Boulder – It’s as if Brian Calhoun had transferred from Colorado to Oblivion, not Wisconsin.
If Abbott and Costello were CU insiders challenged to talk about the junior tailback who ran for 258 yards in the Badgers’ opener against Bowling Green and then played just long enough against Temple on Saturday to add 42 yards, it might go:
“Who?”
“Exactly.”
The Buffaloes’ public postures on Calhoun’s early-season success at Wisconsin aren’t surprising. The familial dressing room atmosphere of college football makes the attitude understandable and necessary, and it’s even more prevalent amid the circle-the-wagons mentality in the CU program. You leave? You’re history, maybe a name in the media guide. Nothing more than that. That’s the way it was with Craig Ochs and Marcus Houston, and that’s the way it will be with Calhoun.
To his credit, Calhoun hasn’t trashed CU, instead saying he had no hard feelings and citing the departure of running backs coach Eric Bieniemy, who joined Karl Dorrell’s UCLA staff in early 2003, as the beginning of his discomfort in the CU program. Bieniemy is a strong recruiter, but even beyond the norm, he tends to make it a personal, rather than an institutional, pitch. The “scandal” had little to do with Calhoun’s decision to leave after the 2003 season, and Madison and Boulder involve similar campus environments and cities – which, because I have ties and loyalties to both schools, is a huge compliment.
Had Calhoun remained in Boulder, Bobby Purify still would have deserved to open the 2004 season at the top of the depth chart. Calhoun ran for 810 yards as a sophomore in 2003, when Purify went out in the third game with a high ankle sprain, but Purify was set to return last season. So while Gary Barnett broaching the subject of Calhoun moving to wide receiver added to the list of reasons Calhoun, who attended high school in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek, decided to transfer to Wisconsin, it was defensible if Barnett’s goal was to get the most talented players on the field last year.
And now, with Buffaloes sophomore tailback Hugh Charles flashing game-breaking skill in the victories over Colorado State and New Mexico State, this is showing signs of working out for everyone. Charles rushed for 101 and 105 yards, becoming the first CU running back to crack 100 in his first two starts since – oops – Marcus Houston in 2000.
“I’m getting a lot more comfortable,” Charles said late Saturday night. “Each week, I just want to improve. I think I improved this game, even though I didn’t get a touchdown or two, like I’d wanted.”
Charles nodded when Calhoun was brought up, confirming he had at least noticed his predecessor’s big game against Bowling Green after sitting out 2004 under NCAA transfer rules. “But I’m not comparing myself with anyone,” Charles said. “I don’t notice any comparisons. I’m just being me.”
So far, the visual evidence has been even more impressive than his numbers. On the 29-yard touchdown run against CSU, Charles twice showed off a Barry Sanders-like ability to use hip swerves in midair to change directions.
After CU’s 39-0 rout of New Mexico State, Barnett said the sophomore from Southlake, Texas, “is just going to get better when he gets a feel for it. He sure is an electric kind of player.”
CU fullback Lawrence Vickers didn’t even use Calhoun’s name when asked if he had noticed what he had done at Wisconsin, and whether he knew comparisons between Calhoun and Charles were going to be inevitable. He was worried, he said, only “about this football team.”
But how did he think Charles had done?
“Hugh took the game to the next level,” Vickers said. “Everything he does is quick and fast. He’s capable of getting outside, and that opens up the inside. Any time, any play, he can take it to the house. … Hugh’s going to be a great player here, and it’s exciting to play with him – and block for him.”
The tests for Calhoun and Charles will come when the Badgers and Buffaloes move into conference play. But even if Calhoun continues to run rampant, and studio talking heads continue to muse about Colorado allowing Calhoun to get away, it would be a cheap shot to blast the Barnett staff.
It’s just the way everything fell into place.
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
Frei is the author of “Horns, Hogs and Nixon Coming” (hardback 2002, trade paperback August 2004) and “Third Down and a War to Go” (hardback September 2004).
