Boulder, Colo. ? The Kansas University football defense was so stingy again that it took a little trickery for Colorado University’s offense to find the end zone for the first time with 9:50 left in the third quarter of Saturday’s game at Folsom Field.
Kansas went on to win, 19-14, but the Cody Hawkins-to-Tyson DeVree 27-yard touchdown pass gave Colorado a 7-3 lead.
Pretending to fumble, Hawkins turned his back on the KU defense, moved the football down toward the turf and wheeled around to pass to a wide-open DeVree.
“The whole offense yells, ‘Fumble,'” Hawkins said. “I just had to wait until the safety came up and then dump the ball to Tyson.”
Cody Hawkins is the son of second-year coach Dan Hawkins, the former Boise State coach.
“Boise State ran that play a few years ago and almost scored a touchdown,” Cody Hawkins said.
Asked if he ever had seen the play, KU coach Mark Mangino said: “Yeah, I have. It’s been awhile. In fact, I go back to small-college ball. Some team ran it against us.”
Most of the big plays by a quarterback came from KU sophomore Todd Reesing, who made quite an impression on Buffaloes star linebacker Jordon Dizon.
“He’s as fast as our linebackers and almost as fast as our DB’s,” Dizon said. “And he isn’t a quarterback to shy away from contact. He’ll lower his shoulder and get some extra yards. He was able to get yards with his feet when he needed to, and he did a good job of keeping their offense on the field. He played well today.”
Dan Hawkins’ defensive game plan was to take away the pass and force KU to run the ball. Reesing still managed to move the offense well enough to win the game.
“He’s a good player,” the CU coach said of Reesing. “Very competitive, and it’s hard to keep a player like that down.”
KU’s defense also made an impression on CU’s coach and players, including tailback Byron Ellis.
“I have to tip my hat to them. They came hard all day, especially their defensive line,” Ellis said. “They kept us guessing on offense and really applied consistent pressure. The linebackers did a good job playing the gaps and were really prepared for our cutbacks. We had a lot of success off that last week, and they came in prepared for it and kept us from repeating our performance from last week. That shows that they have good coaches and the players to execute their game plan.”
