Might as well post my second letter of the day to DiStefano and Bohn. I know many of you think this is a wast of effort, but I cannot pull contributions at this point and it is the only immediate way for me to let them know how I feel. They probably do not read them, but I tell myself that they do. Go Buffs!
Chancellor DiStefano,
This is the fist time that I have written to you with regards to the football program. I am a proud 2 time graduate of this great University and love it with all of my heart. You and I spoke under the tent in Austin this year about the curretn situation with the Buffs and how the results were not acceptable. The one thing we agreed upon was that there needed to be a change in what we had been seeing on the field with the football team. As you know, the football team is the cash cow for the athletic department. I hope basketball will get into the black so we can enjoy 2 revenue generating sports like many universities, but right now that just is not the case. Without the revenue football delivers to the athletic department, CU is a D2 school. We already compete in the minimum number of sports to be a D1 schools so any attrition in those numbers is not possible at this point. When you combine this with how little financial support the actual University provides to the Athletic department, especially when compared to other big time Universities, football becomes even more important. It is now at serious risk.
With all of this said, there just is not enough progress with the football team to entrust it to Coach Hawkins for another year. After 4 years we are taking steps backwards on the field with excuses about youth, the mess he was left with, and the tough environment at CU. Is the program's image better? Yes. Hawk has done a wonderful job in this area. It is too bad that you do not win conference and national championships on image alone. CU would be on top of that ranking. Are we young? Not any younger than many of the teams that are beating CU now. Teams with young players and 1st year coaches. Their programs are clean. Their progarms are young. They have academic requirements to gain entrance. They do not undersign every single class and end up with 70-75 scholarship athletes playing football.
It is possible to be clean, have second tier facilities, have academic expectations and win. It is happening all over the country. Look at Cincy, Stanford, Northwestern. First year coaches are having a feast with Dan and he is being outcoached every week. First year coaches at Iowa State and Toledo. Second year coaches as well such as Fairchild at CSU. The body of work put together by Coach Hawk is just not up to the standard for CU.
I have held my tickets and donated $3-5K to the University every year for more than 20 years. I know that is not the biggest number you all deal with from a doner stand point, but there are a lot more of people like me that give what they can rather than drop the big donations on CU. There are many of us that will not be coming back if a change is not made. I will stop donating and coming up from Highlands Ranch next year if Hawk comes back. I want to see a committment to the program and winning. That means a new coach. Bottom line. He has had enough time to prove that he is not the correct person for this job. I will be happy to increase my donations to the CU and have over time and will continue to do so if a change is made. If not, I am going to take a break until you, Mr, Bohn and Coach Hawkins are replaced.
Go Buffs!
