and what a game it was. I never would of expected a 14-13 game, crazy! Looks like I missed a great live thread, so here are some of my thoughts in my normal post-game rambling post:
The D (as they’ve been most of the year) and the defensive playcalling was great. I don’t think we have any true “studs” on our D and we have a helluva time getting pressure on the QB if we don’t blitz but tonight the secondary was holding their own and when we send Jones or Walters in on the blitz we can wreak some havoc. I’ve been really hard on the coaching staff this year but good job Collins.
Special teams were pretty disappointing. Goodman continues to suck and Dilallo did pretty bad tonight. What’s up with all the 30 yard punts? It also seems our punters and kickers are always under pressure but we never even get close to blocking a kick.
Stewart was great but he needs to secure the ball. Obviously as a big Darrell Scott guy I was annoyed again with his play. He had one great run but again it seems he never really gets a chance. One run and then he sits for 10 minutes. Let him get in a rhythm!
Obviously the number one story of the night was Hansen. What a performance! I just watched Coach Hawkins’ press conference and he thanked the local media for not spilling the beans on the fact that he was taking a lot of the 1st team reps in practice and Ballenger was running the scout team. I kind of jumped on the Ballenger bandwagon but I never really thought he was a long term solution, Cody was just playing so bad that I thought he gave us a better chance to win. The Hansen situation is totally different. If you pull a freshman’s redshirt this late in the season and he so obviously brings a lot more to the table than your current starter you HAVE TO PLAY HIM. Hansen needs to get the majority of the snaps for the rest of the season. Even though tonight’s game was a gutty, hard-fought victory let’s be realistic, we still have MAJOR issues, and winning tonight doesn’t make me think we’re suddenly gonna win 8 or 9 games. We’ll still be fortunate to win 6 or 7. There will obviously be growing pains but he needs to learn the complete offensive playbook and when he does he will give us the best chance to win because he is bigger, faster, and just as good a passer as Cody is right now (and he should pass him easily with time). Cody is a class act and a great kid and he will play a huge part in our success but I think he days as QB 1 are numbered. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he is a coach for CU in about 5 years. What do you all think? I think we saw the future tonight (and what I believe should also be the present, warts and all).

I saw on another site that Nebraska is coming after this Denver kicker/punter. No wonder: He’s a top combo guy – you get two players for the price of one.

http://www.prokicker.com/rankings/recruiting/combos

I don’t get it.

Zach Grossnickle, Denver East

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYvJHLv39qY

His ties to CU are as good as they get: his HS coach played on the national championship team back in 90-91. He’s in our backyard. What are they waiting for?

I don’t think that FG kickers need to be 100% or should be held to that standard.
But missing 6 or 7 in a row is pretty bad. A miss once in a while is forgiveable, but he’s now missed far more than he’s made.

And KSU’s kicker scored more than half of their points. He kept them IN the game.

He’s got a lot of press on Scout, too.

I was at the East / Hinkley game yesterday. The buzz in the East stands was that Nebraska was coming hard after him. I haven’t seen that published anywhere, but there were some CU fans who were talking about it. This was before CU played and Goodman missed another FG.

Grossnickle had a good game: six touchbacks and a 40+ yard fg and some good punts inside the 20. All around solid player.

It was sort of funny watching the opposing coach scream and yell and signal his players to GET BACK on punts and kickoffs – the coach knew about Grossnickle’s leg, but the players didn’t. The other school (Aurora Hinkley – with a 1-7 record) has a quarterback who also kicks, punts and I think might have been the punt returner too. Must be tough – really tough – to be a good player on a less than stellar team. But either he wasn’t that great on kickoffs or Hinkley didn’t want to try, as every single kickoff appeared to be onsides. Let’s hope that was intentional and not the extent of his ability.

They could have just been kicking short on purpose to avoid East’s Quentin Hildreth possibility of returning them for a TD, as he often does. Another good player to watch. May not be the size for CU, but he’ll definitately play in college. Great moves.

But back on topic.

Even though I predicted a 27-14 CU win, I was bluffing. I was surprised and very happy that they pulled off that rocky win.

Surprised at how well it worked for Hansen and Hawkins to share duties. And I think Hawkins showed some true character, cheering on Hansen. Very impressive leadership.

I am hopeful for rest of season. Kicking game aside, there are improvements in many areas.

Agreed on the dirty hit to Josh Smith—a full-speed gunner spearing right in the nuts. Hawkins was furious on the sidelines, and on TV it was easy to read Hawk’s jestures and lips…Thriow him out! Throw him out!

but as you said,

Just what the Buffs needed to get back on track.

What I liked was the feeling of the team that we were going to keep fighting and do whatever we could to win. The last few games it certainly feels like the team kind of rolled over and waited for the inevitable loss to happen, whereas saturday you really felt like they weren’t going to go down without trying everything they could. Great win.