkins was named the head football coach for Boise State University. Within the last 33 years of BSU’s coaching history there have been a total of eight head coaches, Hawkins being named the eighth.
After Hawkins was named head coach last year he led his team in practices and in preparing them for the Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl. As he served as assistant coach in that game, it was very apparent that his leadership as head coach was already in full swing. The Broncos, assisted by Hawkins, went on to defeat Texas-El Paso and deem themselves as the second-time consecutive champions of the Humanitarian Bowl.
Hawkins replaced Dirk Koetter, who Hawkins was the assistant head coach, special teams and tight ends coach for during Koetter’s reign as head coach for the past three years.
Hawkins came to Boise State with 11 years of coaching behind him in 1997. Not too long after he came Hawkins was named the team’s head coach. During the time he’s been with the Bronco football coaching staff he has helped lead them to a winning record of 26-10 and two consecutive Big West Conference Championships in 1999 and 2000. And we must not forget the “Back-to-Back” wins at the Humanitarian Bowl Hawkins helped achieve.
Under Hawkins coaching many players have gone big. In his special teams, David Mikell finished up last year ranking third for individual kickoff returns, Jeff Edwards was top punter in the Big West Conference in 2000, and Nick Calaycay, place kicker, finished the year as the most accurate field goal kicker in the nation.
Players from Hawkins tight end coaching have also seen some of the spotlight. His tight ends have earned either first or second team All-Big West honors three years deep under Hawkins’ coaching, as well as being nationally drafted in the NFL’s fifth round by the New England patriots, Dave Stachelski. Robby Snelling was invited by the Tennessee Titans to train during their training camp after earning all conference honors in 2000 under Hawkins.
Before Hawkins coached at BSU he was the head coach for 77 percent of the time at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon from 1993 through 1997. He walked that team to a winning history of a 40-11-1 record.
The Bearcats were also named runner-up for the NAIA National Championship in 1997. That same year Hawkins was recognized as the District Five Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association and received his the third consecutive conference coach of the year award.
Before head coach positions, Hawkins spent plenty of time dealing with both offensive and defensive coaching. In 1992 he was Sonoma State University defense’s head guy and previously to that he was the offensive coordinator for the College of the Siskiyous in California from 1988-1991. The College of the Siskiyous won the Golden Valley Conference championship in 1991.
Previous to his college experience as a coach, Hawkins was the head coach for Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento during the 1986 and 1987 seasons.
As a graduate of Cal Davis with his bachelor’s degree in physical education, Hawkins began his coaching career with his alma mater as head freshman and varsity linebacker coach from 1983 to 1985.
Renae Hall