Boulder – Colorado coaches are asking recruits to be patient.
These are critical days in recruiting, and every day the Buffs are without a head coach is ground lost. But to the 10 known CU commitments, prospects with offers and others the Buffs are recruiting, the football staff has requested they don’t make a decision to bolt during this time of transition.
According to David Hansburg, who is coordinating CU’s recruiting efforts, Buffs coaches have told all players with scholarship offers that those will be honored. He says coaches have not had a recruit formally back out of his commitment since the coaching change, and even received a call from the father of one verbally committed player to reaffirm that player’s commitment to CU.
But he is a realist.
“Right now our commitments are all waiting to hear who is going to be the coach,” Hansburg said Saturday. “I understand that every day that goes by, kids and their families are going to want to make sure they have other options just in case.”
Colorado canceled official visits of 12 players scheduled to be in town this weekend.
“It’s not fair to have a kid use one of his five visits at a place where they are not sure who the head coach is going to be,” Hansburg said.
Colorado can salvage official visits next weekend if a coach is named this week.
“There’s only one week left of recruiting until the dead period, so it will be critical that we have a new coach,” Hansburg said. “If we could have a new coach by Friday, that would be awesome. If we don’t, probably the most important thing when you have a transition like this is at least have a head coach by Jan. 2, because that’s a live week in there.”
In the meantime, coaches are tentatively scheduled to make local recruiting trips next week. CU athletic director Mike Bohn has said he wants to get a new coach in place as quickly as possible.
“We feel like it’s going to happen really fast,” Hansburg said. “In 1999, when (former coach) Gary Barnett got in here with one and a half weeks to go (in recruiting), that was bad. But I feel really good that’s not going to be the case here.”
Klatt update
Senior quarterback Joel Klatt has refrained from commenting on the coaching change for two reasons.
First, he has taken Barnett’s dismissal perhaps the hardest of anyone on the team. Second, he hasn’t fully recovered from a concussion suffered in the Big 12 title game against Texas.
Friday, he acknowledged his health is “not great. That’s one reason I don’t want to do anything right now,” he said.
Klatt nodded when asked if his status for the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 27 is still uncertain.
Hankwitz calms players
Interim head coach Mike Hankwitz said he believes CU’s players will work their way through the chaos of the past week and settle in by the time the bowl game comes around.
“First, kids are resilient. They’ll get through this; they’ll bounce back,” Hankwitz said. “But the other side of it is the uncertainty. They’re thinking, ‘What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen to me? How am I going to be treated?’ They wonder what the future holds.
“I’ve told the kids that they can’t control what happened or what will happen. But they can control what happens with them right now. That’s doing the right things and working their tails off.”
Uncertainty for assistants
For many, if not all, of CU’s assistants, the Champs Sports Bowl will be their last day coaching for the Buffs.
“We’re professionals. We’ve been through it,” Hankwitz said. “It’s harder on the families. There are families with children that don’t want to leave.”
Footnotes
Safety Dominique Brooks said he has torn the anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and meniscus in his left knee. He is not planning to play next season and will look into a medical redshirt season. He was injured in the Big 12 championship. … Kicker Mason Crosby has been named to the Football Writers Association of America’s All-America team.
Staff writer Tom Kensler contributed to this report.
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-820-5455 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
