Boulder – Hasn’t CU been stuck with the bummer of being a Joe Schmoe football program long enough?
“I look like 95 percent of guys on campus. I, of all people, probably am Joe Schmoe playing quarterback,” said talented young Cody Hawkins, making a joke at his own expense, but revealing much about the feisty underdog status now embraced by the CU program.
Standing 5-feet-11 and minus the padded shoulders of his Colorado uniform, Hawkins appears as if he plays intramural football rather than Division I, brother.
But as long as they must stay up late Saturday to play Florida State on television, however, the Buffs might as well look like prime-time players, because hasn’t CU football been the source of nationwide ridicule for way too long?
Since getting stomped by Oklahoma for the Big 12 Conference title in 2002, the Buffs have dropped 30 of 53 games. The truth is: Colorado began losing its credibility as an elite football school long before disgruntled boosters tried to blame the Boulder district attorney for recruiting woes or former coach Gary Barnett kicked Katie Hnida when she was down.
Now, you want to hear the good news? Here is the perfect scenario for CU to begin its football renaissance in earnest. Colorado is a 4-point underdog to the formerly mighty Seminoles, a long-proud dynasty that now smells of moldy decay.
All the Buffs have to do is say: Nighty-night, Bobby Bowden.
And how hard can that be? The 8 p.m. kickoff will be way past the 77-year-old Bowden’s self-proclaimed bedtime.
“Oh, my goodness,” Bowden said earlier this week. “Let me just say this: I’ll be waking up to go to the game.”
While the old Florida State legend dozes on the sofa where his coaching mystique and spare change have slipped between the cushions, here is Dan Hawkins’ big chance to make folks take the CU football seriously again.
Hawk is father of the CU quarterback and coach of the team, although, at this point, which of those contributions has been more important to the rebuilding project is open to debate.
While the excitable second-
year coach stood on the floor of a stadium in Denver less than two weeks ago and shouted “We’re back!” upon escaping with a victory against Colorado State, it now sounds suspiciously like a premature declaration, especially given the fact that the Buffaloes are surrendering an average of 30.5 points after two games in 2007.
Somebody asked Daddy Hawk if he had yet to record a breakthrough, signature win that would define what the Buffs would be under his leadership. And the coach responded with the self-deprecating grin that makes it impossible not to root for him.
“Well, considering we have only three (victories) in the past two years,” said Hawkins, interrupting his train of thought with a laugh, “do we point to that Iowa State game? Nah.”
Finally, here is the opportunity for Hawkins that could erase the frustration that stretched from Montana State to Nebraska and all those growing pains from beginning to end of last season.
Florida State, a team whose lingering fame across the country far outstrips the actual talent remaining on the roster, should be exactly what the Buffaloes need to feel good about themselves, because Deion Sanders, Charlie Ward and Derrick Brooks ain’t stepping off that bus parked outside Folsom Field.
While admitting to be an admirer of Bowden’s since I was a young boy in West Virginia who marveled as he put that state on the college football map, the game has not only passed by this Hall of Fame coach, it has given him a plate of milk and cookies and informed Bowden it’s time to toddle off. In his last 25 games, the great man’s record: 13-12.
There’s nothing intimidating about the Seminoles any longer except that decal of an Indian spear on their helmets.
College players do not get as awed by the decals on the helmet as they did a generation ago, when Southern Cal, Notre Dame and Oklahoma monopolized the limited selection of TV games, Hawkins said.
If talent inside the uniform counts more than the decal on the helmets, Colorado will beat Florida State.
Then, when Hawkins shouts the Buffs are back, people will start to believe it.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
