The murmurs grow louder

If you've been paying attention, you've noticed the media heat has been been getting hotter on the CU program.

I've seen articles questioning coach Dan Hawkins, saying former head Buff Gary Barnett would not be leading an 0-6 team and Monday I read an article by Patrick Ridgell of the Longmont Daily Times-Call painting CU as the worst program in the Big 12, falling below those mangy Bears of Baylor.

The hits keep coming, some above the belt, some below and Hawkins isn't fazed one bit.

Which is a good thing because a lesser man could break and be on the verge of getting knocked out of credibility with his players.

If you follow and root for this program, you should not bash Hawkins positive personality, expectant belief and refusal to believe nothing but brighter days are coming because that's exactly who he needs to be to get this ship righted and sailing into top-25 waters again.

Remember such coaches as Tom Miller and Joe Harrington for the basketball program. Brother. Miller was a big a sourpuss as there was. No wonder the program went nowhere. Who wants to get excited about "that reality." Harrington wilted. Even current basketball coach Ricardo Patton shows signs of wearing out.

Barnett?

Remember his approach for a while? Blaming players, the media, and the denial of responsibility for anything?

Did any of the above-mentioned responses portend good things on the horizon?

Think what many might, Hawkins didn't walk into the doors with the talent Bill McCartney left Rick Neuheisel or the talent Neuheisel left Gary Barnett. Some seem to think Barnett's achievements, which I laud, were somehow tantamount to the greatest coaching job in sports history and, at the same time, absolve him of all wrongdoing, on and off the field, during that time. Barnett is as John Gotti once was, teflon. Barnett, in the minds of some, never lost a game, won the national championship each season and all his players vied for magna cum laude and summa cum laude honors. They all either became congressman (oh, wait a minute), cured diseases or saved women and children daily.

O.K., the point of this is not to look at Barnett, as he is enough of a pied piper with loyal rebels but to say, Hawkins cannot be judged as a decision maker or leader of young men after six games.

Six games.

Think of the lunacy of that reaction.

Now if CU were getting hammered 40-0 in each of those contests, then, yeah, maybe Boise State Bob is in over his head, but know something, I think some cat who once coached the mighty Oklahoma Sooners and then the New England Patriots was much more of a disappointment than Hawkins.

What do you think?

No one, whether it be players, media, fans, boosters, etc. is going to be happy with losing. Hawkins realizes it. He doesn't like it either. And like he says often, most of those people will think he's a genius when the program does an about face, which it says here, will not happen for three-to-four years.

New Orleans isn't rebuilt yet, and neither is CU.

A commitment to success, the willingness to work, a little bit of improvement each day and an unshakable faith it's all going to happen. That's the plan. Hawkins hasn't lost faith. He's not just selling it in the media. The man believes it. The question is, do we?