BOULDER, Colo.—Want to make Hugh Charles run with more tenacity? Just criticize him.
The Colorado coaching staff was on Charles all week in practice. He responded by rushing for 123 yards and a touchdown in the Buffaloes’ 42-0 win over Miami (Ohio) on Saturday.
“I told him he’s better than what he’s putting out,” running backs coach Darian Hagan said. “That’s why I was on him. I know how special he can be when he applies himself.”
In fairness, Charles hasn’t been healthy. He’s been nursing a hamstring injury.
“This was the first game I felt 100 percent,” said Charles, who turned in his first 100-yard game since October 2006 against Texas Tech. “I feel like I ran to my full potential.”
The Buffaloes felt that way about their running game as a whole. Freshman Brian Lockridge finished with 90 yards rushing, including a 43-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, and Demetrius Sumler had 91 yards as the Buffaloes rediscovered their ground game. Colorado had 359 yards rushing.
The week before against Florida State, Colorado (2-2, 0-0 Big 12) was held to minus-27 yards rushing on 25 carries.
“All those guys ran with confidence,” Hagan said. “They were awesome.”
So was the defense as the RedHawks (1-3, 0-1 MAC) were shut out for the first time since a 21-0 loss at Ball State on Nov. 6, 1993.
“Anytime you make them finish with a zero on the board, I think it makes your defense feel complete,” coach Dan Hawkins said. “I’ve been really pleased with our defense.”
Hawkins labeled his son’s performance simply as “OK.” Cody Hawkins finished 19-of-30 for 275 yards and two touchdown passes. He also ran for another score as the Buffaloes racked up 634 yards of total offense, the highest total since 1999.
However, the freshman quarterback threw two interceptions as he tried to do too much. On a fourth down play early in the third quarter, Hawkins had Charles open for the first down, but tried to go deep down the field to Josh Smith, instead. It was intercepted by Jeff Thompson.
“He had to get greedy,” Dan Hawkins said. “Like I was telling him, you hit that, you’re right. You miss it, you’re wrong.”
His teammates sure love him. Cody Hawkins showed up for defensive lineman George Hypolite’s post-game news conference eating a bowl of stir fry chicken.
“There’s the best quarterback in the Big 12,” Hypolite said as he smiled at Hawkins.
“No, George Hypolite is the best quarterback in the Big 12,” Hawkins responded with a laugh.
When he was told his father had called his interceptions a case of being greedy, Hawkins shook his head in agreement.
“I’ve just got to be smarter,” he said. “It’s a growing process for me. Hopefully, it’ll come sooner than later.”
Nothing went right for Miami on Saturday. The Colorado defense held the RedHawks to just 139 yards of total offense and six first downs. The RedHawks never drove deeper than the Colorado 38-yard line.
“This loss hurts,” said Daniel Raudabaugh, who completed 11 of 32 passes for 95 yards in his first start of the season. “We got beat up pretty bad out here. The offense didn’t do anything to help the team win.”
RedHawks coach Shane Montgomery was at a loss to explain what happened.
“I think we felt pretty good coming into the game,” he said. “We felt like we had a pretty good red zone plan. We just couldn’t get down there to use it.”
The Buffaloes were supposed to get back sophomore linebacker Michael Sipili for the game Saturday, but the university suspended him Friday for the rest of the fall semester for his role in a fight over the summer.
Sipili was originally suspended just three games, and was eligible to return to the team against Miami.
“Everybody on the defense rallied today and played for him,” said defensive lineman Christopher Perri, who served a three-game suspension for his role in the fight. “It really hit hard for me.”
