Boulder – Two days after earning first-team status at one of Colorado’s wide receiver positions, Scotty McKnight smiled and told reporters he couldn’t lie about what drew him to Dan Hawkins.
Was it the coach’s creative offense? His enthusiastic personality? The inspirational speeches?
Not exactly.
“I’ve been following Coach Hawkins for a while, and it goes back to Boise State,” McKnight said Tuesday after a two-hour morning practice. “To be honest, a lot of it was based on their uniforms and that blue field. I liked that. And they were winning, too.”
After Hawkins took the Colorado job, it became a no-brainer for McKnight to switch his plans from Boise to Boulder.
McKnight, a redshirt freshman, joined the Buffaloes before last season as an invited walk-on from Coto de Caza, Calif.
McKnight had been given glowing reports about CU while training in Orange County under John Minardi, a Buffs receiver from 1998-2001.
McKnight met Cody Hawkins at an Elite 11 Quarterback Camp before their senior year of high school, and they became fast friends. McKnight looks forward to catching passes from his pal, starting on Sept. 1 in the season opener against Colorado State at Invesco Field at Mile High.
Though not a blazer, McKnight has good quickness and runs precise routes. He patterns his game after Broncos wideout Brandon Stokley’s.
“The guy just comes down with the ball; he makes plays,” wide receivers coach Eric Kiesau said of McKnight. “You can have the fastest guy in America. But if the ball clangs off his hands all the time, he’s just a fast guy.”
“You have to deal with Scotty when he’s out there because he knows how to get open,” defensive backs coach Greg Brown said.
Dan Hawkins is impressed by McKnight’s ability to find seams and how quickly McKnight recovered from a broken ankle suffered on the first day of spring drills.
“A lot of those guys that have a healthy ambience, that have a cheerful countenance, optimistic guys – those guys, for whatever reason, either tend to not get hurt or, when they get hurt, their downtime is minimal,” Hawkins said. “Scotty did what he had to do to get back on the field.”
Smith update
According to CU officials, freshman receiver Josh Smith is expected to be released from Boulder Community Hospital today. Smith bruised a kidney in Saturday’s scrimmage.
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
