Pat Bowlen can't afford to fire McDaniels/won't admit his mistake anytime soon.
I hadn't thought about the CBA possibly impacting this. Interesting perspective. I would disagree that Bowlen won't admit a mistake, though. He fired a coach who had won two Super Bowls.
Hawkins on the other hand is a dead man walking. The only thing that has saved him so far is the political issue involved in paying off a couple of million dollars to a fired coach in a time of state and university budget slashing. My guess is that Hawkins last until after the OU game. At that point the idea of a bowl game will be faint, he will have four straight loses, the new coach will not be facing a pissed-off OU team. More importantly the election will be over so the buy-out will not be fodder for election grandstanding.
On the balance hiring a member of the current staff as the interm HC does not increase this years salary cost and might give them a shot at selling a few more tickets for the remainding home games thus improving revenue nets.
The only good player that the Broncs acquired under McDouche is Brandon Lloyd, and that was more luck than anything.