It appears Cody Hawkins will be the Colorado Buffaloes starting quarterback for the second consecutive year when the season kicks off the final weekend of August.

It's difficult to come to any other conclusion based on comments made by coach Dan Hawkins and offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich following a record-setting spring game Saturday in Folsom Field with an estimated crowd of 17,800 fans in the stands -- well short of the 50,000 former coach Bill McCartney set as a goal.

The largest crowd of in the history of CU spring games roared beneath a glorious blue sky as Ralphie V make her initial romp around the field before the game, running over one of her handlers and out-running two more. In the second half, she bulled over a handler right out of the gate and proved too much to contain, breaking almost completely free from all her handlers before being reeled in on the west sideline.

It was the best moment of the day on the field in a game that had a few flashes of excitement and plenty of stalemates between the offense and defense. The Black team (first-team offense) outscored the Gold(second-team offense) 28-17, with Cody Hawkins and Matt Ballenger each leading two scoring drives and Nick Nelson directing one.

All three quarterbacks enjoyed their moments in three scrimmages and 15 total practice sessions over the past five weeks, but neither of the challengers did enough to overtake the incumbent.

"Hey, if we were playing today, it would be Cody," Helfrich said.

He went on to say that no final decision will be made until training camp, but Dan Hawkins said that coaches will name a starter early in training camp if not before. That leaves very little time for Cody Hawkins to lose the job.

"Once we get into camp, I don't think we want to mess around a whole lot," Hawkins said. "I think we want to figure out who is who and get going. ...Whether it's Day 1, 3 or 5, I don't know, but we're not going three weeks without naming a starting quarterback."

Cody Hawkins completed 15 of 22 attempts Saturday for 185 yards and two touchdowns. In the three main spring scrimmages, Hawkins completed 42 of 70 passes for 523 yards and six touchdowns with only one interception.

Nelson actually was more efficient this spring completing 32 of 49 passes for 376 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, but he didn't lead the team to points often enough to merit a change at the position.

Plenty of fans came into spring excited about redshirt freshman Matt Ballenger, but he proved he still has a way to go. He completed 14 of 32 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.

While Cody Hawkins appears to be comfortably entrenched as the Buffs' starter, he won't approach the next four months as if he has the job locked up. He said players are planning to do a lot more player-run practices in the summer months.

"I think there is a lot of room for me to improve over the summer and continue to be a leader for these guys," Hawkins said. "If I can kind of rally the guys behind me both this summer and going into fall camp, then we'll be in good shape."

The CU defense had given up more than 600 yards of total offense in the first two scrimmages this spring, but it proved more difficult to move the ball against on Saturday. The defense failed to come up with any turnovers but held the Buffs' new no-huddle offense to 502 total yards in 90 plays from scrimmage.

"I think they looked much better today than they did in the previous two," defensive coordinator Ron Collins said. "There were still plenty of mistakes out there today, but we were really short-handed in the first scrimmage and then last week I thought both sides of the did a good job. I thought we progressed this week."

The Buffs produced six sacks under a system in which officials blew the whistle when defenders grabbed the quarterback, and linebacker Marcus Burton led the team in tackles with 10 for the second straight week.

"On defense, we're going to be special," senior defensive tackle George Hypolite said. "If we can bear down and do what we're supposed to do and stay in our gaps, we can be a special defense.

"But that's what it comes down to. We have to prepare. We have to out-work people."

Black 28, Gold 17

Gold 0 7 7 3 -- 17

Black 7 7 7 7 -- 28

SCORING SUMMARY

BLACK -- Kevin Moyd 25 pass Cody Hawkins (Aric Goodman kick)

GOLD -- Jason Espinoza 19 pass from Matt Ballenger (Aric Goodman kick)

BLACK -- Patrick Williams 19 pass from Nick Nelson (Jameson Davis kick)

BLACK -- Markques Simas 36 blocked punt return (Aric Goodman kick)

GOLD -- Anthony Wright 11 blocked punt return (Alex Metskas kick)BLACK -- Cody Crawford 8 pass from Cody Hawkins (Aric Goodman kick)

GOLD -- Aric Goodman 44 FG

Rushing -- Sumler 11-43, Moyd 9-30, Ballenger 3-16, Jaffee 3-15, Hawkins 4-16, Nabors 4-14, Nelson 1-11, J. Smith 1-11, Black 3 minus-3. Totals 39-153.

Passing -- Hawkins 22-15-0 185, Nelson 17-10-0 133, Ballenger 6-5-0 65, Black 0-0-0 0. Totals 45-30-0 383.

Receiving -- Devenny 5-78, Crawford 4-39, Simas 4-34, Moyd 3-60, Espinoza 2-48, Williams 2-38, Sumler 2-24, J. Smith 2-23, L. Walters 2-10, McKnight 1-15, Cantrell 1-6, Behrens 1-4, Nabors 1-4. Totals 30-383.

DEFENSE

Tackles-assists-sacks

Burton 6-4-1, Stengel 6-1-0, Beatty 5-1-1, C. Brown 4-2-0, Perkins 3-3-0, Dykes 3-3-0, Sipili 2-4-0, J. Brown 3-2-0, Jones 2-3-1, Kaynor 1-4-0, McKay 2-2-0, Lawson 2-3-0, Brace 2-1-2, Goree 2-1-1, Ji. Smith 2-1-0.

Hurries (4)--Beatty, Hypolite, Shields, Stengel.

Passes Broken Up (3)--J.Brown, Hypolite, Stengel.

Tackles For Zero (1)--Burton.

Quarterback Chasedowns (1)--Beatty.

Blocked Kicks (3)--Crawford (pnt), Ji.Smith (pnt), Williams (FG).

Special Team Tackles: L.Smith 2,0--2; Tompane 2,0--2; Burgner1,0--1; Sipili 1,0--1; J.Hawkins 0,1-1 .