Points on Pelini/Hawkins: True Pelini has only been head coach one year. But as defensive coordinator at various stops he's been very succesful. Dan Hawkins did very good at Boise, but we all know that conference is very top heavy. Pelini's work has all been in the Big 12 and SEC. And by no means did Hawkins inherit a bad program in Colorado. This is a program that consistantly represented the north in the title game and had even won a national title. It's a program that has potential to get very good recruits. Hawkins beat Oklahoma and Texas Tech. That's two games against a long list of WTF's. Even Ron Prince knocked off Texas TWICE. In three years Hawkins hasn't done much, and I don't see him making much improvement this year. I'm not saying Pelini is the next Osborn. We just don't know how good he is going to be. IMO Hawkins is very average and to compare him to Pelini is an insult at this point. Even though the jury is still out, Pelini's one year body of work is better than three years of Hawkins'. Mangino at Kansas right now is the best coach in the Big 12. Kansas is a program that has a hard time recruiting football talent yet he knows how to develop his players. It was a bad program before he showed up and now they have a degree of respectability. Nebraska and Kansas will fight it out for the North, Mizzouri is the darkhorse and Colorado is just middle of the road...again.
