Dan Hawkins officially resurfaces as head coach of CFL’s Montreal Alouettes

·NFL writer

February 19, 2013 at 1:59 p.m.

We all remember when Dan Hawkins was a hot name in college football. After all, 2006 wasn't that long ago.

Hawkins is going to the CFL to restart his career. He was hired as head coach of the Montreal Alouettes. His time at Colorado was apparently so damaging that even a 72-50 career record in at Boise State and CU couldn't get him a legitimate look for another significant FBS job the past few years. He was out of college since he was fired in November of 2010, spent time as an analyst for ESPN and sporadically had his name floated for some lesser college football jobs. The Alouettes job isn't bad, it's just not one that a successful major college coach would ever clamor for.

There are many examples of coaches jumping to the next job and regretting leaving a good thing behind. Dan Monson, who left Gonzaga for a forgettable stint at Minnesota, is probably college basketball's best example. Hawkins might be the college football example.

Hawkins' time at Colorado was punctuated by many bad losses, and of course, this famous rant (this is where we put in the obligatory "It's Canadian football! It ain't intramurals!" joke):

Hopefully Hawkins' move to Canada ends up being a good thing. He deserves another chance. Monson ended up resurrecting his career at Long Beach State the past few years, and maybe the same will happen to Hawkins.

For all those coaches who left comfortable, good jobs outside the major conferences and for the ones that will think of making a similar leap next year, however, they all should know about Hawkins. Just because you're a hot name now doesn't mean that will be the case in just a few years.

- - -
Want to join the conversation? Hit us up on Twitter @YahooDrSaturday and be sure to "Like" Dr. Saturday on Facebook for football conversations and stuff you won't see on the blog.

College basketball video from Yahoo! Sports: