If you are waiting for a definitive statement from Mike Bohn, it isn't coming. I truly believe that Mike Bohn understands what is going on, I believe that he was ready to fire Hawkins last year. Remember Hawkings cancelling all the recuiting visits for the kNU game. Remember Hawkins bringing his assistants in off the road early in that week. It wasn't about some grand plan to beat Nebraska, it about the last game for the staff.
Then Benson came riding in like Dan Hawkins personal white knight. Benson decided that he didn't want to try to explain to the legislature why in a year that the state was going to be slashing and burning everything in the budget CU was going to pay its second consecutive coach over three million dollars not to coach.
We all know that the money was going to come from donors, not from university sources. We all know that the football program not only pays for itself but also for the rest of the athletic program at CU. We know that but Benson did not want to spend the next year or two trying to explain that to a bunch of politicians who didn't want to hear it and who would have responded with statements along the lines of if the donors can pay for a football coach not to coach they can pay for professors to teach. This is especially difficult in that this is an election year, an election year in which a lot of incumbents are worried for their seats and the balance in the statehouse is clearly at issue.
Mike Bohn learned his lesson, he may be the athletic director but his bosses boss doesn't have any problem pulling the rug out from under him when it suites his purpose. Bohn justifiably feels like he is not in charge and therefor isn't going to act like he is. What he knows is that after November the election will be over and there will be a window in which action can be taken with less political baggage attached. He also knows that the buyout goes from over three million to slightly under two million a big difference in perception, especially if the team has another bad year.
The most important thing Bohn knows is that Benson is a guy who never aspired to the job he has to start with. At his age he is likely to move on to "other challenges" sooner than later, especially considering that the average tenure of a university president is well under five years and Benson has already retired once from his old job.
As fans we are stuck in the middle of a drawn out power play. Benson sacrificing the football program for his agenda, Bohn waiting until things change and he can regain some real control of the athletic department. In the mean time we are stuck with a coach who has proven he can't win at this level and won't make the changes neccessary to change his results. We are stuck with declining recruiting and a rapidly falling profile among fans, recruits, the media, etc. Most importantly we are stuck without hope for the immediate future and hope is what being a fan is all about.