Conventional wisdom says Tyler Hansen should have been wary.You don't commit to a program where the quarterback you will be competing with for time is the head coach's son. Period.
But that is exactly what the lightly-recruited Hansen did two years ago when he committed to Dan Hawkins and the Colorado Buffaloes, with Cody Hawkins already entrenched as the team's signal caller. Ever since, it had been a rollercoaster ride for Hanson.
The sophomore happens to be on a big up right now after having his redshirt yanked in mid-season two weeks ago for the second year in a row, and after sparking a surprising 34-30 win over No. 16 Kansas this past weekend in his first start. Suddenly, the previously reeling Buffaloes have hope and a new starting quarterback.
"It's been a wild ride, a lot of ups and downs from going from redshirt to not redshirting, to thinking I'm going to start to not playing," Hansen told FanHouse this week. "It's been a wild, crazy ride, but you've just got to be resilient and battle through it and just know that in the end things work themselves out."
It's that belief that got him through the difficult times, the times when Hansen thought he had done just enough to beat out his coach's son, only to find out he didn't. That was never more the case than this summer when after a neck-and-neck battling for the No. 1 spot began in spring ball and lasted until the final week of fall camp -- only to have Cody end up with the job.
It didn't help much either when the Buffaloes started out of the gate poorly, suffering embarrassing losses to Colorado State and Toledo, and then a tough defeat to West Virginia took the luster off the first win of the season the previous week. All Hansen could do was suffer quietly after making the decision to redshirt to put a little distance between him and Cody, a junior, in class rank.
"I'm not going to lie, I was pretty frustrated," Hansen said. "I wanted this starting job, I wanted to lead this team to victory, especially early in the season when were (1-3). That was the worst time in my life.
"That was another factor that went into me playing. I wanted to lead this team to victory and turn this thing around. I guess it's worked out so far."
There was a big part of Hansen that also wanted to show the coaching staff in general and Dan Hawkins in particular that they picked the wrong starter to begin the season.
"Early in the year, I thought I had a good shot at getting the starting job," Hansen said. "I thought I was ready to be the starter. But they didn't see it that way, so they went with Cody.
"From there on, I wanted to prove to people that I was the guy, that I should have been playing from the get-go. I guess I kind of did that at Kansas. I showed people that I should be playing."
The coaching staff approached Hansen about giving up his redshirt season the week leading up to the Texas game. The offense was stagnant and much of the frustration was being directed at Dan and Cody Hawkins.
Hansen consulted with his parents and former high school coaches before ultimately deciding to do what was obviously best for the team and likely Coach Hawkins.
"They all said you are not guaranteed an opportunity to play ever again, you can get injured tomorrow and never play football again," said Hansen, who did little to secure the job last season when he got in as a true freshman. "So when you get an opportunity to play, you have to take it, especially at Texas. They were the second team in the country, it's unbelievable."
As expected, Hansen entered the UT game at halftime with Cody struggling in a surprisingly close game with the Longhorns. Texas pulled out the win at home, but the decision from the Colorado end was clear: Hansen would start the following week against Kansas.
Though not flawless, Hansen gave the Buffaloes an energy that had been missing all season as he made plays with both his arm and legs in engineering a fourth-quarter rally over the previously unbeaten Jayhawks. On the come-from-behind drive, Hansen ran twice for nine yards and completed 2-of-4 passes for 34 yards, including the 29-yard scoring strike to tight end Riar Greer.
Hansen completed 14-of-25 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown while running for a net 34 yards (he lost 30 yards on three sacks) and another touchdown.
Dan Hawkins attributed some of the team success to Hansen's play, but he also said the win was the result of other things at play.
"I think it's a combination of things. I think he obviously sparked us," Hawkins said. "I think the other thing is you sort of have that right time, right moment if you have been watching our team a little bit. We played pretty well against West Virginia, didn't win it. We played really well against Texas except for really four plays. So our team continues to get better, so I think there is a whole cumulative kind of an effort.
"Tyler obviously made some great plays with his legs and ran around and gave us some life and made some good throws, as well."
Any debate about who would quarterback the Buffaloes this week at Kansas State and for the remainder of the season is effectively over.
"It feels good," said Hansen, who also had his redshirt year pulled last year six games into his true freshman season. "My confidence is high, I feel like we can compete with anybody in the country right now and get a win. The team is real confident right now."
If only it was that easy for Dan Hawkins. Admittedly, it's difficult to bench any starting quarterback. It's much harder when that quarterback is your son.
Dan Hawkins, whose team was 1-4 in its first five games, can't bring himself to admit Cody needed to be replaced because of his play. The numbers, however, don't lie. Cody was last in the Big 12 in passing efficiency with a rating of 102.0 after completing 104 of 205 passes for 1,113 yards, nine touchdowns and nine interceptions in five games this season.
"It is hard and I've done it a few more times, and it's always gut-wrenching, and you hate it," Dan Hawkins said of having to bench a quarterback in-season. "It has nothing to do, really with what the kid's last name is. The reality is there are 10 other guys involved in this thing, as well as the coaching staff. It's always easy to point at the quarterback but it's never just that guy. He's not the total reason for success and he's not the total reason for failure."
Had Cody remained in the lineup and the Buffaloes continued to underachieve, it would have heightened the desire of many to see Dan Hawkins chased out of Boulder, Colo. this season. But now some of those rumblings have given way this week to talk of how the Hansen-led win has propelled the Buffaloes (2-4, 1-1 Big 12) from the bottom of the heap to a chance to play for the North division lead Saturday.
Arriving at this point has been indeed gratifying for Hansen. It's an opportunity that at times Hansen wondered if he would ever get while Cody was still there -- and honestly, maybe not even once he was gone.
"That's the biggest thing," Hansen said. "I knew coming into Colorado that it was going to be a little rough and a battle to get the starting job early with Coach Hawkins having a son here. So I knew I had to push myself that much more to be that much better than Cody so that I can get the starting job.
"I kind of like that. It pushes me, it makes me a better play to want that. I kind of embraced it."
