Darrell Scott views the field during the Sept. 1 matchup against CSU. Scott announced Tuesday that he is leaving the CU football program. (CU Independent file/Danielle Alberti)
Former Buff George Hypolite once said Darrell Scott could win a Heisman Trophy. Now, Scott’s just another name in the laundry list of Colorado Buffaloes football transfers.
Scott met with Athletic Director Mike Bohn Wednesday, presumably to discuss the running back’s release from his scholarship. On Tuesday, Scott quit the team and announced his intention to transfer. He is expected to join his uncle, former CU wide receiver Josh Smith, at UCLA after the fall semester.
In a phone interview, Bohn chose to keep the matters of his discussion with Scott private. Bohn did, however, give his reaction to the transfer of the football player.
“It’s disappointing,” Bohn said. “I always respect each player’s decision to transfer and we wish them best on their future endeavors.”
Scott is the fifth CU player to leave the team since April. Colorado could be considered the Western Union of college football: it is where all their riches get wired to other schools.
Despite the attrition, Bohn said he is still optimistic even though the situation has worsened.
“It could be a real positive situation in terms of people knowing they can get playing time, or looking for the right fit,” Bohn said.
After Scott chatted with Bohn, he was seen around campus talking on the phone. Some players said they were able to contact him Wednesday.
“He said he made the best decision for him and he’s praying about it,” junior running back Demetrius Sumler said.
Contrary to popular belief, there are still good players on this team, many said. Sophomore running back Rodney Stewart is one, and Stewart said he’s not worried about the recent departures.
“There’s a lot of teams [that have] players transferring,” Stewart said. “It can’t affect anybody that’s still playing on this team.”
Though it may not affect anyone playing, it may concern the person coaching the team. With this latest transfer, head coach Dan Hawkins’ seat may have gotten hotter.
Scott, the nation’s top high school running back prospect in 2008, was Hawkins’ most ballyhooed recruit in his tenure at Boulder. The running back was supposed to bring CU back to national relevance or at least help them win the Big 12 North.
They have done neither and now at 2-6, CU is currently last in the division. Yet, some see Scott’s transfer as a good thing.
“It makes us stronger,” said sophomore offensive lineman Ryan Miller. “You have the kids who are going to live through it, and you’ve got those that aren’t.”
In this case, addition by subtraction seems true. For whatever reason, Scott in a black and gold uniform never quite worked out.
Scott ends his Colorado career with 438 rushing yards, only one touchdown and most notably a 7-13 record in almost two seasons of play. Those are numbers very few expected from a former five-star recruit.
But if this team is going to count on numbers, it won’t be concerning how many stars a guy got coming out of high school.
“We’ve got 120 guys on this team, that’s 120 different personalities,” Sumler said. “A guy leaving is going to happen.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Michael Krumholtz at Michael.Krumholtz@colorado.edu.
Dear Mr. Krumholtz,
I was a badly recruited Division 1 football player. I walked away from my scholarship and the team and any involvement with team sports 37 years ago.
My family, what’s left of it, still to this day cannot avoid talking about it on the rare occasions that we get together. They still get angry with me for doing it because my father was living vicariously through me, and my mother found a diversion from caring for 7 children, leaving the four smaller ones with relatives while she went to my games.
My fathers’ discust with me came out often in angry drunken tirades that took place at home after I moved away.
I have spent countless hours thinking about how I could use my experience to help other players and universities see beyond the present and make the right decisions to further their cause of building winning teams while creating loving, growing, nurturing, and healthy enviornments for their family, their school, their community, and their student athletes.
I saw the opportunity to do this with the teams I played on in grammar school, high school and college. I was successful in creating a winning enviornment when I was Captain, Quarterback, and Safety, on a Championship Pop Warner Team. I was Captain and Quarterback on a high school team that struggled to win with an unknowledgeable and controlling coach who did more to loose than anything else.
That team mutinied and went on to share the city championship and the Catholic
league championship that year. Winning wasn’t a good thing however, because the coach wasn’t happy. He had a hidden agenda. That was, to get a college coaching job, and when some of the players who were interviewed told the media that if it wasn’t for me changing the plays to one that worked, we would have lost the four critical games we needed to win to be champs. I was thrown off that team before the last game.
I went on to a new school and two years later we went undefeated and won a regional champioship. That year, the coach of my previous school resigned his coaching position and gave up on the dream of becomming a college coach. There’s more to the story as I went through the recruiting process for college but you already know that didn’t work out.
So, to the reason I am contacting you. I have been thinking about doing something for Colorado Football since I listened to the CU/ND Fed Ex Orange Bowl Game of 1991 on my car radio when I was driving home to New York from San Diego.
I would welcome a chance to be a part of the football staff and play a part in building a winning organization according to the Creed. However I have logged no hours of experience in that capacity. Also, I worked as a Stockbroker in New York and I raised a lot of money for a myriad of business entities. From Movie Studios to Theme Parks and on and on and I’m interested in knowing if you think I should look into helping the university in this endeavor.
John Sheehan
610-845-8177
jjsheehan311@hotmail.com
Anyway, I have been a Buffalo fan since the 1991 Fed Ex Orange Bowl victory over Notre Dame. Since then I have seen Colorado get stuck in the mud a few times with players getting into serious scrapes with the law, transfers, and all the things we already know about.