Embattled Colorado football coach Dan Hawkins sounds like a man desperately wanting for someone, anyone, to agree that he knows what he is doing.</p><p>In video from his Tuesday news conference and &mdash; according to reports in the Boulder Daily Camera &mdash; Hawkins has come down from high expectations that Colorado could win 10 games this season. The Buffaloes&rsquo; 2-5 start to this season seemingly has brought Hawkins down to earth.</p><p>If not to his knees. That&rsquo;s a bad place to be with Missouri, which has beaten Colorado badly in each of the last two seasons, coming to Boulder on Saturday looking for its first Big 12 win.</p><p>&ldquo;In my deepest darkest moments, there is no question it&rsquo;s hard; it&rsquo;s a hard deal,&rdquo; Hawkins said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m probably as hard on myself as anybody.</p><p>&ldquo;But that being said, I do think we continue to work through it. Has it taken longer than we expected? Yeah, I&rsquo;m not going to lie to you. It probably has. Have we made some mistakes along the way? Yep. I&rsquo;ve made mistakes for 27 years.&rdquo;</p><p>The Boulder Daily Camera quoted Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn as saying:</p><p>&ldquo;I know he recognizes he has room for improvement, room for adjustment, room for change. It&rsquo;s been refreshing to watch him over the last several weeks embrace that.&rdquo;</p><p>Hawkins&rsquo; handling of quarterbacks Tyler Hansen and Cody Hawkins, the coach&rsquo;s son, has caused bafflement to disgust. Former Colorado quarterback Joel Klatt and former MU quarterback Corby Jones were particularly critical on Fox Sports&rsquo; Big 12 wrap-up show last weekend.</p><p>Hansen, who took off his redshirt in week six and led Colorado to a 34-30 upset of Kansas, was replaced (twice) by Cody Hawkins in Colorado&rsquo;s 20-6 loss at Kansas State last Saturday.</p><p>On Tuesday, Hawkins used Hansen as a prop, in the midst of Hawkins&rsquo; media session which Hansen attended, asking Hansen, &ldquo;Have I been up front with you from the get go?&rdquo;</p><p>Of course, Hansen nodded yes.</p><p>&ldquo;To the fans that are frustrated,&rdquo; Hawkins said in his news conference, &ldquo;I would just say this guys: There is no conspiracy. There&rsquo;s no underhandedness.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no subplot. There&rsquo;s not another shooter on the hill.&rdquo;</p><p>On the field, the Buffaloes under Hawkins have been struggling to do much of anything right.</p><p>Colorado is last in the Big 12 in scoring and total offense, passing efficiency and pass efficiency defense, and punt return average, and punting.</p><p>Colorado is 11th in the league in scoring defense, rushing offense and giving up sacks.</p><p>It supports Hawkins&rsquo; yin and yank philosophy of playing quarterbacks the last two games that both Hansen and Cody Hawkins have been sacked 10 times.</p><p>Hawkins said Hansen is his quarterback this week, even in the 2-minute drill where Cody Hawkins was used last week.</p><p>The litany of struggles goes on and on and on in Dan Hawkins&rsquo; fourth year as the Colorado coach.</p><p>But perhaps help is on the way. This isn&rsquo;t the Missouri offense that blasted Colorado by a combined score of 113-10 the last two meetings.</p><p>Missouri &mdash; in consecutive losses to Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Texas &mdash; has been outscored 101-36.