An intangible allows young quarterbacks such at Colorado’s Cody Hawkins to succeed. Kansas State coach Ron Prince calls it guts. Hawkins has it, he said, and so does Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman, who set a school freshman record in 2006 with 1,780 yards passing yards.
Colorado (4-2, 2-0 Big 12) plays at Kansas State (3-2, 1-1) on Saturday night in a matchup of two of the league’s best young quarterbacks.
“Cody has done a terrific job,” Prince said on the Big 12 coaches’ teleconference Monday. “You can see clearly that this young man understands the game of football. He’s got the ability to throw the ball. He can throw it in tight places. A lot of quarterbacks won’t make a contested throw early in their career.
“He’s a competitor. He’s really making the thing tick for them.”
Hawkins, a redshirt freshman and the elder son of CU coach Dan Hawkins, has thrown for 1,457 yards and 10 TDs.
Prince said intangibles are at the top of the list that enable a quarterback to win, and Hawkins has them.
“There are a lot of guys that have ability, and probably a few less that have knowledge,” Prince said. “But when you have the kind of instincts and guts and toughness, these guys that can stand in there and deliver the ball when they may (get hit), that’s what NFL quarterbacks do. We have some guys in this league who do that, and Cody is one of them.”
Footnotes. For the second time this season, Colorado senior place-kicker Kevin Eberhart was named the Big 12 special-teams player of the week. Eberhart, from Broomfield, tied a school record Saturday night at Baylor with five field goals, including a career-long 54-yarder. … Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said he expects sophomore quarterback Zac Robinson to play Saturday at Nebraska. Robinson, a former Chatfield High School star, was hit hard in the fourth quarter of last weekend’s 24-23 loss at Texas A&M and did not return. Gundy said it was unclear whether Robinson suffered a mild concussion.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
