Buffaloes struggling mightily

Boulder, Colo., hasn't been a destination for success to the Texas A&M football program in recent years, but the Aggies have a chance to change that in a big way Saturday.

A&M (5-3, 2-2 Big 12) can become bowl-eligible and top last season's league victory total with a win over the Colorado Buffaloes. A&M, though, isn't accustomed to celebrating at Folsom Field. The Aggies are 1-3 in Boulder, having lost their last two trips.

"I don't think we put a whole lot of credence in what's gone on before," CU head coach Dan Hawkins said. "We're just trying to get better."

While the Aggies are a victory away from extending their season, the Buffaloes (2-6, 1-3) are a loss away from being eliminated from postseason consideration.

"I hope we're in a cut-it-loose mode," Hawkins said during his Tuesday's press conference.

Many fans want to cut loose Hawkins, who has failed to come close to matching the success he had at Boise State in five seasons (53-11). Hawkins is 15-30 in his fourth season with the Buffaloes, including a 9-19 league record. Colorado has been to one bowl in that time, a 30-24 loss to Alabama in the 2007 Independence Bowl.

Neill Woelk, a columnist for the Daily Camera in Boulder, has written several times that financially strapped Colorado can't afford a $3 million buyout of Hawkins, then have to spend more money to bring in a new coach.

Hawkins opted to turn his press conference last week before the homecoming game into a state of the program synopsis that took 23 minutes.

Hawkins said he wasn't going anywhere, and that he planned to see this thing through and was 100 percent sure it will happen.

At this week's press conference, Hawkins said he's received no feedback from those comments. Unfortunately, that included his team, which went out Saturday and allowed Missouri to score the first 33 points en route to a 36-17 victory, dropping the Buffs into a last-place tie in the North with Missouri and Kansas.

Colorado will be hard-pressed to run the table and become bowl-eligible. The Buffs are three-point underdogs to the Aggies, and their next games are at Iowa State and Oklahoma State before ending the season at home against Nebraska.

Hawkins would need to win three games to match last year's 5-7 season, which included a tough 24-17 loss at Kyle Field. The Aggies outscored the Buffs 21-0 in the third quarter.

A&M head coach Mike Sherman said "we were fortunate to win that ballgame" and expects to see CU at its best Saturday.

"I have a lot of respect for what they do and how they do it," Sherman said. "They are a good coaching staff. We prepare for this game like we do every other game."

The CU staff includes a Sherman disciple in former Buffaloes All-America offensive guard Brad Bedell, who is in his third season as an offensive technical intern. Bedell played for Sherman in the NFL at Green Bay and Houston and praised his former coach in a story written this week by cubuffs.com's by B.G. Brooks.

Bedell is trying to instill a more physical approach to the CU young offensive linemen.

If the offense can click, CU's defense has played well in several games. Texas could muster only 313 yards in Austin against the Buffs but blocked a punt for a touchdown, returned an interception for a touchdown and had a punt return for another score in a 38-14 victory.

"They're a good third-down team on defense," Sherman said of the Buffs. "They play a lot of different coverages. They can give you some problems."

Colorado's opponents are converting third downs at only 32.5 percent, which is 16th in the country -- one spot ahead of A&M. The Buffs have forced 16 turnovers, which is 42nd in the country, and they are fourth in red zone defense (22 of 33).

Hawkins and the Buffs haven't had a good start to the week. Sophomore tailback Darrell Scott, the highest-ranked recruit during Hawkins' reign, announced Tuesday he was transferring. Colorado also said that freshman defensive end Nick Kasa is gone for the season because of mononucleosis.

Hawkins laughed during the Big 12 coaches teleconference Monday when someone asked him if he felt snake-bitten. He said that's just football.

A few years ago, the demonstrative Hawkins grabbed national headlines for responding to an anonymous letter from a parent upset that the head football coach was shrinking the players' vacation time by a week.

"It's Division I football!" Hawkins bellowed. "It's the Big 12. It ain't intramurals.

"You've got two weeks [vacation] after finals, you've got a week of July Fourth and you get a week before camp starts. That's a month -- that's probably more vacation then you [media] get. And we're a little bummed out that we don't get three weeks?

"Go play intramurals, brother, go play intramurals."

Hawkins again earned headlines over the offseason because of an attempt to motivate his team at last year's season-ending banquet by saying it was time for "10 wins and no excuses."

Thus far, he hasn't found the right buttons to push for this year's team to be successful.

"I've stood at the pulpit several times this year and been pretty demonstrative," Hawkins said. "You can't do that all the time, because sometimes, that wears out. I [also] don't think you have to be a yeller or screamer. It has to be something inside you for whatever reason that compels you to bring your A game."

The only time the Buffs have come close to that for four quarters was a 34-30 victory over Kansas at home Oct. 17.

*

NOTES -- Last time A&M was in Colorado was 2005. Both teams were 3-1 and coming off league-opening wins. Colorado rushed to a 31-6 halftime lead en route to a 41-20 victory. ... In 2001, both teams were 5-0 and 2-0 in league play. The 20th-ranked Buffs clinched a 31-21 victory over the 25th-ranked Ags on a 52-yard fumble recovery with 58 seconds left. ... A&M's lone victory in Boulder came in 1997. The 21st-ranked Aggies held on for a 16-10 victory over the 16th-ranked Buffaloes. ... A&M's toughest loss in Boulder came the year before the formation of the Big 12. Seventh-ranked Colorado grabbed a 29-21 victory over the third-ranked Aggies in 1995.

TEXAS A&M FOOTBALL

* Saturday's game: Texas A&M (5-3, 2-2 in Big12) at Colorado (2-6, 1-3), 12:40 p.m.

* TV/radio: Fox College Sports (available in B-CS on DirecTV)/WTAW, 1620 AM and Sirius Ch. 154.

* Line: A&M by 3