T1B

Before Saturday's epic collapse at Kansas, CU didn't have to fire head football coach Dan Hawkins until season's end. The Buffs weren't going anywhere anyway. They just had to hit the ground running with a new coach the next day.

Since KU's astounding 35-point fourth quarter, a toxic level of suspicion has infected the CU program, and now Hawkins' motives will be questioned with every play call until his pink slip is delivered.

"The negativity has just grown to a point where it's a challenge on many fronts," a CU insider told me Sunday. "The factors are lining up pretty clearly right now."

The Hawk Watch is no longer about which week. It's about which day. It could be today. And it ought to be.

Let me quickly add that the suspicion infecting the program requires a highly uncharitable interpretation of circumstantial evidence. Neither Hawkins nor his son, Cody, the team's starting quarterback, has given us any reason to question his integrity over the past five years. In the case of Cody, who has handled a difficult situation with more maturity than many of us would have at his age, the suspicions seem particularly cruel.

Nevertheless, inexplicable play-calling and the elder Hawkins' refusal to explain much of anything have raised two suspicions that could do the program long-term damage:

• In search of a rationale for head-scratching play-calling that kept giving the ball back to Kansas during Saturday's nightmarish fourth quarter, some fans are openly wondering whether Dan Hawkins' top priority is winning or getting his son the CU career passing record on his way out the door.

• In search of a rationale for allowing Hawkins to continue coaching as his program disintegrates around him, it's been suggested that CU can't fire Dan because Cody is the Buffs' only healthy quarterback and might walk out with his dad.

Insiders assure me that Cody's possible reaction to his father's firing is only one of many considerations and not a major one. Personally, I think there is zero chance that Cody quits on his teammates with three games remaining and no other experienced quarterback on the roster, no matter what happens with his father.

And frankly, even if he did, an inexperienced quarterback playing out the string on a lost season would be better for CU than the perception that Hawkins & Son are holding the university hostage.

The choice is not to keep Dan around for Cody's benefit or burn freshman Nick Hirsch man's redshirt. Hirsch man isn't ready anyway. If worse comes to worst, the Buffs could go with freshman walk-on Justin Gorman or emergency quarterbacks Scotty McKnight or Kyle Cefalo, receivers who played some quarterback in high school. It wouldn't be pretty, but hey, the Buffs aren't exactly painting a Monet as it is.

Similarly, the only evidence that Dan Hawkins kept calling pass plays in the fourth quarter at Kansas to pad his son's stats is Hawkins' refusal to offer another explanation. Even insiders wondered why Cody Hawkins was taking snaps with 20 seconds left on the play clock and throwing long, dangerous out patterns while frittering away a 28- point lead.

With the younger Hawkins now third on the CU career passing list behind Joel Klatt and Kordell Stewart, some fans jumped to a predictable conclusion. The elder Hawkins can protest that this is unfair, but it's the price he pays for building his program around his son.

In fact, there's another explanation that goes to Hawkins' uneven recruiting and wacky play-calling rather than his integrity. It's not just that he's down to one healthy quarterback. He's also down to one healthy running back. The 5-foot-6, 175-pound Rodney Stewart had a great game Saturday, but after 27 carries for 175 yards and three touchdowns, he was out of gas when the Buffs needed to run clock at the end.

Hawkins could have explained this if he hadn't abandoned his commitment to public accountability weeks ago. He cut off his postgame radio interview with KOA after two questions and two cliches. He cut off his postgame session with reporters after a slightly longer but no more edifying exchange.

It is a measure of the elder Hawkins' current standing that recruiting failures and oblivious play-calling are the more flattering explanation for his team's unraveling. If he is permitted to coach the final three games, every pass thrown by his son will be suspect, and the passing yardage record, should Cody get it, will be tainted.

Better to let the younger Hawkins finish under an interim coach whose motives are above suspicion. Better to end the melodrama now, before it spirals further out of control.

While considered by many to be the worst football coach in the history of CU football, Dan Hawkins has since taken that label from Fairbanks.

Cuda wrote:Whoever the new coach ends up being- please don't keep Brian Cabral around. I was once a big fan of his, but he's been there long enough to show that he either doesn't want to be head coach, or isn't up to the job. Either way, it's time for him to move on too. He's a nice guy, but eventually there comes a time for nice guys to move along.

King Crimson wrote: i think if there is any heat on Bohn and he's not offered the KU job.....the more heat on Bohn's job, the greater the chance of a McCartney return. why? because with Bohn's job in the balance, bringing in Mac shields him from the criticism with boosters and donors. for a time. i'm not at all convinced Bohn can conduct a successful *national* coaching search. he hasn't yet at CU. he's hired Hawkins, and 3 people from up or down 1-25 (Air Force--Bzdelik; Lappe--Metro State; Boyle--UNC). His track record at SDSU and Idaho are also questionable at best. the guy is a salesman and a "PR" guy...

King Crimson wrote: Woody Paige.

Cuda wrote:you had to hand over your ID so you could buy a maximum of 2 beers, and eventually couldn't buy beer at all, unless you joined the Flatirons Club. That was when I decided to drop my two $1500 per year, per seat, just across the aisle from the visitors section, practically on the 5 yard line, season tickets.

Dinsdale wrote:

Cuda wrote:you had to hand over your ID so you could buy a maximum of 2 beers, and eventually couldn't buy beer at all, unless you joined the Flatirons Club. That was when I decided to drop my two $1500 per year, per seat, just across the aisle from the visitors section, practically on the 5 yard line, season tickets.

Uh, pretty sure they don't sell any booze in any D1A arena.

At Autzen, the practice facility is next door, and we can grab beers there during halftime, but it's a zoo. They always have a band there to entertain the drunks, too. And big TVs everywhere, if you stay too long for that one last drink.

Dinsdale wrote:Uh, pretty sure they don't sell any booze in any D1A arena.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:

Dinsdale wrote:Uh, pretty sure they don't sell any booze in any D1A arena.

There are a few still. The NCAA doesn't regulate it for regular season games either, it's up to the schools.

Cuda wrote:The general public could only buy 3.2% beer

Cuda wrote:King Crimson would know better since he works on campus, but as far as I know, the big moneybags boosters- members of the Flatirons Club- can still buy not only beer, but hard liquor from their own, dedicated concessionaires in their own, private seating area. The general public could only buy 3.2% beer, and that was ended back in the late 1990's which was also when I dropped my season tickets.

King Crimson wrote:

Cuda wrote:King Crimson would know better since he works on campus, but as far as I know, the big moneybags boosters- members of the Flatirons Club- can still buy not only beer, but hard liquor from their own, dedicated concessionaires in their own, private seating area. The general public could only buy 3.2% beer, and that was ended back in the late 1990's which was also when I dropped my season tickets.

as far as i know you can booze in the Flatirons Club and up in the lux boxes and club level (in the new East-side addition). i've been up there (the view is unreal, you can see 150 miles of the Cont Divide)....and there's a bar. but, yeah, no more brew for the plebs.

the Coors Event Center stopped selling 3.2 beer 2-3 years ago...so, there may be some kind of "ban" in effect. that was one of the great things about CU hoops: GA ticket, nachos and a couple beers for 25$. serious sports entertainment value for the dollar....sit wherever you want, too!

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan wrote:

King Crimson wrote: as far as i know you can booze in the Flatirons Club and up in the lux boxes and club level (in the new East-side addition). i've been up there (the view is unreal, you can see 150 miles of the Cont Divide)....and there's a bar. but, yeah, no more brew for the plebs.

the Coors Event Center stopped selling 3.2 beer 2-3 years ago...so, there may be some kind of "ban" in effect. that was one of the great things about CU hoops: GA ticket, nachos and a couple beers for 25$. serious sports entertainment value for the dollar....sit wherever you want, too!

Yeah, I used to live in those shitty apartments on the SE corner of 28th & Colorado. It was a 5-minute walk to the Coors Event Center and unless Kansas was in town, you could stroll up five minutes before tip-off, buy a $2 student ticket at the door, grab a beer at the concession stand and still find a great seat. I think even regular tickets were only $6 or so. Good times. Bad basketball, to be certain, but still, good times.