Colorado coach, team determined to show success not one and done
That the collected wit and wisdom of Duke’s David Cutcliffe has seeped its way into the mind of Mike MacIntyre isn’t surprising: Cutcliffe has had a profound impact on MacIntyre’s program building blueprint, as seen first at San Jose State, where he spent three seasons, and again at Colorado, which recently began spring drills after last year’s long- awaited breakthrough.
Months earlier, in the wake of backtoback losses to Washington and Oklahoma State, MacIntyre shared one of Cutcliffe’s axioms, collected during his stints as an assistant with the Blue Devils and Mississippi. You’re either getting better or getting worse, he told the Buffaloes’ returning roster, providing a glimpse into a theme that would come to define the program’s early offseason.
“We don’t want to get to this point and say, ‘ Whew, we made it.’ We’ll be passed by in a heartbeat,” MacIntyre said. “They do understand that.”
So to maintain its perch atop the South Division in the Pac- 12, the Buffaloes must evolve, grow and improve. Southern California is coming fast, to name one challenger, and even recent college football history is littered with one- year wonders that failed to match, let alone exceed, a single season’s success.
From MacIntyre’s perspective, the continued evolution of Colorado football has been on clear display since the start of winter conditioning – and it’s “coming from within,” he said, as players begin to take greater ownership of the program and its direction.
“Instead of me making them go do it, they’re doing it themselves,” MacIntyre said. “It’s a whole different world. I’ve seen that more this winter and spring than in the past.”
In the past few months, players disciplined with early- morning workouts have been accompanied by the Buffaloes’ team captains. When underclassmen lag during drills — as was the case at a recent practice— seniors will deliver a message: We want to get back to Levi Stadium, site of the Pac- 12 title game, and finish what we didn’t finish.
“That’s the motivation,” senior defensive back Afolabi Laguda said. “We really didn’t achieve anything. We didn’t get a bowl victory. We didn’t win the Pac- 12 championship. So what was the achievement? You can go to the dance, but what does that mean? You’re not dancing.
“I feel like the motivation is there. The motivation carries over. The hunger carries over. Because when you get a group of hungry guys to take the field on Saturday, that transfers into wins.”
Confidence is no longer in short supply at Colorado. But during these early stages of preparation for the 2017 season, the Buffaloes are motivated by other factors: the program’s rising standard for success, for one, as well as a perceived lack of recognition and respect for what the team has already achieved. “Let them talk,” sophomore quarterback Steven Montez said of those doubting the Buffaloes’ ability to repeat atop the South Division.
And springtime brings a much- needed return to football after a rocky three months. Weeks after the bowl game, the university came under intense scrutiny for its handling of the accusations of domestic violence levied against former assistant coach Joe Tumpkin, who was allowed to coach in the bowl game despite the university being aware of the pending allegations.
In the wake of that controversy, university regents opted to table a vote approving MacIntyre’s new contract, a three- year, more than $ 16 million extension signed in early January that would have kept him at Colorado through the 2021 season.
So even after a wildly successful regular season, some sense of uncertainty remains around this program. Consider the on- field product: The Buffaloes went into the offseason on a two- game losing streak — outclassed by 31 points to Washington in the Pac- 12 title game and overwhelmed by 30 points to Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl. Each loss raised an almost unavoidable question: Is Colorado for real?
“We’re going to be just as good if not better than last year, in my mind,” Montez said.
He’ll take over at quarterback after making three starts as a redshirt freshman, joining nine returning starters on an offensive unit that scored 435 points, a program- best in a single season since 1995. The defense finds a new coordinator, former Kentucky assistant D. J. Elliott, but no abrupt change in style: Elliott employs a similar system to former coordinator Jim Leavitt, now at Oregon. The installation has gone smoothly, MacIntyre said. Continuity — relatively speaking — has bred optimism.
“Honestly, I believe we can win every game on the schedule.” Laguda said. “If we come with the right attitude, the right mentality, stay disciplined, fly around and play Colorado football, every game is a win. You can call it cocky. People can call us crazy. But I see us going undefeated until somebody proves me otherwise.”
It wasn’t until last spring, his fourth with the program, that MacIntyre laid down a heightened criteria for success: Our goal is to win the Pac- 12 championship, he said. A year later, national relevance has become the standard for Colorado, providing perhaps the clearest measurement of the program’s evolution.
“Before, for your youngmen, we were setting the standard for them and they were climbing to the standard,” MacIntyre said. “This group of young men, they’re taking the next step. Our senior class, the returning guys, all have a higher standard for themselves. They know what it takes to reach, and they know they have to start back at square one.”
It won’t be an easy task; Colorado isn’t sneaking up on the competition in 2017, and might in fact wear a bull’s- eye against those teams angling for their own climb up the Pac- 12 ladder. In one respect, last year’s record coincided with simultaneous declines by Arizona, Arizona State and UCLA — though the Buffaloes, who beat each team, certainly contributed to the shakeup in the South Division.
Once again, MacIntyre has leaned on one of Cutcliffe’s principles. You build your team in the winter and spring, Cutcliffe once told his pupil, and MacIntyre is following the same blueprint: While aware that this year will undoubtedly be different from last year, Colorado is using the offseason, as well the lessons learned in 2016, as a springboard toward another season spent in Rose Bowl contention.
“We have so much more to do,” Montez said. “Especially with the end of last season, I don’t think anyone is satisfied with where we’re at right now. It’s almost like we need to get a lot better to do the things we want to do. We still have a lot of checklist items we need to do.”