Hawkins can take CU back to the mountaintop.(COLLEGE FOOTBALL)

The first order of business for Dan Hawkins when meeting his new players at Colorado was a sales pitch. To a kicker.

No disrespect to Mason Crosby--an All-American kicker--but there are much bigger issues on the Flatirons than pleading with a kicker to shun the NFL for one more season.

Here's a coach whose free-wheeling, Zen-embracing style had his Boise State teams among the nation's leaders in points, yards per game and fun the past four seasons. Suddenly, field goals are a priority.

"There area lot of good things about this deal," Hawkins says.

CU's personnel situation isn't one of them. The other day I heard a bobblehead analyst say Hawkins was inheriting a team "loaded" with talent. No team in the sad Big 12 North division is more devoid of talent at the skill positions than CU.

Then there's the stench from the recruiting/sex/run-everyone-out-of-town scandal. Basically, any blue-chip recruit worth his weight in Rivals.com stars has wanted nothing to do with the place.

All that gloom and doom aside, know this: Hawkins will win at Colorado and win big. Not Charlie Weis early, but sooner rather than later.