Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Buffs' Days Of Slow Starts Should Be Over
August 30, 2010 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Starting fast, opening with a strong sense of purpose, wasn't among the Colorado Buffaloes' strong suits in 2009. The opening act in CU's first two games essentially closed out the Buffs in both of those contests and perhaps for the season.
For thoroughly humble beginnings, look no further than the first halves against Colorado State in Game 1 and the first half against Toledo in Game 2.
Against the Rams, the Buffs 20-3 before they appeared to know the whistle had blown. A second-half rally came up six points short and they lost 23-17 on their home field.
Five days later in Toledo, the early evening kickoff time didn't seem to matter: The Buffs were caught sleep-walking through the first two quarters and trailed 23-3 by the halfway point of what would be an embarrassing 54-38 defeat.
With the 2010 season opening Saturday against CSU at Invesco Field at Mile High (noon, The Mtn), CU has made a fast, purposeful start an imperative. Several players have theorized that the dramatic shift in daily practice times - 6:30 a.m. meetings and 8-10 a.m. practices - is an attempt by coach Dan Hawkins to get them up to speed daily ASAP.
"It can't hurt," short snapper Joe Silipo said last week when the morning schedule started on the second day of fall classes. "Something's got to get us going faster. It's a good change of pace and I think most of the guys like it. It can't hurt."
On Monday's Big 12 coaches teleconference, Hawkins said he believes his team's overall experience and more of a familiarity with what's being asked of it will help eliminate any half-fast first halves this season.
"We're a little more acquainted with what we're trying to do and have guys that have done that . . . I think experience is a big factor there," he said.
In the second half against the Rams last season, the Buffs finally showed a pulse and "started coming back there a little bit . . . we had a bang-bang play (but) instead of it being a big play for us, it ended up being a turnover for them," Hawkins said.
The play in question involved a Scotty McKnight reception/fumble. After catching a pass over the middle, he suffered a concussion after "one of the worst hits I've ever had." It came at a critical juncture in the game, with the Buffs driving for what might have been another quick second-half touchdown as they attempted to rally from their 17-point halftime deficit.
Instead of a reception, though, the call was overturned after a review and McKnight was stuck with the only fumble of his career. CU's momentum took a gut shot and CSU, although limited to a fourth-quarter field goal, held on to win.
That play, said Hawkins, in collusion with the Buffs' horrid running game (21 attempts, 29 yards), soiled the afternoon. In Toledo less than a week later, CU again once again never established any early momentum and spent a perplexing night in Ohio playing a futile game of catch up.
A number of players have told me since camp opened, even before, that the importance of this CSU game can't be overstated. For instance, this came from McKnight, who enters the opener needing three catches to become CU's career receptions leader: "It's the most important CSU game I've ever been a part of."
Although it's also fairly huge for Hawkins, he isn't about to wade into it as deeply as McKnight - at least not publicly. But at 2-2 against CU's suddenly better/bitter in-state rival, Hawkins needs this game about as badly as his senior receiver described it.
Following the course you'd expect him (and most other coaches) to follow, Hawkins said of this season's first game: "They're all crucial. I think the opener always holds something. We have a rivalry on the line, so I think that holds something.
"Maybe we a little extra in the bag because of the rivalry issue, but every coach in America looks at the opener as a crucial game."
Someone on the Big 12 teleconference asked Hawkins about the CSU game and its consequences - the familiar "no win" stigma that might have been attached to the series a while ago but isn't in play nowadays. The Buffs have been in a fight for their lives in the most recent 11 games, owing only a 6-5 edge.
Hawkins' answer: "I've been on both sides of the fence. It's a big game and a great rivalry - and that's the way we look at it. Anytime you lose a rivalry game, or any game for that matter, it's not fun.
"I think all those things can be cumulative, but there is certainly a lot riding on it when it's your opener and it's a rival."
Plenty of college football teams have righted themselves after losing in Week 1, but losing an opener always has struck me the same as packaging that bonfire of emotion and hope that builds from April to late August and planting it under Niagara Falls. Few letdowns in athletics, with the exception of those occurring on the other end of the season, are so thorough.
I wrote this from Big 12 Media Day in Dallas in mid-July and I'm not sure I can write it any more emphatically now:
"CU needs to start refilling its tank with confidence on Opening Day 2010. The Buffs finished 2009 with the needle stuck on empty. A three-win season (and nine losses) doesn't promote a healthy psyche, not to mention good will in the fan sector. Hawkins' fifth Buffs team needs something good to happen to it - fast."
That means not needing a wake-up call in the first half of the first game. Late starts usually make for lousy finishes . . . but the Buffs should know that. Ah, shouldn't they?
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
