Another CU quarterback cut, the anti-Hawkins

This week's cut-down mandate has been disappointing to CU Buffs as Koy Detmer becomes the latest, joining Hannibal Navies and Joel Klatt. Jeremy Bloom was also placed on injured reserve Tuesday.

Detmer threw for nearly 5,400 yards and 40 scores while in school between 1992-96, numbers that would have been much higher if not for injury. He left CU as a 7th-round pick of the Eagles and was rarely needed, considering Donovan McNabb was drafted in the first round in 1999.

Detmer has completed 184 of 354 passes for 1944 yards with 10 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in his career.

His college performances were of much higher quality, holding the school record for passing yards in a season with 3,156, tying a school record for TD strikes in a game, with 5 against Iowa State, and most TD passes in a season with 22. All those marks came in 1996.

A small-but-accomplished prep quarterback from Texas, who, like his brother Ty (a Heisman Trophy winner at Brigham Young), was coached by his father, Sonny, had confidence, composure and a gunslinger attitude.

Detmer might not be done yet as a team in need of a steady hand, team-first player could sign him as a third quarterback, at minimum and maybe, in the right situation he could be a backup.


Montana State not coming to Boulder with it's tail between its' legs

Despite the woe-is-me act that Bobcats' coach Mike Kramer is practicing these days, his team is coming to Boulder to win. You can bet at practice and meetings Kramer is preaching a different sermon, maybe David vs. Goliath, although a victory by Montana State, while big, wouldn't quite measure out on a biblical scale.

Kramer was quoted in a Rocky Mountain News article that the game shouldn't even be played.

"I don't want to play any of those games" he said in reference to Division I-A opponents. "I'd be a fool, a liar and a hypocrite if I said otherwise. For a coach, they serve no purpose."

"Anything we do well could be lost under an avalanche of points. We could play very well and still, my guys might look at the scoreboard and say 'Good God, we're not very good."

Give the man credit for being honest. He knows his program is not in the Big 12, it doesn't have the resources that CU does, and his players aren't, on whole, as big, fast and as talented as those in black and gold.

Can you imagine the Buffs' coach making such a statement?

Ever?

As a coach, being a realist works when talking to a player about his potential and what he has to do to play but as a pre-game talk, it is counter-productive, setting the stage for a blowout.

How does any coach know what's going to happen in a game. Coaches, of all people, know that all too well. Maybe CU is flat, stumbles and fumbles it's way through a penalty-marred game and your team busts some plays and the Buffs go into a shell.

Every year there are upsets, especially at the beginning of the season.

You build up your team, telling them what might be possible if you all come together and execute consistently, have faith and play hard.

Right?

Playing CU will be a tall order but the Buffs are not a Top 25 team.

Kramer is doing a disservice to his team, selling them short, and teaching them not to dream of accomplishments ordinary men can't fathom.

What are the players in the Bobcats' helmets going to be thinking when they walk out on to the field Saturday?

Yes, he is selling something different at Montana State practices but to make any comments to the contrary in the press has to leave players wondering his confidence in them.

The Buffs will take any advantage they can get to kick off the Dan Hawkins' era.

NOTES...former CU safety Tyrone Henderson is expected to play significant minutes against his former team and you can bet your Coors he will be bringing the wood. This is Henderson's Super Bowl. Yes, Hawkins did him a big favor but he still wants to show CU it made a mistake in dismissing him from the team. Look for some spirited play. Isaac Garden, a great name for an award-winning physicist or Nobel Peace Prize winner, will start at punter for the Buffs. Junior wide receiver Alvin Barnett has had his one-game suspension go by the waistside, the Denver Post has reported. Barnett was ticketed for DUI this spring but the courts did not prosecute the case. Barnett caught just 17 passes for 131 last years after more was expected of him. The Post also reported that Hawkins, ever thinking of new ways to connect with recruits and his players, sends his team encouraging text messages. Who is this guy! How could a recruit or player be unaffected by his style? If he can coach in the Big 12 and then recruit at a higher level than his two predecessors, he's going to be a winner in Boulder. Those are big "if's" but how can you not get the feeling something special is already happening at CU. It won't happen overnight, but the proram is in motion, and better things should be on the horizon.