Stay Focused Buff Bites

It looks like BuffZag had good sources as Shane Harris-Tunks, an intriguing 6-foot-11 center/forward from Australia, is the third Buffs recruit in the 2008 - 2009 campaign. How awesome is it that BuffZag broke a recruit. He will be on SBNation soon with The Kennel Report, a Gonzaga blog. Very little is know about Harris-Tunks:

According to a bio for the Australian Institute of Sport, "(Harris-Tunks) is a good passer and has the ability to score in a variety of ways but it will be his presence at the defensive end of the floor that (his current) team will depend on him."

The Buffs are supposed to be making considerable offensive changes this week for the Texas A&M game. Considerable would be dropping the spread. Considerable would be playing Hansen the whole game.

From the Neil Woelk's Daily Camera article:

Asked what his advice to his players has been, Hawkins chuckled.

"Relax. Have fun. Smile a little bit," Hawkins said. "My job is to get these kids to stay balanced, stay focused."

Hopefully, he just left out the part about trying to get these guys more prepared than he has so far this year. I would like to see Hawkins intensity raised a notch or two.

For all the doom and gloom on CU message boards and blogs, Coach Hawkins has an unbelievable knack at keeping things calm. At first, I was frustrated reading his responses to the media luncheon questions but now I think it is important to present a good united front. On the practice field, though, heads better be turning. I don't agree with this answer from Hawk, though:

On Blitzing Missouri QB Chase Daniel

"It's hard to get to him. One, they put him deeper than other teams do. Again, he's got full command of what's going on; and because of the nature of their routes and the way they time things up, if you watch all of the film that Coach Collins and those guys watch, very few times you get there."

I wish someone would have asked him why he squib the first kickoff with a kicker who boots it out of the endzone?

Hawk is impressed with freshman RB Darrell Scott's maturity this year. No doubt it has been a tough year all around:

"I've just been so impressed with his attitude about everything since coming here," Hawkins said. "That, to me, has been awesome, been great. He's going to have many days on Folsom Field where he tears it up. He's going to be a great player. He will. His time will come."

Hawkins then said about Scott:

He's going to have many days at Folsom Field where he tears it up. He's going to be a great player. He will."

One can only hope!