Change of pace at CU

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

Colorado's new interim football coach, Brian Cabral, right, listens as athletic director Dick Tharp speaks during a news conference in Boulder, Colo. Associated Press

In fact, the first Hawai'i-bred head football coach on the Division I-A level since Larry Price at the University of Hawai'i in the mid-1970s said he really didn't consider himself a "head" coach no matter what the University of Colorado's announcement said.

"It is hard to say that I'm (really) a head coach," Cabral told The Advertiser. "We have a head coach named Gary Barnett. He is our head coach and I'm simply stepping up to his side to lead our team for the next 70 days."

Cabral's scandal-rocked alma mater turned to one of its favorite sons and longest-serving assistants yesterday in designating the 47-year-old to step in for Barnett as interim head coach pending the results of a school investigation into a widening controversy.

Barnett was placed on leave Wednesday by the school after insensitive criticism of Katie Hnida, a former kicker, who had charged she was raped in 2000. Barnett said Hnida was "not only a girl" but a "terrible" player.

It was among the latest chapters in the scandal that has swirled around the school since accusations of sexual assaults, strippers and binge drinking began to emerge last month.

For several years now Cabral said he has been preparing himself to someday achieve his goal of becoming a college head football coach. Seven former staff members of Cabral's at CU have become head coaches. But the Buffaloes assistant head coach and linebackers coach said, "I did not anticipate or expect for that to happen in a situation and at a time like this."

Cabral, who will run the team at least until the scheduled April 30 completion of the investigation, told a press conference he wanted to, "pull this team together" and "win back the confidence of the university, the community, the alumni (and) former players in our program."

Cabral told The Advertiser: "My motivation and challenge is that this is where the university needs me most. Our coaches and our players need what I believe I can provide them (with) in terms of leadership. I see it as an opportunity and a challenge to help the university the best I can."

Sophomore quarterback Erik Greenberg told The Associated Press: "There's not a bigger Buff than coach Cabral. He has great heart and great character."

Cabral was a three-year letterman at CU, where the annual special teams award was named after him, and a starter at linebacker before going on to the NFL as a fourth-round draft pick. He played nine seasons in the pros, including the 1986 Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears.

He was a volunteer assistant at Northwestern and an assistant at Purdue before returning to Boulder in 1989 as a graduate assistant. In 15 seasons in Boulder under three head coaches, he has risen through the ranks.

In 1999 he was named assistant head coach to Barnett and in 2002 Cabral was named an AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year.

Ironically, Cabral said he initially had no intention of going into coaching at all. "Never dreamed of it," he said. It wasn't until he neared the end of his NFL days that, "my wife (Becky) said to me matter-of-factly, 'I think you would make a great coach.'

"If I'm smart, I usually listen to my wife."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.