Hawkins' Press Conference Recap
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIDAY’S GAME?“You kind of have everything rolling in one. Senior day, last game of the year, bowl game, Nebraska, chances of a winning season; you kind of have everything rolled up into one so there is definitely a lot of focus there. We have talked to the players about that, you try to spell things out week to week and it all kind of got rolled up into one big game this week.”
ON
ON WHETHER THERE IS ADDED INTENSITY?“Maybe a little difference, like I said you have so many things going on there is kind of a focal point on whether it’s maybe a guy’s last chance to play football, last chance to play Nebraska, last chance to go to a bowl game, last chance to do a lot of things so I think there might be a little added intensity there.”
ON PREPARING DIFFERENTLY?“There is no question that there are a lot of things at stake so you just try to put your best foot forward and make it happen.”
ON HAVING AN EXTRA WEEK TO PREPARE?“I think most of us have coached long enough that we realize the dangers in that (significantly adding to the playbook); there are only so many plays that you can run, so many things that you can do. I just think you have to be careful about over-saturation and I think we are pretty good where we are at right now.”
ON THE PLAYERS NOT HAVING CLASSES THIS WEEK?“We can practice during the day, we can practice outside, the sun is out and those are benefits. We still have study hall going on and we’re still working on those components too, so it isn’t like guys can just cast that away because there are no classes. They are still working hard in the classroom; even though they don’t have class, they still have school work.”
ON THE PLAYERS GETTING A DAY OFF?“You’d have to talk to them, but a lot of them were remarking on it. This is a thing that is so bizarre about our profession. It’s like you were saying the other day, you took a day off to take care of your child and these guys had their first real day off since August 5, just think about that. They’ve had a day off from football but they haven’t had a day off of school so it is one thing to be an old person who is in the grind of work where you kind of accept that. We have a lot of guys, particularly young kids who are pushing three months without a day off and they are pushing pretty hard.”
ON NEBRASKA BOUNCING BACK AGAINST KANSAS STATE?“They moved the ball on offense (against
ON DEVELOPING A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PLAYERS?“You do get close to them and I probably get more close then others. It is sad because you realize to some degree you are never going to have this group of guys together again, and to some degree some of these guys you may never see again. I think over the course of my career and the kids that I’ve coached and the kids that I’ve had and you have so much fun with them and enjoyed them so much when they are in your program. Then because of the nature of things you don’t get to see them again. I know some of the reunions I’ve been to, like the 1976 team last year, some of those guys hadn’t seen each other since ’76 and that is a long time. Football is a very emotional game and I think that is what makes it such a special event. Even though I haven’t been here long, you don’t have to be around long to appreciate what guys like Jordon (Dizon) bring to the table, that kid is a special kid.”
ON LB JORDON DIZON?“I always hate that term (overachiever); he is an achiever that is what he is. More then anything else what I really treasure?and it doesn’t matter if it is coaching or your business or whatever?it is one thing to come out and do a story for a couple of months or come out and put some games together, but I think consistency is a big key and he comes out and shows up every day, he shows up every day and he does what he’s supposed to every day. He doesn’t take any days off, that guy he is here every day, it doesn’t matter who we play or how dinged he is. He is going to take care of his school work and he is going to take care of his work off the field, he is going to watch film and be ready to go on Saturday.”
ON DIZON’S CHANCES OF PLAYING IN THE NFL?“He will play at that level, he will be a first day guy; I don’t think there is any question about that. He has just such great production that scouts have a hard time ignoring him even though he isn’t 6’4” and 250 pounds. He’ll play; he will play in the league. He just has too much production.”
ON REMEMBERING THIS GROUP OF SENIORS?“I think they are a group of guys who have really persevered and who have really seen a lot. They have gone through a lot, had to adjust, had to grow, seen some good times and seen some bad times. They are a group of guys who when they look back on their experience they will say, ?Man, we went through a lot there, and hopefully that all ends on a positive note for them.”
ON WHETHER THE SENIORS CAN GRASP WHAT THEY’VE GONE THROUGH?“I think to some degree they can because we have so many mature guys on our football team. But like a lot of things that I say and that I teach them, they won’t realize until they have two kids and are 35 years old. That is when they’ll say ?Okay, now I know what he meant when he said that.’ That is okay too.”
ON THE ADVANTAGES OF PLAYING IN A BOWL GAME?“It is an opportunity, you get to practice more and I don’t care where you go, it is fun and a feather in the cap for the players because they get to go someplace and experience some town and that is always a lot of fun. It is great for the fans; you generate a lot of interest there. The money thing is interesting, depending on which bowl you go to, you usually don’t see a whole lot of money out of it. That is because by the time you get your team there, all your people and all that stuff you don’t see a lot of money out of it. Anytime we can get work its good because we’re so young, so the extra practices would definitely be a positive.”
ON THE CHANCES CB TERRENCE WHEATLEY PLAYS?“I think they are good.”
ON NEBRASKA QB JOE GANZ?“You have to watch out for scoring, he can run, he can throw; he’s a good player, he really is.”
ON THE CU SECONDARY?“As we have said all year, we are not deep anywhere and the secondary is not an exception. We don’t have a lot of guys anywhere but I think Terrence will go and if he can’t we will get somebody else to go.”
ON NEBRASKA PLAYING WITH URGENCY?“I think they have been that way the last few weeks. If you watch them on tape they play that way, they do not play lackadaisical, they get after it and they attack you on offense and they attack you on defense. I do not expect them to change from that, so I don’t see any lack of urgency in their previous games anyway. When they played
ON NEBRASKA HAVING TO DEAL WITH DISTRACTIONS?“It is interesting, you’ll notice with how much those guys have been dealing with and all the adversity they’ve been dealing with for a while now that I’m sure they will be used to it and accustomed to it. I’m sure they are banding together, as they have the last couple of weeks.”
ON THE MISSOURI AT KANSAS GAME THIS WEEKEND?“I would probably give
ON WHAT CU NEEDS TO FIX?“It comes down to making a play here or there. A little bit of confidence, a little bit of swagger, turnovers, penalties, limiting big plays; it is just a combination of those things, it isn’t just one thing or everything it is just being able to be cleaner in some of those areas.”
ON LLOYD CARR?“I know him a little, not a ton but a little. I’ve seen him at some of the coaching things and talked to him there, we spent a little bit of time together in an airport once but I am not as buddies with him as I am with some of the other guys. Gosh, I could go on forever about that (his retirement). It is interesting, he obviously made the announcement this morning, you guys know this in this day and age with the media sea. It is going to be harder and harder to have the Bobby Bowden’s the Joe Paterno’s the Bo Schembechler’s; it is just going to get harder and harder for that to happen. Coach (Eddie) Crowder was telling me how, it may have been in the middle of (former Oklahoma head coach) Bud Wilkinson’s tenure, they had a couple of off years where they had two wins and you think that in this day and age he’d be out, they’d run him out. I think he (Carr) is a real classy guy, his heart is in the right place, he loves
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ON SENIORS POTENTIALLY GETTING TOO JUICED?“I think anybody can at any given juncture. The performance anxiety curve is pretty tried and true and proven over and over.”
ON THE NEBRASKA DEFENSE?“The Nebraska defense does a lot of stuff, they have the personnel and the coach that on any down and distance they can walk up and spin the wheel of fortune and see what kind of defense they are going to run. They are actually very impressive on film, if you kind of forget about the scoreboard, just watching their guys, how physical they play and the different things that they do on defense it is impressive. It is definitely going to be a challenge for us, but we just have to keep preparing and we’ll be okay.”
ON COMPARING THE NEBRASKA DEFENSE TO COLORADO’S DEFENSE?“I think they are very similar, they play a little more cover three than we do, but in terms of being able to do a bunch of different things and being able to jump around and give a lot of different looks as far as coverages and fronts they do a good job of that.”
ON THIS BEING A BIGGER GAME BECAUSE OF EVERYTHING RIDING ON IT?“Not just kind of, absolutely it does. We’re both playing for a bowl and this puts more on the line; it is the last time our seniors will get to line up and play
ON THERE BEING AN ADDED INCENTIVE TO BEAT NEBRASKA TO BECOME BOWL ELIGIBLE?“Oh yeah, I think it’d be nice but I’m not going to wish ill on anybody else. I’m just going to focus on us and as long as we win the game and do what we need to do we’ll be okay.”
ON GETTING BOWL GAME PRACTICES?“I mean the more practice you get with a team like this it is only going to help us. When you get to practice and stick around here, even on a week like this, you have to hang out with your guys, your teammates because there really isn’t anyone in
ON NOT GOING TO A BOWL GAME LAST YEAR?“I think it gave us a little bit of a chip on our shoulder going into the spring, everybody was really excited about it. We got to start a little bit earlier then normal, a lot of guys came in and got a lot of voluntary workouts in and seven-on-seven got going a little bit earlier. Definitely everybody wants to go to a bowl game and it was a painful Christmas break; we didn’t like having that long of a break so hopefully it’ll be a lot shorter this year.”
ON THIS BEING HIS FIRST NEBRASKA GAME?“
ON PLAYING NEBRASKA?“Last year we did the whole dress up like
ON SENIOR SPEECHES THAT MADE AN IMPRESSION?“I think Tyler Polumbus because he’s grown up a Buff, he’s a second generation Buff so the Colorado-Nebraska game has always meant a lot to him and he’s a fifth-year senior; he’s been here a while so it means a lot to him. Dusty (Sprague) got up today and he asked who has actually played in a game against
ON NEBRAKSA PUTTING UP 73 POINTS AGAINST KANSAS STATE?“It is not only about scoring as many points or a certain number of points you have to score, it is just about doing your assignment on every play. Definitely when a team puts up 73 points you have to focus on the details and focus on every play because we can’t score a touchdown if you don’t block the right guy, or Josh (Smith) might be wide open but you can’t throw the touchdown pass if you don’t set your feet and do the details. That is just what this game comes down to, it is a game of inches. We know we have a great defense, I saw a stat today and I’m not sure if it’s in the notes, but we have held three teams (Florida State, Miami-Ohio and Kansas) to season-low point totals and two more (Oklahoma and Texas Tech) were held to their second lowest. That is pretty impressive and giving them two weeks to prepare is only going to help us and guys like Jordon (Dizon) are going to make sure the defense is going to be ready. The defense has kind of had a chip on their shoulder after the
ON LIMITING KANSAS TO 19 POINTS?“
ON NEBRASKA’S DEFENSE?“I think they are a good team and in the Texas game they had a good scheme going and they were playing well and there were a couple of runs where they had everything protected and (Texas RB) Jamaal Charles just outruns everybody. You can’t do anything about that, that was just him running around and going 90 yards for a touchdown, it wasn’t anything they did. We have some great players and we have to take what the defense gives us and try to score as many points as possible.”
ON PLAYING IN BAD WEATHER?“I have never played in a snow storm but I have played in much worse weather. Like you can see lightning in the distance, it’s pouring down rain and mud that is about six inches deep, it was really bad. I’d much rather play in snow than in rain; in snow it is much easier to dry the ball off, when it is raining it just soaks into the ball. When it’s snowing the ball drops in the snow you can pick it up and dry it off and the ball guys do a good job of taking care of that.”
ON CHANGING ANYTHING IF THERE IS BAD WEATHER ON FRIDAY?“Not really, I think no matter how you look at it, it is Colorado-Nebraska and it doesn’t matter what the offense has done all season you really have to be able to run the football. Colorado-Nebraska has always been about smash-mouth football and running the football, so whatever team runs the ball the best and stops the run the best is probably going to come out on top.”
ON THE RUMORS ABOUT BILL CALLAHAN?“We went through the same thing a couple of years ago, so I can kind of put myself in their shoes. Two years ago when we were hearing that Coach (Gary) Barnett was going to get fired we all started playing harder, trying to keep him around and I can only see what they’re doing and that is trying to keep him around because he is pretty much their father away from home and they are going keep him around as long as possible. To do that they have to play their hardest and I know they are going to play their best game against us and they’re going to bring their hard hat because they want to keep him around as long as possible. We have to be ready because they’re going to come in strong and come in firing for us.”
ON FRIDAY’S GAME?“I know it is going to be cold, a lot of guys might be watching from home because it is going to be a cold one. It’s going to be my last time playing at Folsom, it’s going to be exciting especially against
ON HIS EMOTIONS GOING INTO THE GAME?“I couldn’t tell you, it is always a heat of the moment thing. I mean I’ve teared up before, we’ve all teared up and it’s just because you love what you’re doing and you love the people you’re with. It’s going to be my last moment running out there; it’s going to be fun, I’m going to make it fun and make the best out of it.”
ON HIS DEVELOPMENT OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS?“I have done some good things, but I’ve had some great coaches. I’ve had Coach (Brian) Cabral since my freshman year and he’s grown to become my dad and someone that I trust in every aspect in life. Having someone like that, someone to be your anchor, someone you can trust just makes playing so much easier because you know he’s going to put you in the best situation he can. As far as Coach Hawkins goes he is the most energetic and awesome guy I’ll ever meet and he’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever played for and having those kind of coaches to play for makes it so much easier.”
ON POTENTIALLY PLAYING IN THE NFL?“It hasn’t crossed my mind, nor will it until that situation comes about. Right now I’m focused on the Huskers and I don’t know anything about that (playing in the NFL) nor have I talked about that, it is about the Huskers and playing them on Friday.”
ON POTENTIALLY GOING TO A BOWL AND KEEPING NEBRASKA OUT OF A BOWL?“Last year they kicked our butts, so it’s not revenge but we have to be ready for all the trick plays they ran last year. They are going to come out strong, play for their coach and their record does not resemble their team at all, so we have to be ready.”
ON SHAWN WATSON BEING THEIR OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR?“We don’t really think about that as an advantage. On the flip side he knows all of us, he knows us all personally and he watched us for two years so he knows our weaknesses. He knows I jump on short routes, he knows that sometimes we leave the middle open; he knows that, he knows our defense. I know that he was here for two years with me, but the offense they run this year is different from the offense they ran last year. So you can’t really anticipate what they are going to run because they are a complex offense. Thinking back to my sophomore year, I got dinged in the head too much, I can’t really remember too much.”
ON HIS EXPECTATIONS COMING TO COLORADO?“I came here expecting to be a running back, but I’m not a fast or athletic guy and they moved me to safety and I didn’t excel at that either. It’s hard to put someone who is six-foot and 195 (pounds) at middle linebacker but they put me there, and I had I had good coaching there so it worked out. You know my freshman and sophomore year I had Akarika (Dawn) and Thaddaeus (Washington) here and they picked me up, man they helped me with every aspect of the game. I have to give half my credit to them and having that kind of support around me made it a lot easier.”
ON PLAYING LINEBACKER?“I just do what they tell me to do and if you excel in the end you know that’s it. I am happy for the accolades that I get but I’d rather win the
ON HIS FAVORITE NEBRASKA MOMENT?“I guess if I were to pick one, last year at Nebraska we were struggling a little bit and Coach Cabral said ?We’re going to pick this up,’ and it was a third-and-one and me and Thaddaeus stuffed the running back in the hole and he came over to us and said ?That was the greatest play I’ve ever seen two linebackers make.’ With him being here for 18 years and saying that was very special to me and it just shows me that he thinks I’m coachable so it was one of my greatest moments.”
ON ADDRESSING THE TEAM?“I took my turn and I mainly stressed that this is a rivalry week and if you can’t get up for this then you are not a true
ON WHEN HE FIRST FELT THE RIVALRY?“I felt it right after I got there, we were dressed in all white walking through that tunnel and there were these old ladies chucking tomatoes at us. Once I saw that I knew this was a real rivalry, from then on I knew it was a great rivalry. They are a good team, but they’re a rival so you can’t say you like them and I can’t say I hate them but it’s a rival. Anytime you have a rival, they aren’t going to be your favorite. The way you show it, is to go out and respect them and respect everything they are about. I don’t hate them, I just respect them.”
ON TRYING TO BE A LEADER TO THE YOUNGER PLAYERS?“I definitely try to, I want to show that you have to be a team player for this team to be good. We don’t have the best athletes, the fastest guys or the smartest guys but as you play as a team it makes up for those weaknesses. I want to represent a team player, someone who cares about the team and that is the legacy I want to leave behind. Being a team player is more important to me then any career records or individual accolades, what my teammates think about me that matters the most to me.”