Bu≠aloes coach confident his programwill reel in rest of Pac-12
Year 2 ofMikeMacIntyre’s plan for rebuilding the Colorado football program has included several frustrating losses and some encouraging play, especially on offense. Taking over a program that went 4-21 in two seasons under Jon Embree, “Coach Mac” stands 6-12 at the halfway point of his second season. He remains confident that he can and will turn things around. After a recent practice during his team’s bye week, MacIntyre, 49, agreed to a one-on-one interview with The Denver Post. Following are excerpts. A: I’m holding up good. The thing that hurts you the most (after a loss) is when you walk back to the locker room and see those young men’s eyes. They work so hard, and they’re so close. I got a stat that since 2006, this is the first time Colorado has been in six games in a row where we had an opportunity to win in the fourth quarter. And with last year’s game against Utah (2013 season finale), that’s seven games in a row. So we are making great progress. But you want the W’s. We’ll break through and get them. I really believe that. A: I shouldn’t have done that, and I have apologized for that. I’m passionate; our team is passionate. We’re going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep pushing. There’s no breaking point. I’m as competitive as anybody that you would ever meet. A: They’re all very similar. It’s just in different stages. Once your team tastes a few victories and understands the work ethic and mentality and the effort that is needed, you start to break through. We’ve learned to play through the ebbs and flows of a game. I think that’s one of the first things you have to do as a young team. Now we’ve got to find a way to finish them the right way. Sometimes you do it right and finish it. And sometimes the other team messes up. Eventually, those all fall together. And sometimes they finish back to back to back, which is nice. A: I don’t know. In our first year at San Jose State, we won one game and lost so many heartbreakers. In the second year (5-7), we won a few heartbreakers and lost a few. And then the next year, we won about every one of the close ones. I think your program gets to that point. I think every rebuilding effort is different. The Pac-12 is excellent, top to bottom. We have stepped up closer to everybody in our league. We haven’t won them, and we need to win them. I think that’s a process. Like everybody else, we want to win them all. We eventually will. A: It takes hope. It takes passion. And it takes endurance. The hardest part for people to turn anything around, whether it be in a business or maybe a family situation, is the endurance factor. I’ve learned all my life how to endure. We’ll endure. And we’ll get it done. A: We will. Teams cycle a little bit. Quarterbacks change. Guys graduate early. There are all kinds of things that happen. If we just keep moving along, we will (pass teams). Then we will have built up depth and will have a lot of kids that have played a ton. All of a sudden, those 230-pound kids we have now will be 250. Those that are 185 will be 195. It’s just a process. You wish you could speed it up as best you can, but it’s hard to do that. A: Yes, we are capable of putting points on the board. I thinkwe have a good arsenal (of offensive options). We have more speed, and that doesn’t drop offwhen we put in substitutes, which is important. Our quarterback (sophomore Sefo Liufau) is understanding the game and whatwewant to do. In today’s game, you have to put points on the board. A: We have to keep working and get better in different situations. We’ve gotten a little better defensively in third downs. We’ve gotten a little better in the red zone. If we can improve that by a few percentage points … if we just could have stopped Oregon State on a couple of third downs, that’s a different game. It looks like we’re a long, long way away (defensively). We’re closer than it seems. Also, we’re getting more physical. When we get more physical, there will be a time when we run through the offensive tackle and get the ball or knock back a running back so he doesn’t get the first down. A: I think our staff does a good job of selling that. The new facility (upgrades) have shown that we’re trying to step up and be top echelon. We’re not just trying to field a football team in the Pac12. We want to be top echelon. Without that new facility, it would be really hard to recruit. That gives people more hope. Players are excited about it. I know we have had some in-state kids commit that wouldn’t have without the new facilities going up. They see there is something special here. A: We do, at times. But the main thing we’re talking to recruits about is: “Come be a part of a program that we think is exceptional in building character in young men. We think our university is exceptional with its academic standards. You’ll be playing in arguably one of the top two conferences in the nation. And, in Boulder, you’ll live in the No. 1 college town in America— which, unlike other college towns, it’s not isolated. You can get to Denver and other places and do different things.” So I think this place offers a lot of things other than football. Not every place can say that.
A: We are. But also, I think our staff does a really good job of evaluating. Some of the guys we get, we’re going to have to develop them physically a little bit. That may take a little bit longer. But in the process, you want to become a junior-, senior-type football team. When we get to that point, that’s when we should be really good. A: I believe in the coaching staff I have, the support system I have. (Athletic director) Rick George and everybody is moving in the same direction. I don’t feel any pull in other ways. I see us all lined up going the right way. The facilities upgrades show it. The passion from the top down shows it. If all of that is not lined up, then you really have no chance. A: I think everybody at our university understands it’s not a quick fix, by any stretch of the imagination. My main mentor, David Cutcliffe, went to Duke, which was probably the worst Division I football program when he went there. I came to the worst BCS program in the country when I came here. In his fifth and sixth years at Duke, David finally did it. It takes time to rebuild a program at the BCS level. A: I do think that Colorado having been there before means that people here have the passion in knowing they can do it. It’s not a hopeful pipe dream. The past does not change the present or the future. But it kind of gives you that extra fire that it can happen.