The first thing Mountaineers fans need to know about Colorado quarterback Cody Hawkins: He, like South Florida's Matt Grothe did before an upset of West Virginia on the road last September, originally planned to shave his hair into a mohawk for tonight.

Only problem is, that 'do won't play for Misti.

"I don't think I'm going to mohawk it, 'cause it's my mom's birthday and she might shoot me," said Hawkins, who already had dyed his brown mop for "Blackout night" at Folsom Field between the Buffaloes (2-0) and the No. 21 Mountaineers (1-1). "I'll keep it black. Maybe I'll get a mohawk after we win."

The second thing Mountaineers fans need to know about Hawkins: He has a thisclose kinship with his leading receiver.

They go back to that day three years ago when, in picturesque Aliso Viejo at a prestigious scholastic camp known as the Elite 11, ScottyMcKnight was palling around with his buddy Mark Sanchez, now the Southern California quarterback, and he stumbled across his future. One of the camp ballboys was a coach's-kid quarterback named Cody Hawkins. They remember tossing around a football from the second camp day, July 28, 2005, and they haven't stopped since -- from California to Colorado.

Every day in practice as scout-team freshmen.

A team-high 43 times for 488 yards and four scores last fall, as redshirt freshmen.

A team-high 11 times for 157 yards and a touchdown in two games so far this season.

"Some people play it up a little too much," McKnight said of their best-friends relationship on and off the field. "I definitely think we have a chemistry together, freshman year on the scout team, then last year and again this year. I don't think there's anything freaky, like telepathically knowing, 'I'm going here.' "

"Definitely," added Hawkins. "When I met Scotty at that camp, it was so funny. It was so typical. Me and Scotty are so into uniforms, we were talking about them."

They're, like, so alike, they're even the same size: 5 feet 11, 190 pounds.

"When Scotty's as passionate about the sport as you are, it's very easy to mesh. We're very, very similar players," Hawkins said.

What started at that Elite 11 camp continued the next summer, at the same assemblage. Hawkins was an invitee among a select group that went on to college starts and stardom: Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow of Florida, Georgia's Matthew Stafford, Illinois' Juice Williams, and backup Pat Devlin of Penn State, to name a few. Whatever California camps McKnight and Hawkins attended, the two made sure to connect.

"Oh, wow. Two Nike camps. Two Scout camps. Elite 11 tryouts and Elite 11 camp. Combines. Scotty always made sure he went with me," Hawkins, the younger of the two, recalled of the fast friends who hung out some summer weeks at the McKnight family Pacific beach house. "We kind of jerry-rigged it: We'd jump around lines so we could throw to each other. When college coaches were around, we were trying to throw to each other to show we had chemistry. I'm probably playing college football because of him."

When the elder Hawkins, Dan, was hired from Boise State to coach Colorado in December 2005, the quarterback son switched commitments from Broncos to Buffaloes. McKnight's road to the Rockies proved a bit more difficult.

In short, McKnight was suspended from Tesoro High after reportedly writing a threat toward an English teacher in a class journal, missing part of his senior season. His scholarship at Boise State lost, he followed the Hawkinses to Colorado as a walk-on.

"I told Scotty, 'Hey, you come here, you'll get on scholarship.' There's no way you're going to deny him playing time, deny him a scholarship," Cody Hawkins said. They spent 2006 on the scout team, he said, improvising "a ton ... basically running for our lives."

McKnight rebounded from a broken ankle on the first day of 2007 spring drills to become the first freshman to lead Colorado in receiving last fall, while the pair helped to prod the Buffaloes to a 6-6 record and an Independence Bowl berth. A victory tonight against West Virginia would match the program's best start in 10 years.

Said the receiver, the son of a cop who played college football briefly at California-Davis with the elder Hawkins: "Things have worked out real well."

As for tonight, the quarterback added, "Let's see what we're made of. It'll be a good time." Mohawk, McKnight and all.