Brooks: CU Injuries Mount As OU Trip Looms

BOULDER - Slumping Colorado will play at No. 11 Oklahoma Saturday night without its starting quarterback and leading tackler, with both possibly lost for the remainder of the regular season.

Junior quarterback Tyler Hansen, who was injured in last weekend's 27-24 loss against Texas Tech, remains hospitalized, but Buffs coach Dan Hawkins said Monday that doctors had discounted the possibility of removing Hansen's spleen.

Sophomore linebacker Jon Major suffered a torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) against Texas Tech and "will be out for a while," Hawkins said on the Big 12 coaches' weekly teleconference.

"Tyler is doing well," Hawkins said. "His blood levels and all that kind of stuff are great . . . he's being monitored to see how that whole process heals up, but he's doing as well as could be expected."

Hansen, CU's starter in all seven games this season, was injured in the second quarter Saturday. He was replaced by senior backup Cody Hawkins, who will open Saturday night (7:15 p.m. MDT, ESPN2) and is expected to start for the remainder of the season.

CU medical personnel say there is a possibility Hansen could return for postseason play, but the Buffs (3-4 overall, 0-3 conference) have lost three consecutive games and are three wins short of qualifying for bowl eligibility with five games remaining.

Counting Major, CU has lost defensive starters at nickel back (Parker Orms, Travis Sandersfeld, Paul Vigo), safety (Anthony Perkins) and defensive end (Josh Hartigan) since the season began. Orms and Perkins are out for the season, while the others are at various stages of rehabilitation and could return over the next several weeks.

The plan for Major, said Hawkins, is for rehabilitation "to kind of let it heal on its own (and) see if it takes. If not, they'll have to go in there and tack it down."

Major, who had become CU's leading tackler (8.1 a game) in Perkins' absence, underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL in his freshman season (2007). The current depth chart lists redshirt freshman Liloa Nobriga, junior transfer Evan Harrington and junior Patrick Mahnke at the Will - or inside - linebacker spot. Mahnke also has been used at nickel back.

Of the rash of injuries, Dan Hawkins said, "It's football, it's why you've got to have backups. So that's football. You get to this point of season, there's a lot of guys beat up."

FOURTH-QUARTER FLOP: OU coach Bob Stoops pinned his team's 36-27 loss at Missouri on Saturday night on its lack of consistency and failure in the fourth quarter.

After being stunned by a 86-yard kickoff return for a score to open the game, the Sooners battled back and took a 21-20 lead in the third quarter. But the Tigers outscored them 16-6 in the fourth quarter, defeating OU for the first time in the Stoops era.

Opponents have outscored OU 67-30 in fourth quarters this season, but that stat is skewed by the Sooners' margin in the first three quarters (213-83) of their previous six games.

Stoops called his team "terribly inconsistent in the fourth quarter. You watch us (against Missouri) we fought back after giving the touchdown right off the bat on the kickoff return, we fight our way back and are at 21-20 at the end of the third quarter, ahead, and really the defense has only given up 13 points.

"But then in the fourth quarter as a team we didn't play very well. The offense has three three-and-outs and an interception, the defense gives up 97, 98 yards rushing in the fourth quarter and two touchdowns. So we've just got to keep our consistency and play better in the fourth quarter."

Stoops said because neither teams' schemes change in the fourth quarter, "That's why it's kind of frustrating. Everybody's game plan is kind of out in the open in the fourth quarter, things haven't changed and you're still doing the same things on each side of the ball."

He said consistency and maintaining the same pace will be emphasized this week in practice.

THINK BETTER, THINK OFTEN: Stoops also wants better and more consistent QB play from sophomore Landry Jones, a 2008 CU recruit from New Mexico who settled in Norman rather than Boulder.

Jones completed 32 of 50 passes for 303 yards (2 TDs, 2 INT) against Mizzou. He's third in the Big 12 in passing (299.1 yards a game) and fifth in QB efficiency (142.8 rating).

Stoops says Jones is improving but is "still so young. I think as much as anything, a guy's always a by-product of the guys playing around him. I thought the other night we got pressured a time or two where you'd like to see him make a better decision, take care of the ball a little bit better. That's a big issue."

The Sooners suffered three turnovers last weekend, "Two of them in the red zone," said Stoops. "You're not going to win when you do that against a good football team like Missouri. Taking care of the football is always a big issue."

Despite what Stoops considered a sub-par performance at Mizzou, OU ranks fourth in the Big 12 in scoring (34.7 points a game) and has been effective with Jones in a fast-paced offense.

The Buffs defense had problems with pace in the past two games (Baylor, Texas Tech), and Dan Hawkins said, "It's hard. The good news/bad news is that a lot of teams do it. We do it ourselves . . . . But you're seeing more and more teams kind of go to that modus operandi. But it does make it more difficult, there's no question about that."

QB QUANDARY: With Cody Hawkins moving into the starting role, the plan to redshirt freshman Nick Hirschman is in jeopardy. Dan Hawkins said Hirschman, a January enrollee who had the benefit of spring practice, becomes the No. 2 QB.

But aside from Cody Hawkins and Hirschman, the only other player on the roster at the position is walk-on freshman Justin Gorman, whose role this fall has been directing the scout team and running opponents' offenses.

Dan Hawkins was not specific about a plan if Cody was forced to exit a game for only a couple of snaps. In that scenario, Hirschman could lose his redshirt.

"I think it's very hard to ascertain whether you need one snap or two snaps or 14 snaps . . . I think that's the issue you get into," Dan Hawkins said. "I mean, I don't know of too many situations where you're just going to kneel on it at the end of the half and say we're only going to have one play here. So that's hard.

"We've got to get somebody in there who can take some snaps . . . so it's always a difficult situation. It's a lot like with Terrel (Smith, freshman safety) getting activated last week. Sometimes you've got to put the team before yourself and do whatever you've got to do to help the team out."

Two other current roster players - receivers Scotty McKnight and Kyle Cefalo - have quarterback experience at the high school level.

HE'S SEEN THE SOONERS: As a redshirt freshman in 2007, Cody Hawkins engineered CU's 27-24 upset of then-No. 3 Oklahoma in Boulder. Hawkins completed 22 of 36 passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns. OU intercepted him twice.

With Hansen, CU's offense presented defenses a running element at quarterback - but not so much with Cody Hawkins. That means a priority for the Buffs this week will be reenergizing a ground game that had been mostly productive until last weekend, when Tech limited CU to 28 yards rushing. Leading rusher Rodney "Speedy" Stewart was held to 34 yards on 20 carries and saw his weekly average dip to 93.1.

TIME TO KILL: Dan Hawkins isn't a staunch believer in the importance of time of possession. When the subject of TOP is brought up, Hawkins consistently says maintaining possession for long stretches means little if your offense doesn't score.

The Buffs are a prime case in point: They lead the Big 12 in TOP, averaging 33:30 a game with the ball. But they're No. 11 in scoring offense, averaging just 20.0 points a game.

CU is No. 11 in red zone offense, scoring 75.0 percent of the time (18-of-24 on scoring chances; 14 TDs, 4-of-7 FGs). The Buffs continue to lead the league in third-down conversions (48.7 percent success rate).

BUFF BITS: CU's Nov. 6 game at Kansas will kick off at noon MST and will not be televised . . . . Before Saturday night's loss at Missouri, OU was ranked No. 1 in the BCS standings and No. 3 by the Associated Press. This week, the Sooners dropped to No. 9 and No. 11, respectively . . . . Dan Hawkins called Oklahoma "one of the best programs in the history of college football; they are year in and year out. They've got great talent and great coaches. They're formidable, no question . . . . they can do everything." . . . . OU's defense appears susceptible to long plays, and Stoops admits that early in the season, "We had some issues, but I guess in each game it's a little bit different . . . a little bit of everything, whether it's a busted alignment, a missed tackle, having our backs to the quarterback and not seeing a throw - it's a little bit of everything." . . . . OU's DeMarco Murray is fourth in the Big 12 in rushing (101.7 yards a game) and in all-purpose yards (150.6). But MU held him to 49 yards on the ground and the Sooners to 99 . . . . Sooners receiver Ryan Broyles leads the conference in receptions per game (9.9) and is second in receiving yards per game (115.7). He's made 69 receptions for 810 yards and five TDs . . . . CU is 0-3 at the start of Big 12 play for the first time in the league's 15-year history.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU