Buffs keeping it all in the family

Cody Hawkins, picked as starter, built in father's mode

B.G. Brooks, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 19, 2007 at midnight

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BOULDER — Like a penguin in a party hat, Cody Hawkins always has been pretty hard to miss, or to tune out.

It is late October 2006, and with a 20-15 loss the previous day at Kansas, the University of Colorado football team has slumped to 1-8. In what is supposed to be a light Sunday follow-up practice, coach Dan Hawkins has turned hard, ordering his players into Folsom Field to run steps.

When a "come to 'Hawk' " team meeting, followed by the grueling conditioning work, is complete, Cody Hawkins synopsizes the afternoon as "pretty intense. It wasn't calling anybody out or 'dog cussing' anybody, it was just talking about the level we need to get to.

"And we're not getting that right now. We're going to change things up, and guys are going to work hard, and if people don't want to do it the coaches' way and the Buffaloes' way, then they can get the heck out."

As a true freshman, Cody Hawkins was anything but. He arrived in Boulder football-smart and locker room-savvy; vocal beyond his years, maybe even a wee bit mouthy at times; ready to shred the envelope instead of push it.

Older teammates might have hit the double-take button when first encountering him, but then, what did they expect, junior defensive tackle George Hypolite said.

"Look at the mold he comes from. . . . I think that would be the easiest way to say it," Hypolite said. "He's a coach's son, and most coach's sons are on the ball. He's no exception."

Added senior tight end Joe Sanders: "When he came in, he was immediately outgoing. He let everybody know he was here."

But did any of the older players size him up — which, at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds didn't take long — and ask, "Who is this guy?"

"Not really," Sanders said. "On a team with 100-plus kids from all different parts of the country, you get all different kinds of people. That's one thing you learn on a football team: Not too many people are the same.

"He was kind of out there, and that's a good thing to see in a quarterback."

And now Cody Hawkins really is out there. On Sunday, to the surprise of not many, he was named the Buffs' starting quarterback. Those who have followed his football career will not be surprised.

Tim Tebow, Hawkins' counterpart at the University of Florida, met the younger Hawkins at the EA Sports Elite 11 Quarterback Camp in summer 2005.

Friends almost from the camp's first post route, Tebow remembers Hawkins as "definitely the lively one, the comedian. He was making people around him laugh, getting guys in a good mood. He had the most personality of anybody in that camp.

"But, oh, yeah, there was a competitive side. He really wanted to win, always wanted to compete with everybody."

At the Elite 11 camp, Hawkins won two awards — Most Accurate and Best in Chalk Talks — according to Gregg Biggins, the national recruiting editor for Student Sports.com and one of the camp's administrators.

"Cody was also the most popular guy in the group," Biggins said. "He has such an engaging personality, everyone is always drawn to him. It's funny, the first workout, there was some question about his size, but after seeing him throw absolute darts all over the field, everyone quickly gained a lot of respect for him."

It was what coach Tim Brennan witnessed from Hawkins during his career at Bishop Kelly High School in Boise.

Brennan, about to begin his first season at West Mifflin High School outside Pittsburgh, said he and the quarterback knew Hawkins' size would be seen as the biggest detriment in him succeeding in Division I-A.

"But we never talked about him not playing at that level, just because he believed he could," Brennan said. "There were hundreds of other people out there who were asking questions about him being able to play (Division I-A), but they had never seen him play and certainly had never coached him. We didn't have any question about it; we knew he could."

Don't sell him short

As for Hawkins' size, Brennan quickly dismissed that as a factor in the quarterback succeeding.

"If he can do the job that (CU's) coaching staff saw in naming him the starter, then they're going to play him no matter his size," Brennan said. "That's the only way he's going to start; it has nothing to do with him being 6-feet or whatever.

"There are a lot of 6-foot quarterbacks out there, and I'll tell you what, a whole bunch of them probably aren't as good as Cody Hawkins."

Hawkins has been good — better still, successful — as long as he has been playing.

His record as a starting quarterback from youth football through high school is 59-0, and if he reaches 60-0, he will have guided CU past rival Colorado State in his Division I-A debut, the Buffs' Sept. 1 opener at Invesco Field at Mile High (10 a.m. FSN Rocky Mountain).

In winning the starting job, Hawkins outdueled junior college transfer Nick Nelson during the first two weeks of August camp.

Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mark Helfrich pointed to Hawkins "making every play that's there . . . his overall consistency, his command of the offense.

"And then there's the difference-maker plays that you have to make the majority of the time to be on the greater side of good. Cody works toward that."

The Buffs in 2006 didn't make many plays, score many points (196; 16.3 a game) or win many games (two). Basically, they were punchless, sometimes clueless, offensively. By the ugly numbers, CU finished 107th in Division I-A in scoring, 116th in passing offense and 102nd in total offense.

Cody Hawkins believes the offense will improve dramatically, but Sunday morning, his thoughts were more on Nelson than numbers.

He said his being named No. 1 is "exciting" if not completely unexpected, but added, "Fortunately for me, things went my way. But it's a bummer to see Nick disappointed."

Nelson said he is "happy for Cody, but I'll continue to push him and make him better, make the team better."

Still counting on Nelson

Helfrich's philosophy is for the starter to get upward of 70 percent of the practice time with the No. 1 offense, with the backup getting ample work. Only twice during the past eight years has a CU quarterback started and finished an entire season without missing a game.

Nelson took the announcement of his backup status "just as you'd expect from a competitive guy," Helfrich said. "But we're going to need him, he knows that."

As for identifying a starter less than two weeks before the opener, Helfrich and Cody Hawkins believe the offense will benefit.

"I think it helps the team feel a lot more comfortable, but as far as me, I think I've always prepared like I was going to be the starter," Hawkins said. "It's just kind of nice now to move forward and get a little more reps. . . . The way I've been preparing and thinking, it's not going to be a big change for me."

During the run-up to announ- cing a No. 1 quarterback, Dan Hawkins indicated Helfrich's vote carried the most weight in settling on a starter. But Hawkins offered a clarification Sunday.

"We all sit down on everybody (in competition)," he said. "It becomes more of a group consensus that one guy is (the starter). If three guys don't like a guy and one guy does, he better be able to jump up on a table in a strong way to back that up. So it was more of a consensus from the offensive group and input from the defensive coaches as well."

When Cody Hawkins signed with CU, his father knew there was the possibility of this day arriving. But the decision, Dan Hawkins said, is comparable to that at every other position.

"It seems like it's official because it's on paper, but, hey, if Cody Hawkins doesn't move the club, if he doesn't score points. . . . He's a good kid, a good player, and I like all that stuff about him," Dan Hawkins said. "But I'm not out here going, 'There's my boy, hey, look at my boy make plays.' I was jacked up when Nick made plays. I just want to score some points and win some games. I don't care what the (quarterback's) last name is."

There's not a chance he'll forget it any time soon.

2005 Elite 11

• The 12 high school seniors invited to the EA Sports Elite 11 Quarterback Camp in summer 2005:

Quarterback Hometown College Status

Neil Caudle Hoover, Ala. Auburn Reserve

Pat Devlin Downington, Pa. Penn State Reserve

Zach Frazer Mechanicsburg, Pa. Connecticut Reserve

Josh Freeman Kansas City, Mo. Kansas State Starter

Cody Hawkins Boise Colorado Starter

Jake Locker Ferndale, Wash. Washington Starter

Mitch Mustain Springdale, Ark. Southern California Reserve

Kevin Riley Portland, Ore. California Reserve

Jevan Snead Stephenville, Texas *Mississippi Not playing

Matthew Stafford Dallas Georgia Starter

Tim Tebow Jacksonville, Fla. Florida Starter

Isiah Williams Chicago Illinois Starter

*Transferred from Texas and must sit out this season

Word on Hawkins

Teammates comment on the University of Colorado's latest starting quarterback:

• "He's not the biggest guy, he's not the strongest guy, he's definitely not the fastest guy. But he's definitely the smartest guy. That's the one thing about football; if you don't know what you're doing, you can't be on the field. He definitely knows what he's doing, and he does it at the right time."

Jordon Dizon, senior linebacker

• "Cody is a vocal guy. He's your biggest fan, always there to pick you up when you (mess) up. He knows what he's doing. . . . There's not many redshirt freshmen out there yelling, cheering up guys, telling them what to do, be here, be there. He had the confidence to do that (in 2006). And he was a freshman who wasn't even on the field."

Tyler Polumbus, senior offensive tackle

• "Cody is a very good game manager at quarterback. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes and knows what he's doing. He gets (the offense) in the right calls pretty efficiently. That's a very good thing for a quarterback, and we didn't always have that last year."

George Hypolite, junior defensive tackle

• "He's an outgoing kid. When he came in, he was immediately outgoing and let everybody know he was here. And that's a good thing to see in a quarterback. . . . (Coaches) did a good job of keeping it a true competition. Truthfully, I never knew who was really ahead. It was pretty neck and neck. They made their decision and went with Cody. I don't think anyone just absolutely knew."

Joe Sanders, senior tight end

brooksb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5466

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