Colorado coach Dan Hawkins has been adamant the past few seasons that having his son, Cody Hawkins, play quarterback for the Buffaloes was no different than other recruit.
Hawkins did a complete turnaround during Monday's weekly press conference, saying if he had to do it all over again he would not have recruited his own son.
"Not for him, no. Nope. Not at all," Hawkins said. "It's not fair to him. Here is a guy who is trying to do his best to win games and to help his team and does everything right, he's a good student and he's getting killed on Facebook and getting killed on his cell phone.
The Big 12 North remains a ways from returning to the prominence it enjoyed when the conference first formed in the late 1990s, but if Saturday's matchup between Kansas State and Nebraska for the division title is any indication then better days are certainly on the horizon.
After years of struggles by the Kansas State Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, which have coincided with a dip in the North's strength, the two meet Saturday in Lincoln for a winner-take-all showdown. Neither team has had quite the season it anticipated but each has won enough for the right to play for the Big 12 championship, likely against No. 2 Texas, Dec. 5.
"Certainly we've been in this position before, probably in different ways," said veteran Wildcats coach Bill Snyder, who broke out of a three-year retirement to return to the sidelines this season. "By the same token, I can't remember other than the very early years that playing against the Nebraska teams was not a great challenge and certainly key ball games were after those initial years after they beat us so soundly."
There is nothing new about Bob Stoops matching coaching wits with old mentor and boss Bill Snyder. They've done plenty of that over the years in Big 12 cross-divisional play.
But that doesn't mean Stoops isn't a little surprised to see Snyder, 70, back on the Wildcats sideline. The longtime Kansas State coach retired four years ago to pursue opportunities outside coaching, but was lured out of retirement last winter.
Stoops, whose 22nd-ranked Sooners host the Wildcats on Saturday, admits it's a little unexpected to be going up against his old boss again, but he was stunned when Snyder was no longer there, too.
Conventional wisdom says Tyler Hansen should have been wary.
You don't commit to a program where the quarterback you will be competing with for time is the head coach's son. Period.
But that is exactly what the lightly-recruited Hansen did two years ago when he committed to Dan Hawkins and the Colorado Buffaloes, with Cody Hawkins already entrenched as the team's signal caller. Ever since, it had been a rollercoaster ride for Hanson.
We all knew the Kansas Jayhawks offense had a chance to be lethal this season with quarterback Todd Reesing and wide receivers Dezmon Briscoe and Kerry Meier setting the pace.
Well, the trio took it to a ridiculous level Saturday as the receivers bested each other during the Jayhawks' 41-31 win over Iowa State. First Briscoe set the school record for career receptions, then Meier jumped ahead of him. Meier, a converted quarterback, has 167 career catches while Briscoe sits at 165 after making 12 catches for 186 yards and two touchdowns Saturday.
Every college football season there seems to be at least one major conference that's projected to be among the best , only to find out it's all just hype.
Could this season be the Big 12's turn?
Projected to be one of the top two conferences in the country, along with the SEC, there is now a small mountain of evidence indicating the Big 12 isn't the conference we thought it would be. The league has already suffered more than it share of stunning upsets in non-conference play, starting at the top.
Perhaps Colorado coach Dan Hawkins somewhere internally knew his tenure was in trouble when he made the infamous 10-win prediction prior to this season.
That's what desperate coaches do to soothe a restless fan base. Smart ones just shut up and coach.
But two games into Hawkins' fourth season in Boulder, we're finding out Boise State isn't exactly the cradle of coaches and that it's time for the Hawkins experiment to end. The Buffaloes' latest embarrassment, a 54-38 drubbing at the hands of middle of the pact Mid-American Conference foe Toledo on Friday night at the Glass Bowl.
Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins announced a few moves on his staff this week, the biggest being that he will add the role of receivers coach to his duties this upcoming season.
Hawkins will coach the Buffaloes as he prepares 13-year NFL defensive back Ashley Ambrose to take over the wide receivers position for the 2010 season. Ambrose, who is carrying the title of defensive technical intern this season, will be able to observe Hawkins but is prohibited from coaching the players until after the season when he will be named a full-time assistant.
It's a battle between the immolated -- West Virginia coach Bill Stewart -- and the meditated -- Colorado coach Dan Hawkins -- up in the Rockies. Our FanHouse partner in crime John Radcliff will be there in person, guitar (and moonshine!) in hand to strum out songs in support of his 'Eers and in annoyance of the Colorado faithful.
Good times.
Culturally we've got quite the unique matchup here as Colorado is sort of the flag-bearer for western, free-wheeling mountain folk of the Rockies going up against the eastern, free-wheeling mountain folk symbolically linked to Appalachia.
In football terms, we have two powers of the late 80's running modern offenses that have led to a revival of sorts.
As for us the festivities kick off around 8:30 Eastern, be sure to kick it with the clackety clack of sound of furiously fast keyboards College Football FanHouse gang after the jump.
I was out in Boulder this spring, and for some reason I thought this would be a good picture just in case...well...something like this happened.
Colorado redshirt freshman offensive lineman Ethan Adkins was indefinitely suspended from the football team by coach Dan Hawkins after being cited for driving under the influence Monday in Boulder.
Hawkins also suspended starting guard Devin Head for one game for an undisclosed violation of team rules. It is unclear if Head's violation was connected to Adkins'. Head started at left guard in the season opening victory over Colorado State on Sunday.
Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but Colorado already lost two offensive linemen to academic issues and a torn knee ligament. Colorado shouldn't be tested this weekend against Eastern Washington even being short on offensive linemen, but a date with West Virginia looms on September 18th. As well as Florida State and Texas the following two weeks. Absolutely a great opportunity to jump into the top 25. This is what you're supposed to do in the off season, fellas. Not heading into the meat of the schedule.
Colorado coach Dan Hawkins has been adamant the past few seasons that having his son, Cody Hawkins, play quarterback for the Buffaloes was no different than other recruit.
The Big 12 North remains a ways from returning to the prominence it enjoyed when the conference first formed in the late 1990s, but if Saturday's matchup between Kansas State and Nebraska for the division title is any indication then better days are certainly on the horizon.
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