FanHouse Dan Hawkins

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.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

Mr. BCS Goes To Washington -- Except I have a feeling Jimmy Stewart would find some way to rail against the BCS, however wrongheadedly. You see, the big word in the halls of Congress on Friday was "fair" but don't let that confuse you. While the Mountain West and certain members of Congress are using the fairness term to stoke public support, their real concern is about money.

Hey, it's always football season at FanHouse. Welcome to "Greetings From Flyover Country," a new weekly feature that will keep you up to date on Big Ten, Big 12, and MAC football. We'll also cover any Midwestern stories which have national repercussions, along with rounding up the week's arrests and suspensions.

We start this week with a decision bound to have people from San Ysidro to Bangor scratching their heads. Please give a moment's thought to the worst aspect of the last postseason. While the Big 12 championship was settled on the field, the Big 12 South championship wasn't. Instead, the conference gave the division title to Oklahoma, because they use the BCS rankings as a tiebreaker.

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.

Hat Tip: Wiz

Yummy! The sweet dairy goodness of tasty cupcakes. To an extent everyone schedules at least one gimme on their schedule. So we'll overlook that 1-AA warm up game at the beginning of the season and move on to more important things. Seeing as how this is the Big East we'll just say that everyone will play two quality opponents in West Virginia and South Florida, three potentially good teams in Pitt, Cincinnati, and Rutgers, and three teams that shouldn't make anyone's top 25.

1. Connecticut- Starting off with the fat dough boys that got way too much credit for their record last year and look to do the same this year. Did I say that I wasn't going to mention the 1-AA teams? I'm sorry, because the Flying Dutchmen of Hofstra has to be one of the best names in all of college football. Unfortunately, they're not one of the best teams in college football. And that's who UConn starts their season off with. Oh, but it doesn't get much harder from there. The next three weeks they play @ Temple, and then get Virginia and Baylor at home. Any team worth their salt should easily be 4-0 at this point. Aside from having an easy schedule last year, UConn also got every break including a rather nice no call on a fake fair catch that helped them beat their fifth opponent in 2008, Louisville. Circle that game if you want to savor the sweet smell of revenge. UConn closes out their non-conference schedule with what should be a much improved North Carolina team. I don't know that they will crack the top 25, but for the sake of argument we'll count this one as a quality opponent. So that's one up and four down for UConn. Remember this at the end of the year when you look at their record. It will be deceiving.

2. Cincinnati- But they play @ Oklahoma! Yeah, well that's about it. Let's not forget that Oklahoma has proven themselves susceptible to Big East speed. All kidding aside, Cincinnati starts out the season hosting Eastern Kentucky, then travels to Oklahoma. In their next three games they host Miami (OH) and play @ Akron and @ Marshall. Ha! Marshall? They shouldn't be scheduling two 1-AA teams in one year. Cincinnati then plays their conference schedule and ends the year @ Hawaii. That might have been a tough game last year, but this year it shouldn't take a lot of effort. To be honest, I had to think long and hard about Cincinnati being number one on this list, but the Oklahoma game saved them in the end.

Spring practices are known for position changes and some are certainly more unusual than others. But if you leave things up to Dan Hawkins, they get really strange in a hurry. Just ask Kai Maiava. Maiava was recently moved by Hawkins from offensive guard to fullback.

"I always was a little undersized for a lineman, so I think that's what pushed coach towards making me a fullback. So I can still block for them," Maiava said.

As Maiava continues to try the new position, he said his comfort level is not what it used to be. However, he was quick to point out his willingness to try a new spot.

"I thought it would be cool to at least try it out, and if I didn't like it, I could probably switch back during the summer," Maiava said. "But I thought I'd try it out, and I'm starting to like it... (but) I'm fairly uncomfortable. I don't really know the plays yet. I don't even know where to line up half the time. But I'm sure once I learn everything I'll begin to like it."

This switch is even more bizarre given the accolades Maiava had earned at his previous position. Maiava made the Scout.com freshman All-America team and was also the recipient of the Lee Willard Award, which is awarded annually to the Colorado's top freshman. So it seems Maiava had a ton of talent at guard. The type of talent would allow you build an offensive line around in the years to come.

But that type of thinking makes little sense to Dan Hawkins.

"I'd like him to be an offensive guard in the backfield," Hawkins said. "We want him to pick up blitzes, be a lead blocker and maybe catch three passes this year."

And when Dan Hawkins wants an offensive guard in the backfield, that's what Dan Hawkins gets.

via EDSBS

Go play intramurals, Texas.

Texas was presumed to be the heavily leader for California running back Darrell Scott, this year's version of the Adrian Peterson/Chris Wells monster back, but odd family ties have landed Scott somewhere else, somewhere they play DIVISION ONE FOOTBALL BROTHER:

BSN spoke with sources very close to the Darrell Scott situation on Tuesday. We learned that Darrell Scott, the tailback from St. Bonaventure High in southern California, will sign with Colorado today.

Zoinks. Scott is Colorado's biggest recruit in the internet era of reruiting, Rivals #6 player in the country and likely a starter from day one. Texas fans have to be disappointed after losing out on both Scott and instate recruit Jermie Caloun (who picked hated Oklahoma).

UT does have five running back commits in this class, including national top-100 type DeSean Hales. Hales authored this year's most remarkable run on any level; video after the jump.

Few things in life are as heartwarming as a lifelong bond between father and son. Playing catch in the backyard. Going fishing. Hell, getting a little homework help. But then young men eventually grow up and gain independence and make decisions that take them away from their fathers.

Nowhere is that more public than in the recruiting game. Many times a player will stick with his father (see Luke Bellotti playing at Oregon for his father Mike Bellotti or quarterback Cody Hawkins heading to Colorado to play for his old man). But while blood may be thicker than water, sometimes blood doesn't have the pull it should.

Last year, Georgia coach Mark Richt's son Jon Richt pledged to play quarterback for Clemson over his fathers' Dawgs. No doubt a tough decision for a closeknit family like that. The separation continues this year as it is rumored UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker's son Kevan, a receiver prospect, will not stick with dear old dad at UCLA but instead play for the Oregon State Beavers.

The upshot to all of this is that while recruiting is a competitive, sometimes nasty business, coaches recruiting a fellow coaches' son must tone down his pitch which can only help but improve relations between coaches.

That didn't take long.

Two minutes into his collegiate debut, Cody Hawkins has engineered an 83-yard touchdown drive for Colorado. The capper was a beautiful 20+ yard touchdown pass to put the Buffaloes up 7-0 over rival Colorado State.

Hawkins is coach Dan Hawkins' son whose game is reminiscent of Chris Leak. Colorado is about a three point favorite in this hotly contested rivalry game.