Colorado coach struggles to define team
Buffaloes’ football suffers an identity crisis five games into the season.
By Taylor Bern (Contact)
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Coach Dan Hawkins stopped short of saying that his team is suffering an identity crisis. But the third-year Buffaloes coach did say he wasn’t too worried about the Jayhawks’ defensive weaknesses because he doesn’t know his own team’s strengths.
“I don’t know that we’ve done anything well particularly consistently on offense,” Hawkins said. “For us, we’re trying to get lined up and block the right guys and run the right route.”
Five games into the season, the situation in Boulder is murky.
Colorado fullback Jake Behrens flies through the air on his way to scoring a touchdown. Behrens was upended by Texas cornerback Ryan Palmer, back, as safety Earl Thomas, right looked on in the fourth quarter of a 38-14 victory by Texas in Boulder, Colo., on Saturday. Kansas will play host to Colorado this Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
Colorado started the year with promise, winning its first three games. Since then, the Buffaloes have allowed a combined 77 points against Florida State and Texas and lost both contests.
Colorado’s wins don’t look too strong, either. One was a seven-point victory over I-AA Eastern Washington, and the Buffs’ marquee victory, a 17-14 overtime triumph against No. 21 West Virginia, loses luster every week as the Mountaineers circle the drain.
On Saturday, Colorado opened Big 12 play with a home contest against No. 5 Texas.
Less than two minutes into the game, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy put his team up 7-0 with a nifty flip pass.
“He breaks and looks like he’s going to run it, so we collapse and then he sidearms it out to the running back and he takes it to the house,” Hawkins said. “That’s a great play.”
That 65-yard score was the first of many Longhorn highlights on the night. They opened up a 28-0 lead in the third quarter and strolled to a 38-14 victory.
Hawkins said he couldn’t help but leave Folsom Field impressed by McCoy.
“He’s just playing full throttle,” he said.
Hawkins also said Texas running back Chris Ogbonnaya, who caught McCoy’s flip pass and finished with 187 total yards, was the best non-quarterback offensive player in the Big 12.
Despite Kansas’ 20-0 halftime deficit in Saturday’s 35-33 victory, Hawkins didn’t learn anything about how to beat the Jayhawks. Iowa State capitalized on turnovers, which Hawkins said didn’t come around too often against Kansas.
“Had they not had the turnover barrage, they probably wouldn’t have had as close a game last week,” Hawkins said. “I give them a lot of credit for making plays and coming back and winning the game.”
Last year Kansas held on for a 19-14 victory at Colorado. In that game, Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing led the team in rushing with 84 yards, including a 53-yard scamper — his longest of the season.
“I think where he’s at his best is when it’s not necessarily a designed run,” Hawkins said. “That’s where he can really gouge you. He killed us last year when he would break contain or take off running on pass plays.”
Colorado gives up the third fewest passing yards per game in the conference. But Hawkins knows that Kansas’ offense can start rolling at any time, as it did in the third quarter against Iowa State.
“When they get the ball and they’re going, they’re a dynamite outfit,” Hawkins said.
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