LAWRENCE, Kan. — Maybe it wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but Colorado players were scratching their heads Saturday about two officials’ rulings in the fourth quarter of the 52-45 loss to Kansas.
CU thought Cameron Ham, a senior walk-on receiver from Haxtun, had caught Kansas’ onside kick cleanly. Officials ruled Kansas ball.
“I thought Cam caught it,” CU senior quarterback Cody Hawkins said after the game. “Their guy jumped over Cam’s back. I don’t know how you can jump on a guy’s back and take the ball away from somebody who has it.”
Later, on the next-to-last play of the game, with 2 seconds remaining, Hawkins hit freshman Paul Richardson for what would have been a tying touchdown (with a PAT), but officials ruled no catch.
Colorado challenged both rulings. After reviewing film, neither call was overturned. There was no TV coverage, so angles might have been inconclusive from angles shown by stadium cameras.
“I don’t know why that wasn’t a touchdown. I don’t understand it,” CU senior wide receiver Scotty McKnight said. “Does anyone have an idea? I had a pretty good view. I thought he caught it.
“Are we allowed to talk about referees?”
Following coaches’ protocol, Colorado’s Dan Hawkins said “no comment” when asked by reporters about the calls. Cody Hawkins conceded Kansas did not get all the breaks.
“They helped us out on a couple of plays too — on a roughing-the-passer call that I should have won an Oscar on and a couple of pass-interference calls down the field that went in our favor,” Cody Hawkins said. “Obviously it should have never come down to that.”
CU players cocky?
Kansas receiver Johnathan Wilson said the Buffs were chirping when they took a 45-17 early in the fourth quarter.
“The Colorado guys were talking trash to us, saying, ‘Look at the scoreboard,’ and I really had no response,” Wilson said. “All of a sudden we started making plays . . . and they shut up real quick.”
Bad company.
According to NCAA records, this marked the second-most points scored by a major-college team in the fourth quarter to win. In 1960, BYU scored 36 points in the final quarter to beat Washington State.
