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  Home Page » Sports » College » Hawkins Says Youth Erratic Play To Blame

Hawkins says youth, erratic play to blame

CU football coach vows turnaround: 'We'll see it through'

by Pat Graham
AP Sports Writer

BOULDER – Colorado coach Dan Hawkins turned his weekly news conference into a state of the program speech, delivering a 23-minute address on why the Buffaloes are struggling this season.

Hawkins cited such things as Colorado’s youth and erratic play for the team’s 2-5 record.

The fourth-year Buffaloes coach said despite the team’s recent struggles, he plans to stick around for a long time.

“I’m not a quitter. I am a fighter,” Hawkins said Tuesday. “I’ve been through this before, in a lot of different places. We’ll see it through. We’ll have it happen. I have 100 percent confidence in that.”
Hawkins came under fire after losing to rival Colorado State and underdog Toledo to begin the season. This after Hawkins remarked in the offseason that Colorado had the talent to be a 10-win team.

He quieted the critics with a win over Wyoming and then sprung an upset on a then-ranked Kansas squad.

The Buffaloes appeared to have everything rolling again.

But last weekend Colorado was derailed by Kansas State, 20-6 in a game in which the offense sputtered.

So much for momentum.

“I came out of Manhattan just like you and go, ‘Holy smokes, how did that team beat Kansas and show up here and do that?’” Hawkins said. “We’re still working on the formula.”
Part of that formula involves keeping Tyler Hansen at quarterback Saturday against Missouri. Hansen has started the last two games, but Cody Hawkins replaced him to run the
2-minute offense at Kansas State.

Hansen understood the decision, saying he ultimately controls whether he gets the hook by how well he plays.

Hansen was surprised by how flat the Buffaloes played against the Wildcats, especially on the heels of the Kansas win.

“It was such a high to such a low,” Hansen said. “It was kind of weird, against Kansas we gained so much confidence. It’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re finally there.’ But during that whole week, it wasn’t really like that, though. It wasn’t really like that Kansas game ever happened. The attitude of the team was kind of different, and wasn’t like we were that confident. It was kind of bizarre.”
The Buffaloes had a recent team meeting to address the issues that have been hampering the team.

Hansen thinks the best salve for sagging confidence is winning.

“Right now, we have this perception and this attitude of our program – we’re not used to winning yet,” he said. “We’re not accustomed to having that winning attitude. I think we’ve got to get it. We’ve got to win a couple of games in a row and get that mojo working a little bit, to kind of get that attitude going.”
Coach Hawkins said that he’s been stopped by quite a few people to chat lately, the first question always revolving around how he’s doing.

That’s a difficult question for him to
answer.

“In my deepest, darkest moments, there’s no question, it’s hard. It’s a hard deal,” said coach Hawkins, who has a 15-29 record at Colorado, including 2-17 on the road. “I’m probably as hard on myself as anybody. But I think we continue to work through it. Has it taken longer than we expected? Yeah. I’m not going to lie to you. It probably has. Have we made some mistakes along the way? Yep. I’ve made mistakes for 27 years. But we continue to learn from them and grow from them.”
In his oration Tuesday, coach Hawkins read portions of e-mails and letters that he’s received in support of his squad. He said that has meant a lot to him.

“I’m not Superman, I’m not an idiot, I’m not a clown,” Hawkins said. “I’m just a guy from a town of 500 people that knows how to work hard, and do things right and treat people right and try to do the best I can in that situation.”