Buffs' season finishes like it started

Huskers send Buffs to 10th loss; Hawkins shifts focus to future

B.G. Brooks, Rocky Mountain News

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Box score

LINCOLN - It's over. Now Dan Hawkins' real work begins.

The Colorado Buffaloes' 2006 football season - with a shocking home loss against Montana State and a gnawing defeat against Nebraska serving as bookends - finally has been put to rest.

The No. 23 Cornhuskers finished off Hawkins' disappointing first autumn as CU's head coach, burying the Buffs 37-14 on Friday in Memorial Stadium.

The loss deposited Hawkins' team among dubious company in the school record book; its 2-10 overall record (2-6 Big 12 Conference) makes it only the third in 117 years of CU football to lose 10 games.

Hawkins agreed the Buffs' final loss offered, to some extent, a glimpse of the entire season - some things were done well, more were done shabbily and many opportunities were not capitalized upon.

"When you come into somebody else's house, you have to maximize your opportunities," Hawkins said, noting first-half chances the Buffs didn't seize to either score or see that the Huskers didn't.

"When you play really good football teams, you can't pass up those opportunities. It makes it tough on you certainly later down the road."

Added Hawkins: "And when you have a team (CU) that is sort of searching for itself a little bit, you have that. You're a team sometimes that looks for proof rather than creates proof."

Losing for the 14th consecutive time against a ranked opponent, the Buffs played for nearly three quarters as if they might prove to a stadium-record crowd of 85,800 their nine-loss season was misleading.

But after trailing only 21-14 entering the fourth quarter, CU allowed a safety on the quarter's first play when tailback Mell Holliday was tackled a yard deep in the end zone. The skids were greased.

"That turned the momentum all the way over," said Holliday, an Omaha native. "It seemed like the breaking point (for the Buffs), like our spirits dropped after that - in some of our players, anyway."

Nebraska, which will learn today whether it plays Oklahoma or Texas in the Big 12 championship game, then used a 10-play, 59-yard drive after CU's free kick to completely dispirit the Buffs.

Quarterback Zac Taylor (19-of-28, 249 yards, two touchdowns) hit all-purpose I-back Brandon Jackson (34 carries, 149 yards, one TD; six catches, 42 yards, one TD) with an 18-yard scoring pass to send the Cornhuskers comfortably ahead 30-14.

Nebraska scored its final touchdown with only 23 seconds to play, but Hawkins didn't begrudge the Cornhuskers' thirst for points.

"Heck, no," he answered when asked if that score bothered him. "I'm not one of those guys. . . . We needed to stop them."

Indeed, it was a needy season for the Buffs, who opened 0-6 and didn't win until Oct. 14 (30-6 vs. Texas Tech). Hawkins, a believer in "breakthrough moments," thought this team might experience a monstrous one when it visited No. 9 and then-unbeaten Georgia.

But after leading 13-0, CU allowed two fourth-quarter scores - the winning TD was scored in the final minute - and lost 14-13.

"We probably had the chance at Georgia," Hawkins said. "That was probably the one that slipped away, and I think probably would have meant the most. And it certainly would have given us some inertia to keep going from there."

Instead, the losses mounted. After Texas Tech, the Buffs' only other win was recorded in their final home game - 33-16 against Iowa State.

Through it all, CU athletic director Mike Bohn said he and school administrators emerged "impressed" with the way Hawkins and his staff held the team together in a two-win season, keeping them competitive enough to remain in every game.

"There's no question he's done exactly that, and I believe that has been significant for the entire program," Bohn said. "So many of the constituents associated with the program feel good. I think that's indicative of Dan's hard work, his passion, and his ability to recruit and relate to young people."

Asked if he could afford to view Hawkins' first year as a "write-off," Bohn said, "After Year One, you see a level of passion and a work ethic that is going to pay huge dividends - and it's already paid some, in many ways, for the program and the university as a whole. Now, it's a matter of trying to sustain that."

To CU fans not accustomed to a 10-loss season, Bohn offered, "First of all, I'd say, take a look at history and remember that. But the neat thing about a fan who is going to ask that question is their expectations are high, and that's encouraging. Our expectations on the administrative side are just as high as the fans', and that's why I believe we have a formula for success."

Bohn said he "feels better, in a lot of ways" about Hawkins than when he hired him last December. "I think that's because we ask so much of a head coach anymore, and there's so many hats he has to wear. He wears them all well, and we just need to continue to do our part to ensure he has the support, the tools and the environment to be successful."

Hawkins' next assignments: Finalize his 2007 recruiting class, implement his off-season conditioning program and continue to work on the foundation laid this fall.

"It all starts Monday," he said.

CU: Answers to five key questions

1 How will CU quarterback Bernard Jackson react to his first start in Memorial Stadium, in front of 81,000-plus Cornhuskers fans? For the most part, Jackson held up well. He finished 11-for-23 for 131 yards and a 14-yard scoring pass to Riar Geer that helped tie the score at 7-7. But Jackson, who ran 12 times for 56 yards (40 yards were subtracted for four sacks), also missed receivers with several badly thrown balls.

2 Can the Buffs build on the offensive efficiency displayed in their 33-16 win against Iowa State on Nov. 11? Yes. The running game showed improvement (166 yards, 5.4 yards a carry), but the passing game remains inconsistent with running the proper routes, missing open receivers and dropping passes. 3 Did last weekend's open date stymie either team? Apparently not, although with their team leading only 14-7 at halftime, Cornhuskers fans might have believed the margin should have been more. It took Nebraska three quarters to finally put away CU.

4 Is CU's defense capable of slowing Nebraska's potent running game? Yes - for at least a half. The Cornhuskers, averaging 186.2 yards a game, rushed for 77 yards in the first half but finished with 190.

5 In a season where the game means nothing in the Big 12 standings, which team still benefits from the series' ramped-up intensity? Nebraska. The Cornhuskers did what the Buffs have failed to do most of the season - finish what they started.

brooksb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5466