LAWRENCE, Kan. — Someday, while Colorado senior quarterback Cody Hawkins is coaching a football team of his own, he will have a ready-made halftime speech when his players are up big at halftime.
“Never, ever take anything for granted” will be his message.
“What did Kansas get? Thirty-five unanswered (points),” Hawkins said Saturday after a 52-45 loss to the host Jayhawks that set a dubious CU record. It’s the first Buffaloes team in history to lead by as many as 28 points and fail to win.
“It’s hard to say a whole lot more than that,” Hawkins added. “I don’t know whether it’s shock, or just being so disappointed. I thought we had it in our hands, and we let it slip away.
“You can see why in college football momentum is so important. Kansas was playing (in the fourth quarter) like they were the best team in the country, and we allowed them to do that.”
Colorado (3-6, 0-5 Big 12) has the Big 12 basement to itself. And not just in the North Division. Colorado and Kansas entered the game as the only Big 12 teams without a conference victory. Every other team in the league began the weekend with at least two league wins.
Kansas (3-6, 1-4) had scored a total of only 40 points in four prior Big 12 games under first-year coach Turner Gill, formerly a legendary Nebraska quarterback. On this afternoon, the Jayhawks produced 35 in just the fourth quarter.
“Coach (Gill) has been preaching to us, week in and week out, that we’ve got to keep playing hard every down and every play, and things will turn around,” Kansas receiver Daymond Patterson said. “We just kept believing like he’s been preaching all year.”
Colorado led 35-10 at halftime. And the Buffs answered a third-quarter Kansas touchdown with one of their own 8 seconds into the fourth quarter to take a seemingly comfortable 45-17 advantage.
Buffs players were feeling good about themselves. Perhaps too good.
“This one stings a lot,” CU senior linebacker B.J. Beatty said. “Coming out in the second half, the talk was to finish them off. We just didn’t do it. (Kansas) just came out, and they didn’t quit. We gave them a few plays here and there, and they swung the momentum. That’s what made the difference. We didn’t finish them off.”
Gill told reporters afterward that he had told his team at halftime to “get ready for the biggest comeback ever.”
Nobody can be certain whether the first-year Kansas coach truly believed that his team could make history by overcoming such a large deficit.
But apparently his players believed it. That’s all that mattered.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
