Dan Hawkins: Set Up To Fail?

                After losing arguably a great coach in Marc Trestman to the NFL, the Montreal Alouettes hired former College Football coach and broadcaster, Dan Hawkins. Now, fans know Trestman left big shoes to fill, taking the Als to 3 Grey Cup appearances, winning two of them. Hawkins now stepped in, and right away hired Mike Miller, who had no previous CFL experience in coaching, as his Offensive Coordinator.  Personally, this whole scenario worried me.

                Preseason began and ended terribly with no wins. To me, this was the first sign this might not go the way fans hoped. But, I took it as just preseason and that the season would be better. Boy was I ever wrong. The Als came out in game 1 and upset the Winnipeg Bluebombers new stadium opening game with a win, but the plays didn’t look right. The Als dropped the next few games that look just so ugly. It looked to me like Hawkins’ system just wasn’t working with this Als team. The worst thing I noticed was that Hawkins would not allow quarterback Anthony Calvillo to calls his own plays. Not to mention the Offensive line couldn’t hold, and Calvillo was sacked more times than he should have. The scariest part: This is only 4 games into the season! Something told me that Hawkins would not be the coach next season.

                I have to admit I was shocked to find, as the Bi-Week began after game 5, that Hawkins was let go. I expected him to at least finish the season, or maybe change his system to one of the Als. Dan Hawkins isn’t a bad coach, he just didn’t fit in.

But, after all I just said, is it really Hawkins fault?

                Alouettes General Manager Jim Popp was hailed a hero after hiring head coach Marc Trestman, a guy who only coached University teams in the U.S. My only guess is that Popp was hoping lightning would strike twice with new coach Dan Hawkins, who would continue where Trestman left off. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

                I strongly believe that Hawkins had no real knowledge of the CFL game. Popp even stated that Hawkins downfall might have been that he never coached a pro team before. Talk about putting Hawkins in an uncomfortable situation in a game he doesn’t quite understand. Evidently, what happens is a new coach steps in, uncomfortable with the 12-man game and a system that didn’t fit the team, and brings that team down. Popp admitted that he did make a mistake in hiring Hawkins, that he hoped Hawkins would learn from the players, and not the players learn the coach. Popp’s expectations that his new couch would adapt the system the Alouettes have had for such a long time with success, was a huge misjudgment. Popp even revealed that players had come to him to complain about Hawkins coaching style.

                I would call it extreme luck that the Alouettes are in second place, with the rest of the CFL having horrible seasons as well. The Als are loaded with talent, players who are absolutely spectacular and a superstar quarterback in Anthony Calvillo who has an ageless arm. This team has a special chemistry, or a standard, as Calvillo stated. Hopefully Popp can find a couch that can carry on said standard and continue the Alouettes glory.

                It makes you wonder though, who really runs the team: The players or Management? But that’s a whole other story.

I’M JUST SAYIN’: In my opinion, Popp is still a great GM, and Hawkins probably was a great coach. The chemistry between coach and players just didn’t flow, and the hopes of the GM fell apart. Just notch this up as the mistake it was, and hire a head coach WITH CFL experience. Now, all that is left to do is put the mistake behind them, come out of the Bi-Week strong and with confidence. GO ALS GO!