For you stats buffs mesmerized by Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, the Miami Dolphins’ 17-0 mark and the Boston Celtics’ eight consecutive NBA championships, we present you with a streak nearly as impressive if not as well-known.
Colorado freshman Cody Hawkins swaggered into Invesco Field at Mile High on Saturday morning and won his 60th consecutive game as a starting quarterback.
“High school is over,” Hawkins corrected after CU’s thrilling victory. “I’m 1-0.”
OK, so he’s not a numbers guy. But how he built that astonishing run is one of the reasons he led Colorado back from an 11-point second-half deficit. He didn’t have many close calls in leading Bishop Kelly High in Boise to consecutive Idaho state titles.
Saturday was one of the closer games he’s had.
“There was a period there, in the seventh, eighth and ninth grade, where we weren’t killing people but there weren’t any nail-biters,” he said, “partly because when you’re in the eighth grade, you’re like, ‘Well, what’s the snack at the end of the game?”‘
The last loss he remembers came in sixth grade, but when he ran out onto Invesco Field he might as well have been back with the Tullis Electric Terminators.
But the kid in him loved chasing a 1,200-pound buffalo onto the field before the game.
“I was so excited,” he said. “I’m not the kind of kid who goes out and gets nervous, because I just go out and play to have fun. I was running out there and I’m jumping around and listening to the weirdest music trying to have a good time.
“I’m running out of the gates behind Ralphie, and I’m like, ‘Man, I’m already tired.”‘
This is all good news for embarrassed Colorado fans who haven’t had a whole lot of fun in recent years. This Dan Hawkins-Cody Hawkins team might not just be a warm and fuzzy father-son, coach-quarterback story. Dan Hawkins’ lifetime devil-may-care philosophy has rubbed off on his son.
Here he was, in the first game of his college career, in the home of the Denver Broncos, trying to resurrect his dad’s new program, and he played superb. He hit 18-of-31 passes for 201 yards and an interception.
“You never expect to go out and play mediocre,” Cody said. “You expect to complete every pass. There were some situations where we had to throw the ball away and things didn’t really go our way, but the way our coaching staff prepares you, you feel like you can go out and play.
“Everybody gets coached up and I just went out and it felt like practice to me.”
Except in practice, when he faces a fourth-and-4 with less than 90 seconds left and his side down 28-25, 60,000 people and a press box full of wags aren’t waiting to question your father’s decision or your ability. His perfect fade-route toss to Patrick Williams produced a pass interference call on Joey Rucks, setting up Kevin Eberhart’s chip-shot field goal from 22 yards four plays later to send the game into overtime.
“I wanted to go for it, too,” Cody said. “I’d rather not leave the game in a kicker’s hands. It’s up to us. I want to be on the field making plays as much as possible. We knew we had a play we could run and Pat would be there for us.”
Before throwing that pass, CU tried to draw CSU offside by not running a play on fourth down before calling a timeout.
“It was pretty funny,” Cody said. “When we had the no-play right before that, Dad looked at me and went, ‘Don’t screw it up.”‘
Please excuse Dad if he forgets he is a dad out there. His debut season last year went 2-10, and beating CSU is a good way to forget the past and launch toward the future. And wouldn’t you know it? His son is leading the charge, possibly for the next four years.
“He’s been around this thing so many times,” Dan Hawkins said. “I can’t tell you how many times in games, whether we were at Georgia or at Arkansas or in the Liberty Bowl, and he’s standing there going, ‘You ought to do this! You ought to do that!’ He’s been on the bus. He’s been on the big stage. To him, it was another day at the park. I knew emotionally he was not going to have a problem with it.
“And he’s been around our family long enough. Certainly I coach this way and we parent this way, but again, you have to move out of this being afraid to fail.”
And his son didn’t fail. Again. For the 60th consecutive game.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
