BOULDER — Colorado defensive tackle George Hypolite is the type of college football story that we — and I include myself in this — don’t give sufficient attention to as we fixate on coaches, handicap the Heisman race, and leave the impression that implementing a national playoff system would be a more important step for the country than solving the financial crisis.
The senior from Los Angeles played his final home game for CU on Saturday, when 11th-ranked Oklahoma State beat the Buffaloes 30-17 and left them needing to beat Nebraska on Nov. 28 to become bowl-eligible.
“I got a little misty when I saw the band after the end of the game,” Hypolite, 21, said in the Dal Ward Center.
On track to graduate in three years before slowing down his pace slightly and adding a second major, Hypolite will graduate from the Honors Program and receive bachelor’s degrees in women’s studies and ethnic studies.
Although his family home is near the University of Southern California and his mother, Mary, works there as a librarian, he is adamant that leaving L.A. for college was important for his development — and that Boulder was the right place for him.
The fact that he likely will be a high NFL draft choice in April isn’t irrelevant but is secondary. He still is pondering going to law school at some point, and he would be a college football success story even if the upcoming game on the day after Thanksgiving is the final time he ever puts on pads.
One of the reasons Hypolite heeded the recruiting pitches of Gary Barnett and the previous CU staff was that he didn’t want to redshirt and spend five years, or at least five falls, in college before getting on with his life.
He came to feel about CU the way he felt about Loyola High School, the renowned 143-year-old school to the west of downtown L.A. he commuted to for four years. Loyola, which draws students from the entire L.A. region, requires 155 hours of community service for graduation, and Hypolite dived in on various fronts, including at a women’s shelter.
“It was just like Colorado,” said Hypolite, who was an altar boy as a young man and still wears a blue Loyola T-shirt under his pads. “Some things you’re born to do. I was born to be a Loyola Cub. If there was another Loyola guy in this room, you’d just know him, you’d spot him. There are certain things about you that you can’t explain. Just like how I was born to be a Buffalo. I tell people that I’m blue in my heart, and in my soul I’m black and gold.”
He arrived in Boulder in the fall of 2005 as a highly touted high school fullback who also played on the defensive line at Loyola. The CU staff quickly pegged him as a defensive lineman, and he got considerable playing time at both tackle and end in Barnett’s final season. In the three seasons since, he has been a cornerstone in the transition to Dan Hawkins.
“I have no regrets at all about coming here,” Hypolite said. “During the entire recruiting process, someone was pushing my hand. Someone wanted me to be here. Looking back, there are a lot of places I could have been. I could have gone into my third year not playing a snap and not knowing if I was good or not, but I was blessed to be in the right place. The coaches gave me a chance when I first got here. When the new coaching staff came in, they gave me another chance, and I’ve been opportunistic with the opportunities.
“The community of Boulder and the state of Colorado have really accepted me and allowed me to be an ambassador for them. I really have had a lot of fun here and been allowed to develop and come into my own. . . . If you’re doing college right, most of what you learn isn’t inside the classroom or a lecture hall. Most of what you learn is on your own, reading, working, researching, hanging out, having talks with friends — all of it.”
I did have a question about his honors thesis, which has had an evolving title, but at one point was: “An Interrogation in African-American Masculinity Through a Social Constructionist Decolonial and Feminist Gaze.”
What the heck does that mean?
“At the end of the day, it’s just an exploration of myself,” he said. “I’m trying to explain how a person like myself exists in times like these. . . . The short answer is that you walk on eggshells. There’s no solid place for you to stand because the world is ever-changing.”
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
