Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Hawkins' Focus Is On Reenergizing Buffs
November 08, 2010 | Football, B.G. Brooks
Asked on the Big 12 coaches teleconference if he worried about fans' reaction and being given another chance, Hawkins, whose portion of the teleconference was about five minutes late in starting, answered, "I'm mostly concerned about our players . . . their feelings, their emotions - that's the thing I'm mostly concerned about."
About his security and that of his coaching staff, Hawkins said, "Life makes no promises . . . it's an adventure, there's always risks to be taken and that's the nature of this job (and) profession. I don't think you walk around with that haunting you. I don't think that's your driving force by any means.
"You have to what you think is right and do it to the best of your ability and let it go. If you win a bunch of games it doesn't mean you're a genius and if you don't, it doesn't mean you're awful either. It's always somewhere in the middle."
On Saturday in Lawrence, the Buffs led 45-17 early in the fourth quarter before yielding 35 unanswered points and losing 52-45. It was KU's biggest comeback ever and CU's biggest collapse; the Buffs had never lost when holding more than a 21-point lead and never lost when scoring 45 points.
In response to a question about coming back from such a debacle, Hawkins said, "You've just got to pick yourself up, that's part of sports, that's part of life. You know it's not fun and it's tough. But that's part of the lessons of sport. You got to get back on a horse and get riding."
In retrospect, Hawkins said there were things he and his staff would have done differently in the fourth quarter: "There's always stuff you'd do differently, you'd make different calls and change different defenses, you'd always do that.
"You can always change a lot of things, when you have that many points scored in that amount of time, I think there's always different opportunities in every phase of the game to tweak it."
The Buffs had run effectively in the previous three quarters, gaining 146 yards. They finished the game with 142 rushing, sack yardage reducing the total. Tailback Rodney "Speedy" Stewart ran for career-best 175 yards and three touchdowns.
In the final quarter, five running plays were called, compared to 15 passing plays. But of those 15 passes, eight came in CU's futile drive to win the game in the final 46 seconds.
Still, the Buffs' fourth-quarter play calling has come in question. Hawkins said not as many running plays were called with his team holding a 28-point lead because "we had thrown it so well, you know. We just didn't totally want to get into a ground attack and we'd had success mixing it up, we'd had success running it and throwing it . . . we just didn't want to be one dimensional."
Hawkins conceded the wind in the fourth quarter - the Buffs were driving into it - was "a little bit" of a factor. But he added, "We'd thrown it in both quarters going that way. I wouldn't say it was a massive factor by any means . . . but there was a little bit of a breeze."
CU considered at least two critical plays worth submitting to the Big 12 office for review - an on-sides kick ruled to be recovered by KU that Jayhawks coach Turner Gill called the game's turning point, and an apparent touchdown catch on the game's next-to-last play that was reviewed and ruled incomplete. CU receiver Paul Richardson and several teammates believed the ruling was incorrect.
Hawkins said both of those plays went to the conference office.
DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS: CU hosts Iowa State Saturday at Folsom Field (11:30 a.m., Fox College Sports Central). The Cyclones have won two of their past three games - the loss was 31-10 in overtime Saturday against now-No. 9 Nebraska - and are a win away from bowl eligibility (5-5 overall, 3-3 Big 12).
A gutsy call in overtime by ISU coach Paul Rhoads backfired on the Cyclones, who faked a PAT kick and had their two-point pass attempt intercepted.
But Rhoads, in his second season in Ames, Iowa, defended the decision to go for two and win the game: "It was a call we had ready to go throughout the entire game. We studied it during the game to see if its soundness was still there. Indeed, it was. We saw an opportunity to end the football game on one play and unfortunately for us we didn't get the play executed."
He believed tying the game with an extra point kick wasn't his team's best option: "When you're playing the eighth-ranked team in the country and a team that's got one of the top defenses in the country and you have a chance to end it and not allow them to go back on the field and play again, you try to take advantage of it - and that's exactly what we did."
Rhoads said nothing his team failed to accomplish against the Cornhuskers would diminish its confidence heading into Boulder on Saturday. To the contrary, he believes gambling for the victory last weekend is indicative of the winning mindset he is trying to establish.
"I'd like to believe we're an aggressive team, and that's how we play . . . we're competing to win football games and at the same time we're playing smart," he said. "Earlier in the game we had a fourth down near midfield and punted it. We pinned them inside the 10, got a short punt out of them and ended taking advantage and . . . scored.
"This isn't where we're taking risks all the time, we'd like to believe we're well-calculated when we call certain plays. The one we called in overtime was well-calculated. It was open and had we executed we'd have won the football game."
He said the response has been overwhelmingly positive: "We've heard from a lot of people, and recruits, fans, supporters, people in department and everybody recognized the Cyclones played a heck of a football game, with great effort and we're playing to win. People like that."
If the Cyclones get the required sixth win for postseason eligibility, it likely will mark a second bowl appearance in Rhoads' two seasons. ISU finished 6-6 in 2009 and defeated Minnesota 14-13 in the Insight Bowl.
Rhoads said earning another bowl trip would be "a huge boost" to his program. "I don't think anybody outside our core group of guys would have gone into the season and said Iowa State will be headed to a second bowl game in a row. . . . it's well-chronicled we have the toughest schedule in the country and as the year's played out it's backed that up. We've played four teams ranked in the top 10 when we played them (Iowa, Utah, Oklahoma, Nebraska) and we survived that. We've improved and put ourselves in position to accomplish that in our second year, and now we've got to remain focused and take care of preparation leading into this next ball game."
CU has played in one bowl game in Hawkins' five seasons (2007 Independence Bowl). If the Buffs are to become postseason eligible this season, they must win their three remaining games - Saturday vs. ISU, Nov. 20 vs. Kansas State (12:10 p.m., no TV) and Nov. 26 at Nebraska (1:30 p.m. MST, ABC) in their final Big 12 appearance.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
