Boulder – Call it the final revenge of Gary Barnett. He vamoosed with a $3 million going-away gift from Colorado, and all new coach Dan Hawkins got was this crummy football team.
Scan the CU depth chart, deep in uncertainty at too many positions, and it reads like a multiple-choice exam where too often the answer is: D) None of the above.
The Buffaloes have named a starting quarterback only because it’s awkward to snap the football without one. When Hawkins made the choice, he sounded like a kid picking between brussels sprouts and lima beans.
So, as Hawkins ate a popsicle after practice Thursday, I asked him: What’s more essential to the success of a football team, a great coach or a great quarterback?
“Well,” replied Hawkins, pausing to take a long drag on his popsicle, “you can’t win the Kentucky Derby on the back of a mule.”
You’re gonna love Hawk. This guy is the real deal. Close your eyes when Hawkins gets cranked up, and it’s like hearing a young Bill McCartney preaching from the pigskin pulpit.
But I’m afraid Hawkins will have to pay for the sins of Barnett’s recruiting habits – and, no, those sins had nothing to do with sex or alcohol.
The problem in the Colorado program starts at quarterback.
The Buffaloes have not produced a QB honored as best in the conference since 1996, the first season of Big 12 operation.
That’s 10 years. That’s too long for a school with dreams of being No. 1 in the country.
The quarterbacks left on the CU roster by Barnett? There are three upperclassmen who shall remain nameless, to protect the innocent and the incompetent.
By the time the Buffaloes travel to Oklahoma in late October, however, Hawkins may have already exhausted options A, B and C at quarterback, leaving him with no good answer, not to mention an inept offense.
Now, CU kicker Mason Crosby can boot a football from here to Texas through the teeth of a tornado, but the Buffaloes cannot win a bowl bid on field goals alone.
Why? There has been a football law carved in stone since Knute Rockne was a pebble. Bad quarterback equals stupid coach.
“If you’ve got a good coach and a mediocre quarterback, you’re going to look like a dumb coach,” said Darian Hagan, the best QB in school history, with the national championship to prove it.
The golden age of CU football got on a roll with the mad dashes of Hagan, slashed onward with Kordell Stewart and did not end until the final touch pass from Koy Detmer, as from 1989-96 the Buffs averaged nearly 10 victories per season.
Think it was any coincidence Colorado almost always had the best quarterback on the field during the glory years?
Barnett seemed to swear off recruiting five-star prospects, at quarterback or any skill position, after the disappointments of ballyhooed recruits Craig Ochs and Marcus Houston gave the former coach a headache.
A bad sales pitch, not ugly words about Katie Hnida, is what ultimately got Barnett canned. A 70-3 loss to Texas is not bad coaching. It’s bad recruiting.
The most daunting task for Hawkins is an old warning from former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, uttered when the Big 12 formed a decade ago. It now sounds like prophesy.
Teams from the South Division would dominate the conference, Osborne suggested, because all those prep prospects in Texas would either stay home or drift no farther north than Oklahoma.
“Between the Internet, cellphones, cable TV and all that, I think the world has become a much smaller place. If you’re a parent from Texas, and your baby comes to Colorado to play football, you can talk to him or see him every day,” said Hawkins, refusing to buy any excuse for failure to recruit blue-chip talent.
“Now, do places like Southern Cal and Texas have a recruiting advantage? Sure. But is it to the exclusion of Colorado doing well? I don’t think so. Not at all.”
Let’s make one thing clear. It’s me dissing the quarterbacks, not Hawkins or Hagan, now an assistant on the CU coaching staff.
When the Buffs huddle after practice, they raise helmets together and boldly shout their goal: “Big 12 champs!’
You’ve got to believe. Reason for faith in the future? You bet.
But there is an extra game on Colorado’s schedule this year for a very good reason. The Buffs need the revenue to pay off the $3 million it cost to make a mistake go away.
If Hawkins can somehow win seven of 12 games with this CU team and these quarterbacks, I believe it will be the result of better coaching than any work Barnett did in seven years on the job.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
