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Colorado Buffaloes @ Hawaii Warriors Football Preview

One of the two new arrivals in the just-created Pacific 12 Conference has a right to expect a division title.

Then there are the Colorado Buffaloes.

Yes, while Utah can legitimately claim to be a contender in the first year of the Pac-12 and its split-division format, the same is not true of the team that joined the Utes to form a 12-member league.    Colorado enters 2011 shifting its focus from the South Central Plains region to the West, entering the Pac-12 after 15 years in the Big 12. Colorado last won a Big 12 division title in 2005, and has steadily plummeted ever since. The program hit rock bottom last year when a 45-17 fourth-quarter lead at lowly Kansas turned into a 52-45 loss to the Jayhawks. That humiliating defeat led to the prompt dismissal of head coach Dan Hawkins. The CU crew is now starting from scratch as it enters a foreign land that will take time to adjust to.

The Buffaloes welcome Jon Embree home to Boulder as the new head coach. The former tight end and (later) position coach at Colorado, Embree returns after four years coaching in the NFL. On the field, Colorado will be led by senior quarterback Tyler Hansen, who greatly improved his completion percentage (from 55 in 2009 to 68 in the first half of 2010) before he was benched and did not see any time in the final six games of the season by former coach Dan Hawkins, whose relationship with son Cody clearly clouded the quarterback situation at CU. Rodney Stewart also returns in Colorado’s backfield after stampeding for 1,318 rushing yards in 2010.   Hansen and Stewart, two seniors with a lot to prove, will be tasked with improving the Buffs’ 80 th-ranked offense.

Colorado ’s defense will need to show improve out of the gate; a unit soft enough to surrender 400 yards per game would likely struggle against the historically strong offense of Hawaii. While the Warriors averaged nearly 400 passing yards per game in 2010 and quarterback Bryant Moniz does return, all of his key targets are gone. Greg Salas, Kealoha Pilares, and Alex Green have all moved on to the NFL. All eyes will be on Royce Pollard to emerge as Moniz’s primary target to keep Hawaii’s high-flying offense on pace. Even as the tertiary target in the receiving corps last year, Pollard caught 64 passes for 901 yards and seven touchdowns. Moniz will need a big year from Pollard and other new faces to step up if he is to repeat his 5,000-plus-yard performance.

> Browse a great selection of Colorado Buffaloes apparel online as well as Colorado Buffaloes Merchandise through Pac 10 Fans and partner sites.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer