BOULDER — Cody Hawkins, newly reinstated as Colorado’s starting quarterback, takes pride in his role of team captain and in motivating his teammates.
He was upstaged Tuesday, however, by game film of CU’s 27-24 victory over No. 3 Oklahoma in 2007 at Folsom Field. With Hawkins taking the snaps, Colorado rallied from 17 points down. That tied for the fourth largest comeback in school history.
Colorado (3-4, 0-3 Big 12) plays Saturday night at No. 11 Oklahoma (6-1, 2-1).
“A couple of people have said, ‘The last time you played OU it went pretty well,'” Cody said Tuesday. “We watched a couple of highlights this morning of the (2007) game against Oklahoma when I was a freshman, just to fire the guys up a little bit,” Hawkins said.
“(But) the thing that helps me is just being down there in Oklahoma while I was redshirting (in 2006),” he added. “That’s going to give me a great perspective that I can share with other people. If you aren’t fired up when you’re going to play OU, you’re playing the wrong sport.”
Hawkins will replace Tyler Hansen who suffered a ruptured spleen in the second quarter of last weekend’s 27-24 loss to Texas Tech. Hansen has been ruled out for at least the remainder of the regular season.
CU coach Dan Hawkins, Cody’s father, reminded reporters that he said before the season that having two comparable quarterbacks with starting experience was a “good news, bad news” situation.
“This is the good news part of it,” the coach said Tuesday. “It’s not the way you want the other guy to play. But (Cody) has played against these guys before and has been in the trenches.”
Coming off the bench, Cody Hawkins threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns against Texas Tech and become the third CU player in history to reach 6,000 passing yards, joining Joel Klatt and Kordell Stewart.
“I think my experience helps a lot,” Cody said. “If you had to throw (true freshman Nick) Hirschman in against the Sooners, the emotions that kid would be feeling are crazy.
“I’ve played against the big dogs before and I’ve been in the fire. I’ve seen it from all angles, be it as a redshirt, to the starter, to the backup. So I feel comfortable being the starter this week and going on and playing on Saturday.”
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
