BOULDER — On its website Saturday, Fox Sports listed Colorado’s Dan Hawkins as the fourth “Coolest Coach” in the country. “A gamer with zero fear,” it read. Joe Paterno and Rick Neuheisel went 1-2, so consider the source. Still, everyone who has followed the maddening ebb and flow of Hawkins’ third-year program would agree that in the college game, he’s a Hawaiian shirt in a room full of starched polos.
But what happened at Folsom Field on Saturday night went beyond unconventional. How about with the season hanging in the balance, in a game safety Ryan Walters called “our Super Bowl,” tearing the redshirt off a freshman quarterback in Game 7 and letting him carry the ball 19 times?
True, it doesn’t match Hawkins diving with great white sharks or jumping out of airplanes, but somewhere in his Zen philosophy this is covered. I understand as much Zen as I do this strategy, but part of Hawkins’ genius is that unconventional thinking works.
Yes, in his first college snaps, freshman Tyler Hansen provided just enough spark to beat Kansas State, 14-13, and save Colorado’s season. A loss would have meant the Buffaloes would take a four-game losing streak on the road for two games. A potential disaster awaited.
The 52,099 fans can exhale. Their 4-3 Buffaloes survived a wild experiment in which Hansen ran for 86 yards and threw for a touchdown. They can also thank freshman tailback Rodney Stewart, who ran for 141 yards, and a defense that significantly slowed Josh Freeman, the best NFL prospect in a Big 12 Conference that has one of the best collection of quarterbacks in college history.
Just don’t get too excited. This is still a deeply flawed offense. Entering the game 99th nationally, it scored only two touchdowns against the No. 111 defense in America. Colorado’s passing attack is little more than a rumor. Josh Smith, its lone playmaking wideout, caught one pass, and Hansen and embattled starter Cody Hawkins combined for only 106 yards through the air.
The Buffaloes didn’t need to throw much, but when asked if he’s concerned about the passing offense, Dan Hawkins said, “Are you concerned about the stock market?”
With a furious Missouri waiting in Columbia on Saturday, Hawkins has a quarterback quandary. His son is getting booed. His replacement Saturday not only wasn’t listed on the printed roster and wears the same No. 9 as starting safety D.J. Dykes, but Hansen didn’t even send in his picture in time to make the media guide. Freshman Matt Ballen- ger, Cody’s reliever the past two games, didn’t get a snap.
Colorado has used one fewer quarterback than Wyoming.
“I hate it,” Dan Hawkins said. “But it is what it is.”
What is helping this season is a culture of unselfishness Hawkins has created. With teams tanking all over the country (Good morning, Wisconsin. How’s the view from the Big Ten cellar?), Colorado is hanging on. In the least, Hawkins created unselfishness in his son.
Cody was booed when he shuttled in; Hansen was cheered. Cody was booed when he threw behind Smith on third-and-17; Hansen was cheered when he led Colorado 65 yards for a touchdown on the next series. Yet afterward, Cody praised Hansen as much as his dad.
“I was just so excited for him,” Cody said. “Tyler is one of my good friends. When you come to Colorado, it’s not necessarily to have a lot of individual success, but when you’re putting it on the line against so many great teams, I want to win football games.”
Hansen, considered a good get out of Temecula, Calif., is fast. Colorado simplified the offense so much his designed runs looked like something you’d see in Washington Park. While it threw off Kansas State, it won’t throw off Missouri.
But call this a three-headed monster, not a three-man quarterback controversy. Cody will. Long after the crowd had left, there he was, still in his football pants, merrily throwing passes to children in a darkened Folsom Field, his dad’s season very much alive.
