Danny Clarence Hawkins grew up in Bieber, California, in the northeast corner of the state. He attended junior college at College of the Siskiyous in Weed and transferred to UC Davis, where he played fullback, and earned a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1984. He later completed a master's degree in educational administration from St. Mary's College in 1993. He began his coaching career at UC Davis under coach Jim Sochor the fall before he graduated, spending three years there. He then served as head coach at Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento for the 1986 and 1987 seasons. He spent four seasons as the offensive coordinator at the College of the Siskiyous, then served as defensive coordinator at Sonoma State in 1992.
Head coaching career
Willamette
In 1993, Hawkins became the head coach at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and led the Bearcats to a 40–11–1 overall record in five seasons. In his final season Willamette was 13–1, falling 14–7 in the 1997 NAIA Division II National Championship Game.
Hawkins moved up to NCAA Division I-A football at Boise State in 1998 as an assistant under first-year head coach Dirk Koetter. After three seasons, Koetter accepted the head coaching job at Arizona State, and Hawkins was promoted from assistant head coach to head coach on December 2, 2000. In 2004, Hawkins was honored with his second Western Athletic ConferenceCoach of the Year title in three years. Through the 2005 season, he compiled a 53–11 record in five seasons as Boise State's head coach, including a 37–3 record in WAC competition with four straight WAC titles. Only Walter Camp, George Washington Woodruff and Bob Pruett had more total wins in their first five years of head coaching. He holds a 31–game WAC winning streak, the longest in conference history. One of his first hires at Boise State was Chris Petersen as his offensive coordinator; Petersen was a quarterback at UC Davis while Hawkins was an assistant coach, and was the wide receivers coach at Oregon under head coach Mike Bellotti. Petersen succeeded Hawkins as head coach following the 2005 season, when Hawkins departed for Colorado.
Colorado
Hawkins was introduced as head football coach at the University of Colorado on December 16, 2005. Hawkins was signed to a five-year contract paying him $900,000 annually with incentives totaling to $1.5 million. Hawkins took over the Colorado football program from Gary Barnett, who had spent some of his tenure mired in controversy. Hawkins earned national attention in February 2007 during the National Signing Daypress conference. He passionately expressed his disappointment in the attitude of a player's parent who had anonymously complained about the reduction in the players' time off before the summer conditioning program started, famously saying "It's Division I football! It's the Big 12! It ain't intramurals! You've got two weeks after finals. You've got a week at July 4th. You've got a week before camp starts. That's a month! That's probably more vacation than you guys get. And we're a little bummed out that we don't get three weeks? Go play intramurals, brother. Go play intramurals." Prior to the 2009 season, Hawkins, under fire for his performance at Colorado thus far, publicly pledged "ten wins no excuses". The team ended that year with a 3–9 record. On November 26, 2009, Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn announced that Hawkins would return as head football coach for the 2010 season, despite an overall record at Colorado of 16–33. On November 6, 2010, Colorado blew a 28-point fourth quarter lead over the Kansas Jayhawks and lost, 52–45, the biggest collapse in the 121-year history of Colorado football. While still nursing that large lead in the fourth quarter, Hawkins continued to have his team throw the ball on offense instead of running it, allowing Kansas time to mount its comeback. There has been widespread suspicion Hawkins made that choice because he was more concerned about his quarterback, son Cody, breaking the school's all-time passing record than winning the game. After the Kansas loss, Hawkins was criticized for cutting his contractually-obligated post-game interview with radio station KOA short after just two questions and 27 seconds. After the interviewer asked him why Colorado didn't run the ball more to protect their shrinking lead, he dismissively replied, "We were playing football moving it both ways. A tough day. Thanks, guys." As it turned out, it would be the last game Hawkins would coach at Colorado. He was fired on November 9, 2010. He was making approximately $1.5 million a year including incentives and base salary; his buyout was approximately $2 million. Longtime assistant Brian Cabral finished out the season.
Broadcasting
Between 2011 and 2016, Hawkins served as a college football analyst for ESPN.
Montreal Alouettes
On February 19, 2013, Hawkins was named the new head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. On June 27, 2013, Hawkins won his first game as Alouettes head coach, defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Winnipeg. On August 1, 2013, he was fired by the team after starting the season 2–3. He was replaced by the general managerJim Popp.
On November 18, 2016, Hawkins accepted an offer to become head coach of the UC Davis Aggies. He had been slated to serve as offensive coordinator at Florida International under Butch Davis when he was offered the position with the Aggies.
Personal life
Hawkins is married to Misti Rae Ann Hokanson, a registered nurse. They are the parents of four grown children, daughters Ashley and Brittany, and sons Cody and Drew, former Boise state quarterback.
