Colorado enters this week's game at No. 11 Oklahoma with fifth-year senior Cody Hawkins back in the starting role and with true freshman Nick Hirschman one play away from entering his first college game.
If Hawkins gets the wind knocked out of him or has to leave the game for a play or two, it's likely CU coaches will find an alternative to putting Hirschman in the game and burning his redshirt year. But any thing more serious will result in Hirschman playing for the first time.
Hirschman is a little further along in his development than most typical true freshmen at this point because he graduated high school early and was able to enroll at CU last spring and participate in spring ball.
Still, even Hirschman acknowledges coach would have to seriously dial back the play book if he is called on. While he began learning the CU system in August and continues to in meetings and film sessions, he has been used primarily on scout team in practices, which means he is running the opponent's play each week.
That changed this week when he began getting 15-20 reps with the first team in practices and almost all the reps with the second team offense.
