LINCICOME: Buffaloes toughen their persona

Monday, August 13, 2007

The question to Dan Hawkins at Colorado's recent media day was about toughness, not an unreasonable inquiry even in Nebraska or Texas and places where toughness is taken for granted.

A tough football team shrugs off doubt about its toughness, or smirks at skepticism, or possibly does something physical because it can.

The coach of Colorado grew philosophical.

"I think they are tougher," Hawkins said of this year's Buffs.

That could be the end of it, that or "tough enough," or "we'll see." Or even "What have you heard?"

No, with Hawkins you ask him to pass the toast and you get the recipe for a seven-grain baguette.

"Toughness to me comes in a variety of ways," Hawkins said. "It's not just a machismo thing.

"When a woman has a baby, you've got to be pretty tough. That's about as tough as it gets right there."

No, wait. He is not suggesting that his team go through labor pains to know toughness, though doubtless if he could . . .

"Toughness is consistency," Hawkins continued. "Every day, showing up. Every day.

"Toughness is being able to handle the positive things as well and understanding, OK, I played well this game, I made a couple plays. I've got to go back again and prove it tomorrow."

Check. Not macho. Showing up. Not taking success for granted. But, wait. There is more.

"Toughness is being consistent of your preparation so you know in the back of your mind you have the right to deserve success," Hawkins said. "You've put in the time and sacrifice, so you have that background of preparation. So I definitely think there is much more assertiveness that way.

"Getting out of an excuse mode. My dog ran away. I had to move out of my apartment. Or I lost my shoe. Or whatever it is. You got to develop a mentality of no excuse. Be here, get it done, put it in."

Ah, something football familiar. Toughness is having no excuses. Football coaches have been refusing to accept excuses forever.

But one does wonder if that is the caliber of excuse offered by the Buffaloes - my dog ran away? - then a course in creative writing might be as much use as time on the blocking sled.

After all, it was George Washington, the head coach of all of us himself, who said that it is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

One does not imagine anyone daring to bail out of Valley Forge by claiming he had lost his shoe, when very possibly that was not an excuse but a fact.

On with Hawkins and toughness: "I see that sort of assertiveness start happening. I see some toughness in our leaders a little bit.

"Leadership happens from president, chancellor, (athletic director), football coach down to the team. And your team has got to have a core group of guys that can grab the team by the heart and soul and be tough enough to rally those guys."

Toughness, like ski slopes and oil leaks, runs downhill.

And this would be in contrast to the official Tough Guy course, a real competition in which tough guys take on eight miles of mud and obstacles, crawling under barbed wire, jumping over burning bales of hay, swimming underwater through tunnels and crawling through pipes.

Not unlike the Big 12 schedule, come to think of it.

"Toughness comes in the form of discipline," Hawkins said. "We had sort of a little skirmish (at practice) and rather than have a big childish melee, guys were mature enough to get it separated and get back on the field. That showed me a lot right there."

Then, knowing when to be not tough is tough. That would be a kind of mental toughness, widely regarded as preferable to the physical kind, not forgetting that anyone who advocates mental toughness assumes the physical is already there.

"Mental toughness to physical toughness is as four is to one," said that more famous tough guy, Bobby Knight, daring anyone to dispute his math.

So, to get back to the original question, are the Buffs tough enough?

"I see a lot of signs we're starting to feel our spirit a little bit," Hawkins said. "And that exudes a chemistry on Saturdays, that we're not walking out there and going, 'Let's see what happens.'

"We're the Buffaloes, this is what we stand for and this is what we are about. Let's go. Let's play our music."

A tough tune, perhaps. Which, if success is to come, will be where the Buffs beat on the other guys like drums.

lincicomeb@RockyMountainNews.com