10 YEARS AND THREE COACHES LATER, CU STILL DIGGING
Roots from “scandal” a decade earlier
boulder » As the sparse crowd trickled out of Folsom Field on Saturday afternoon, the University of Colorado football team trudged slowly toward its locker room for the last time this fall.
It was a somber sight, and not just because tears rolled down the cheeks of seniors Tony Jones and Terrel Smith.
In blowing a late lead and losing 38-34 to Utah, the Buffs finished 2-10 overall, 0-9 in the Pac-12, CU’s ninth consecutive losing season. A proud program accustomed to playing important late-season games before sellout crowds on national television has slipped into irrelevance.
The temperature was a balmy 66 degrees Saturday, but only about 32,000 fans were on hand, a good portion clad in Utah red and white.
“The last 10 years of CU football have been an unmitigated disaster,” said longtime CU booster Richard Engel.
Failed coaching hires. Lackluster re- cruiting classes. Declining attendance. Facilities upgrades put on hold. All are factors that have CU trying to come to grips with its first winless conference season in 99 years.
The solution to turning things around is as simple to define as it is hard to execute.
“College football is about one thing: recruiting,” said former CU quarterback Joel Klatt. “And the recruiting restrictions that the university imposed on the program ultimately sunk the program to the point that it was going to be very hard to have success.
“Once you make it hard to have success, you start to realize how quickly the cycle goes. Then you look up and you realize that the last time CU had success, the kids being recruited now were like 8 years old and they don’t remember CU’s success. All of that history and tradition is lost on today’s 18-year-old.”
Still, after Saturday’s defeat, secondyear coach Mike MacIntyre insisted that the Buffs are close to turning things
around.
“The train is going in the right direction,” he said. “I’d like it to move a little faster, but I definitely think it’s going in the right direction
“I believe to turn anything around in (any endeavor), it takes hope, passion and endurance. And endurance is the biggest thing. If you can endure, then you’ll keep your hope and passion alive.”
Allegations, no charges
Those most familiar with CU point to the winter of 2004 as the turning point when the program began to unravel. That’s when allegations of sexual assault and other improprieties by CU football players and potential recruits were revealed in a report leaked fromthe district attorney’s office. Though no player or recruit was ever prosecuted, the ensuing furor prompted national headlines. Soon after, those inside the CU athletic department were forced to deal with what came to be called “The Ordeal.”
The Ordeal eventually contributed to the ouster of athletic director Dick Tharp and resignation of president BetsyHoffman. It can be argued CU’s football program has never recovered. It drastically hampered — then-coach Gary Barnett would say crippled — recruiting efforts for years to come. Andit left a black mark with an enduring shadow, revealing a deep schism in the CU community.
To this day, Barnett, the man who coached the Buffs from19992005, passionately rejects the perception that he ran an out-of-control program.
“By the end of my tenure, we had gone through allegations that were unfounded and recruiting issues that were never substantiated,” said Barnett, who works as a college football commentator for Sports USA radio. “Nevertheless, it created unrest around our program thatmade it very difficult to recruit and compete with the likes of Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12.”
CU’s recruiting woes were of little concern to those who believed that Barnett’s players had broken the lawandwere shielded because they played football.
“Are there factions in Colorado, and in Boulder and on campus, that don’t like athletics? Absolutely,” said Steve Bosley, CU’s regent at-large. “Are there at other schools? Are there more here? I would guess yes, probably. There are thosewho think athletics play too big a role, and they would rather it have a diminished role.”
In the midst of The Ordeal, CU administrators enacted widespread changes in recruiting policies thatwere among the toughest in the country: recruiting visits to campuswould occur primarily after the season; visitations were limited to one overnight stay, rather than two nights; the use of player hosts was discontinued; and recruits were not allowed to attend private parties.
In 2008, those football-specific recruiting restrictions were replaced by less-strict guidelines that governed all of CU’s intercollegiate sports. But the damagewas done.
“It was all an internal knee-jerk reaction,” Barnett said.“We had 11 p.m. curfews for recruits instead of midnight. It became well known in recruiting circles how ridiculous it all was. … As late as 2005, we were not allowed GPS devices in rental cars when we went into cities. Can you imagine trying to recruit, and then ending up getting lost in Miami or Houston?”
Hard to rebuild recruiting
Big games before sellout crowds at Folsom Field are a distant memory. That’s what happens when your recruiting classes lack star power. Though the toughened recruiting restrictions were lifted six years ago, CUhasn’t been able to rebound and get top talent on a consistent basis. Once you sink to the bottom, there’s no easy way back up in today’s college landscape, due in part to the enormous financial commitments being made by “power five” conference schools.
In its past five recruiting classes, CU has landed a total of just four four-star signees: wide receiver Paul Richardson (2010), defensive backs Kenneth Crawley and Yuri Wright (2012) and wide receiver Shay Fields (2014).
Even when the Buffs appeared to strike it rich on the recruiting trail, it proved to be fool’s gold. Dan Hawkinswas hired to replace Barnett, who was fired after the 2005 season. After a disastrous 2-10 first season, Hawkins took a 6-6 team to the Independence Bowl after the 2007 season, where it nearly beat Alabama. Things were looking up.
Hawkins then signed a national top-15 recruiting class in February.
More buzz. And yet, four of the eight “stars” of that recruiting class washed out, and Hawkins never recovered. He was fired with three games left in the 2010 season, finishing with an overall 16-33 record.
“We were going to be the class that turned things around atColorado,” recalled former quarterbackTyler Hansen. “Itwas a good class. It just turned out that we had some knuckleheads too.”
Five-star running back Darrell Scott was the headliner but was beaten out by two-star Rodney “Speedy” Stewart, and Scott quit the team during his sophomore season.
TheHawkins eramystifiesmany at CU. He had a sterling track record, having compiled a 53-11 record at Boise State, and was a hot coaching commodity when the Buffs hired him. But he left behind a lot of hard feelings, and not only because he started his son, Cody, at quarterback for most of four seasons. Whereas most new coaches embrace a program’s history and tradition and seek out help, Hawkins appeared at times to coachCU as if hewere still in Boise.
“From my own frame of reference, I think the image (CU) created for Dan Hawkins when they brought him to Boulder was inaccurate,” Barnett said. “He thought he would be in an environment like he had at Boise State. He had no idea howhard itwould be here with the restrictions he faced.”
Many CU supporters also believe that Hawkins intentionally separated himself from CU’s past by cutting ties to Barnett and Bill McCartney, the legendary coach who won a national title in 1990.
With the programin free-fall in the fall of 2010, CUturned to a former Buff, Jon Embree, a star tight end and assistant coach under