The Buffs

You know being a Bungals fan wasn't always so bad because I was also a Colorado Buffaloes fan. While the Bungals had a shot at winning nothing in the '90's, the Buffs program developed into a solid program in that same time pan, playing for what could have been three national championships (and only getting one - and having to share it with Georgia Tech thanks to a loss to Illinois) - and playing getting screwed out of playing for a fourth in '02.

However, since Dan Hawkins has been hired by the Buffs, the program has been a joke. Actually, since Rick Neuhisel took over for Bill McCartney in 1995. Neuhisel, Gary Barnett, and Hawkins just have not measured up to McCartney's teams.

Part of it is that the program stopped going after mean, nasty, football players (some of whom happened to be inner-city gang members), but they would kick the snot out of you on the football field.

The latter regimes seemed to prefer recruiting pampered, trust fund equipped, suburban spoiled football players. In fact, Neuhisel would often take the team skiing instead of practicing. Could you imagine McCartney doing that?

Watching the current Buffs is torture. They all look like a bunch of whining pampered babies. Not football players.

And it's not like the arrests have gone down either. Actually, McCartney's inner city kids got into less trouble the the latter batches. Remember the rape scandal and questions around group sex and excessive drinking around Barnett's players?

But Hawkins is the worst.

He has won a total (after last night's embarrassing loss to Colorado State) of 13 games going into his fourth year. That was a good year for McCartney - and even Neuhisel.

He came to CU from Boise State where he was known as a creative offensive mastermind. However, he has been no such thing with the Buffs.

The trouble started when he recruited his son, Cody, to play quarterback. Conflict of interest. Plus, Cody is all of 5'11''. Not a good sign for success. No wonder he has thrown his fair share of interceptions - most of which have been tipped passes. His passes that have been knocked down are triple that number.

We should have known we were in trouble from the start when Hawkins lost his first game. Sure he beat Oklahoma, ranked #1, that year. But that was about it for key wins.

There was hope in his second year, reaching a bowl game, but they lost to Alabama. But look where Alabama is now - having played Florida in the SEC championship, which amounted to a national title game.

His goal was 10 wins. He'll be lucky to reach half that.