BOULDER, Colo.—Tyler Hansen sidestepped the swirling speculation over a coach on the hot seat with a subtle shrug.
The Colorado quarterback insisted his team’s focus remains on the task in front of the Buffaloes—becoming bowl eligible—and not on the peripheral things, such as the rumors concerning the future of coach Dan Hawkins.
“We’ve still got a lot of it ahead of us,” Hansen said. “We still have a lot of winnable games, still a lot of goals to accomplish.”
Given the way the Buffaloes (3-3, 0-2 Big 12) have played on the road under Hawkins, the game Saturday against Texas Tech (3-3, 1-3) may prove quite pivotal to their postseason plans. After a 31-25 home loss to Baylor last weekend, Colorado’s margin for error became even slimmer.
The Buffs have just two contests remaining at Folsom Field after Saturday and three on the road, where they haven’t won since 2007 at Texas Tech.
“This is a real big (game) for us, just because it’s a fairly even matchup. It’s kind of a toss-up game,” Hansen said. “Texas Tech is a good football team. It would be a quality win for our program and a quality win for the confidence of our guys.”
Colorado brings a banged-up secondary into the game against one of the top passing offenses in the nation. With cornerback Jimmy Smith (concussion) still iffy for Saturday, the Buffs are even contemplating burning the redshirt year of defensive back Terrel Smith.
“Obviously, we’re not going to do it if they don’t go along with it,” Hawkins said. “You’re not putting a heat lamp on them by any means. You’re just saying, ‘How do you feel about it?’ If they’re good with it, you go with it.”
Hansen burned his potential redshirt seasons in 2008 and ’09 when he was called on to step in when the offense struggled under Cody Hawkins, the coach’s son.
Hansen was benched in a 26-0 defeat to Missouri two weeks ago but had a solid performance in the loss to Baylor. He said he played with a chip on his shoulder and he nearly rallied the team to a win. But his pass to Toney Clemons in the end zone on the game’s final play was swatted away by Baylor’s Chance Casey.
“If the ball was a little bit more left, maybe we would’ve got it,” Hansen said. “That’s a tough play. There’s always woulda, coulda, shoulda on those types of plays. That was real close.”
That defeat, on the heels of the Missouri loss, has fanned the flames of speculation once again over Dan Hawkins’ job security, which had quieted down in the weeks after comeback wins against Hawaii and Georgia.
Still, the players are tuning out the chatter.
“Whether he leaves in the future or not, we still have to play this season. We have to finish the season out,” senior cornerback Jalil Brown said. “We’re trying to go get a big bowl game at the end of the season. That’s what we’re preparing for. We’re not worried about what’s going to happen in the future. … All we can do is our part and let the rest take care of itself.”
Former CU coach Bill McCartney has reportedly hinted he might want to make a return to college coaching, leading to conjecture by Buffs fans that he could replace Hawkins. The 70-year-old McCartney led the Buffaloes to their only national title in 1990.
Kansas State coach Bill Snyder thinks McCartney would still be a well-respected coach if he ever chose to return to the sideline. In a teleconference earlier this week, the 71-year-old Snyder said that despite McCartney’s long absence—he retired from coaching after the 1994 season—McCartney could still effectively command a team.
“I know this: Bill McCartney is as fine of a football coach as I’ve ever known,” said Snyder, who came back to coach the Wildcats after a three-year retirement. “If he wanted to go back at the age of 90, he would still be extremely successful. What Bill would do that’s so significant, outside of being successful, he would have a tremendous impact on the lives of all the young people that he worked with.
“Somebody would be very fortunate to have him if he chose to do that.”
The Buffaloes are hoping to use Saturday as a possible springboard with road games against Oklahoma and Kansas looming the next two weeks. They will also face Nebraska to close out the season, the last meeting between the two as members of the Big 12.
“The way we’re looking at it right now, we can maybe go win three or four games and make a pretty good bowl game and have a great year,” Hansen said. “Maybe we can be a surprise, maybe beat Oklahoma, maybe beat Nebraska and maybe have a real special end of the year.”
