CU targets opportunistic instinct

By B.G. Brooks, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 7, 2008 at 12:55 p.m.

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Photo by Christopher Gannon/Des Moines Register

Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins holds his head while watching Iowa State score 21 points in the third quarter last season.

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In two-plus laborious seasons of rebuilding at the University of Colorado, football coach Dan Hawkins already has accumulated twice as many losses (22) as he did in five seasons (11) at Boise State.

So, asking him if the 31-28 loss CU suffered last year at Iowa State torqued his gut perhaps more than any of the others is, well, maybe an apples-

to-oranges inquiry.

This was the Buffaloes' scenario: After opening fast and nearly flawlessly, CU built a 21- 0 halftime lead. But on his team's first second-half possession, Hawkins gambled, going for it on fourth-and-1 at the CU 43-yard line.

After tailback Demetrius Sumler was stuffed for no gain, Iowa State responded with 31 consecutive points. CU momentarily regrouped, scored a late touchdown and had an opportunity to tie in the controversial closing seconds.

But the third-quarter damage had undone the Buffs, and in The Des Moines Register, Cyclones quarterback Bret Meyer summed up Hawkins' gamble like this: "I don't know what they were going for."

A contrite Hawkins later conceded, "I kind of let the dam break. . . . Maybe I just need to grow up and smarten up and start playing it by the book. Maybe I need to quit being so bullheaded."

CU's startling loss was significant because it marked the largest come-from-behind win in Iowa State history, while CU's 21-point lead equaled its largest ever without producing a win.

A year later, Hawkins appears to be doing his best not to remember. On that question about how gut-wrenching a loss it really was, this was his answer: "The three years I've been at (CU), I've had a lot of them stick to my soul. That's part of living. But that was a tough one."

Hawkins, whose third Buffs team is two wins short of becoming bowl eligible for a second time, isn't a fan of using past games as motivation. He said all things external "can all go up in smoke in a hurry. I try not to use a lot of that kind of stuff as motivation.

"You try to use your standards and your process. . . . I've never been into that too much. We need to play a lot better, because we need to win the football game (today) and improve. We've got to keep our hopes alive to get into the postseason. To me, that's the biggest motivation."

His players agree . . . kind of.

While senior defensive tackle George Hypolite called the 2007 game against the Cyclones "a tough one to lose," he added that in the area of botched chances, it might have been a precursor for 2008.

"At the end of the day, you look at the game and say there were a lot of missed opportunities," he said. Now, Hypolite noted, "missed opportunities seems to be the theme of the (2008) season.

"But that's just what happens with a young team. You make the big play sometimes, you miss the big play other times."

Regardless of the Buffs' overall youth, junior cornerback Cha'pelle Brown insists they have retained a "killer instinct" and will take a "playoff" attitude into their final three regular-season games.

"We've got to get two out of three - and we're trying to get three," he said. "To do that, we've got to step our games up . . . we've got to get these wins."

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