Tuesday Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Opening Statement
"It's good to see Phillip [Lindsay] get the offensive player of the week and, as I saw that my heart sunk, because the defensive player of the week was Solomon Thomas. The plays he made as a three-technique watching the tape was extremely impressive. For Stanford, he pretty much is a one man wrecking crew in that game. Stanford's a very good football team. They played a really tough schedule so far. I've been impressed with what they're doing. Coach Shaw does an excellent job with them. They're big, powerful. Their best player didn't play last week and got beat up a little bit in the game before, but I imagine we'll see Christian [McCaffrey] or I expect we would. They went to Notre Dame and won there without their best player; I think that's pretty impressive."

On The Team's Goals
"We're talking about a Pac-12 Championship, so every game matters. If we do that, we'll get to a bowl game too. We control our own destiny in a way, which is good."

On Team's 'One Game At A Time' Approach Becoming More Difficult To Preach
"It makes it easier to preach to be honest with you. When you're winning and you know the next game's bigger, they get up for it. It's harder to preach when you're losing, you got to get them up and find more motivation. I don't have to motivate them. They're going to play Stanford, they're in first place in the Pac-12 South and they're rolling. I do motivate them, but I don't have to do as much. When they come to practice and watch film and they realize there's something on the line that hasn't ever been there before for them, that's exciting."

On Impact Of Alex Kelley
"Alex is a legacy and that's extremely important. His dad loves this place, he loves this place, he's always wanted to be a Buff. You hear that all the time, but when you actually get to live it and do it – he's been here through a lot of rough things. He's very well respected by his teammates; he's respected by the offensive linemen, because he runs the show. He's done an excellent job with us this year. He and the quarterback are the key to us going fast. He is able to get us up there, get the calls out quick, see it and go with it. He's had excellent snaps. He keeps the flow going. Alex has played really well for us. Off the field it's the type of person he is, the type of charisma he has and he has that infectious love for CU. That's extremely important, especially as we've been trying to build this. As we keep building it, he's an important part of that."

On Play Of Sefo Liufau
"I've said a lot about Sefo over the years. I can say a million things about Sefo and I'm not going to compare him to other quarterbacks I've had, because I've loved them all and they all had different qualities. Sefo would be the toughest, I've said that a lot and I think you all have seen that. The other thing is he's also extremely mentally tough. Our team has caught up with Sefo and he just kept pushing, kept going and kept working. Yeah, he had some mistakes here and there, but now that we have a really good football team all around him, now you can really see how good he is. He never gave up, he always had confidence. He didn't have a cocky confidence, he had a humble confidence, which is the best to have. He's done that and the team's followed him."

On Making Offensive Adjustments In The Offseason With The Offensive Coordinators Darrin Chiaverini And Brian Lindgren
"I sat down with them and told them what I was looking for and understanding. I wanted to mesh a couple things; I wanted to tweak a couple things we were doing and utilize a lot. I didn't want it to be a whole terminology change, just a little bit of terminology change. I wanted it to be similar to what we were doing. I guess the best word is to make it more extraordinary; keep the ordinary things we had and then add a little extra to it without blowing the whole thing up. That way I thought our team would have experience, we would communicate better, we could function better. A couple things that really helped us is how we practice. I knew exactly how I wanted us to practice on defense. I had an idea for offense. Then, I started realizing we needed to be more efficient. I wanted to play a little bit faster than we were and execute better. Chev' brought in ideas that they did at Texas Tech with the efficiency part of practice and execution. We combined all of that. Those two guys have worked together. It's always evolving. Klayton Adams has done a good job, because the offensive line has got to be on the right page, it doesn't matter what everybody else does. He's done an excellent job of meshing all that together. Darian Hagan has done an excellent job with the running backs. Coach Bernardi has done a great job with our tight ends, because now we're moving them more and putting them in the backfield and that takes a lot of other expertise you got to work with. It was all those guys working together."

On Conditioning Players
"The spring practice helped them a little bit with some of the things we were doing and to help us play faster. Coach [Drew] Wilson did a great job with our conditioning for that as we practiced. When we got into summer camp, we were really able to implement that in the way we practice and the way we did our team and individual and group periods. The way we handled that was all predicated on tempo."

On Matching Stanford's Physicality
"They were physically tougher than we were out there last year. We played them hard for a while, then it got away from us right at the end of the half. We have to be more physical than we were last year. We are a more physical team now, we're mentally tough. We have to go in there and do that and go toe-to-toe with them. We have to surpass what they do to be able to win the football game. That's a big challenge for us. Our guys do remember last year playing hard against them, but them taking it to us. All week we have to have that mentality. We are a tougher, physical team than we have been. That's been a process, it did not just happen this year. Every year we've gotten a little better at it. It all came into fruition this year with the maturity of the team and the guys that have played and understand it."

On Player Development
"It's extremely critical. When you come to a program when we came here, you're going to have to develop it. We recruited extremely hard and we recruited good football players as you can see now, but when we signed them everybody was going, 'Who are those guys?' They had to get a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger and they had to play. How we were with them every day and in every facet is how you build a program. Now we're fortunate, we're signing some guys that are a little more developed down the road. You still have to do the same process, but the process should go a little quicker. Hopefully, you won't have to play as many young guys all at one time, you're just fitting them in there in different places. When you do that, you're reloading and not totally rebuilding a program. You shouldn't ever have to rebuild, you should only have to reload."

On Addison Gillam Getting Back To Playing Well
"He is right there. It's just been turmoil for him. To see him walk through it like he has has been pretty inspirational to say the least, the way he's played these last few games. Now he's 230-something and he can run like he could before and he has that smile on his face. I always tease him about his hair flowing, but I love see that hair flow when he runs. It's just been awesome. The kids have rallied around him, because they realize what he is. They've seen him fight through all those things. It's been a great life lesson not only for him, but for me and it's been a great life lesson for our team. I just hope and pray that he stays healthy and keeps playing, because it's a lot of fun to watch him play and he gets pure joy out of it, and so do I."

On How Addison Gillam Has Gotten Bigger
"He has gotten so much bigger. When you watch him take on linemen – before he could slip them, but if he ever had to face them up he would get driven back. When he hits the running back, the running back doesn't fall forward, he falls the other way. He's able to make his impression. He can make all the tackles and run by people, but run by them. Now he's hitting them. There's a difference. There's a little bit of an intimidation factor there. He's the same guy, but now he has more power. It should be a great game for him, I hope so. I think he'll play well. He should be very physical there."

On Competing In Recruiting
"There's a lot of different things you talk about to young people and their parents about our program and it boils down to what our value-system is. The football program and where it's headed, they see it and they feel it and they understand it. It's extremely important. If we weren't going in the right trajectory, a lot of these young men that have committed to us now, we would not have. I call the facilities the icing on top of the cake. The facilities are phenomenal; once they see everything, it really helps. Them believing and seeing that we're going to be a top program in the country and be able to compete year in and year out and have the opportunity to be a Pac-12 Champion and that's where we're headed, they see that. We're 5-2 right now, we have a lot of big games ahead of us and we need to finish a lot of those games. I believe we will. That will all help recruiting."

On Situation With Kickers Chris Graham And Davis Price
"It's fluid. That's the best thing I can tell you. Those young men are working hard. They're relatively young in kicking the field goals and the extra points and the pressure of that. So far, it really hasn't hurt us. It's not helped us all the time, it's helped us a few times. We'd like it to help us every game. They've got good legs, they're working at it. They had a really good day today. The good thing about both those young men is they're working extremely hard. Both of them want to be the kicker all the time, but if one of them is not doing good, then we'll put the other one in and the other one's always performed. That's a good thing."

On Going Back To The Bay Area
"We played Cal, but I don't really want to talk about that game. I always like going back to the Bay Area, but it's really not a time to see friends. We won't really have the time to do that. I've had a lot of texts and phone calls from a lot of my former players from San Jose State that will be in the stands and at the game. After the game, I'll probably get to see a few of those guys before we get on the bus to head back. That was a very special place in our family's lives for the three years we live there."

On Which Player Has The Best/Worst Hair On The Team
"I don't know who has the best hair on the team. Some of them need haircuts, I know that and tell them that all the time. I tease [Ryan] Moeller all the time, because his hair just bushes out. I don't know what it is about the hair hanging out at the back of the helmets, but I guess [Troy] Polamalu started all that. The best hair on the team – everybody on the team would say – is N.J. Falo's. He could do the commercials, there's no doubt."

Quarterback Sefo Liufau

On Being in Charge of the Offense
"I definitely enjoy it. Especially when we're succeeding and we're going out there getting wins. It's definitely a lot more enjoyable when it goes that way. I just think overall it's a great team effort. I can't tell everyone what to do in a split second, everyone knows what they're doing, and everyone is doing their jobs. And they're doing their jobs consistently which I think is the best thing and is why we are putting up a lot of points this year on offense."

On the New Offense Working Well
"I think a lot of our plays look very similar to the defense. And sometimes it's us passing and sometimes it's us running. And I think that keeps the defense off balance and keeps them guessing. The fact that we go at such a high tempo adds a little more stress to them and it adds more pressure. For us we do it every day in practice, so it's not anything crazy for us we run up on the ball and run the next play. But for defenses, even with a scout team, I think that Oregon is the only team that can truly replicate what we do on offense and even their defense struggled against us when we played them. I just think the tempo and the plays looking the same to the defense. And it being able to go either one way or the other, just to keep them guessing."

On Being Able to Run Such a High Tempo Offense
"I think conditioning is one thing. But I think the biggest thing is knowing your job on one play so you can just go from play-to-play without second guessing yourself. Because once you know what you're doing, you don't second guess you just go out and do it. And it doesn't matter what look the defense gives you. You know what you're going to do and your teammates know what you're going to do and it just allows you to go a lot faster on offense."

On Challenging Stanford Physically
"I think we'll go out there and test Stanford's physicality. I don't think it's like it was in past year where we couldn't rely on our toughness up front. We've got a great front on offense and we've got a great front on defense and we feel that we match up well with these guys. And it just comes down to each play. I don't think it's going to be a blow out in either direction. I think its two very good teams going against to each other. And that's when it comes down to a couple of plays here or there that make a difference in the game. So we'll be ready to test their toughness and I'm sure they'll test our toughness as well."

On Personal Improvement from Last Season
"I think the biggest thing for me is confidence. The confidence that my parents, and coaches have put into me. The training I did in the offseason has helped a lot in terms of confidence as well. It's just the confidence in my ability to go out there and make any throw and any play. I think that the guys around me have helped a lot. I can't go out there and throw, and catch, and run all by myself. They do a lot as well. I think it's just overall confidence in myself and confidence in my teammates. Even when I don't get the ball in the perfect spot for them, they go out and have been making plays."

On Being in the Pac-12 Conference Race
"I think for the most part we enjoy the wins we've had so far the day that it happens and a little bit on Sunday, since that's kind of one of our off days. And guys like to relax and take their minds off of football. And then when it hits Monday, you review the film, see what you did wrong and then move on to the next game. Especially in college football where there's so many games in quick succession that there's not too much time to dwell on previous success. And I think that the really good teams don't dwell on past success, they focus on the next game at hand. Especially in the Pac-12 where you play so many great teams in a row, you always have to be ready for your next opponent. We've done a really good job of that this year. And I think for the most part being able to bounce back and come back strong against other teams is key for us. It really shows the maturity of team."

On What CU Needs to do to Beat Stanford on the Road
"We need to be consistent, especially on offense. If I remember correctly against Stanford we had one quick touchdown early in the game, and then after that it was not very good. I think that being able to be consistent is important. Especially in that ASU game, kind of in the middle and towards the end we had some three and outs, or we drove the field without scoring any points. And that puts a lot of strain on the defense, and the defense really stepped up last game for us. We just need to be consistent and we need to put points on the board, not just field goals. To go out and score points consistently is the biggest thing for this team and the offense to be consistent across the board and for everyone to do their job."

On How Much the Secondary Has Improved Over the Past Four Years
"They're definitely a lot better now. Most of the time this year I've thought that they are better than most of the defensive backs that we played this year. And that's what you want for practice to be harder than the games, so that the games are easier. I've seen those guys grow a lot. I've gone against Chido (Awuzie) for four years, Ahkello (Witherspoon) for three, and Afolabi (Laguda) for only two years but I've seen him grow a lot since he's been here. So just to see those guy's kind of grow up from freshmen to seniors and to see how much better they are now. It's just a testament to how much we've grown as a team overall, and how much we've grown in depth as a team. Because when one of the guys go down the next can step up and play and we don't miss a beat."

On the Postgame Celebrations on the Field After the ASU Win
"It meant a lot to see all the students on the field. It's just a testament to how hard the team's been working. It's been a long from freshman year when nobody would be in the stands. I think that homecoming freshmen year there might have been 100 people at the Buff Parade, and this past weekend there was a lot of people there. It's just a different turn of events and to be able to help change the program and to potentially lead it upwards to success is just the hard work paying off. And it's not just me, I'm just one piece of the puzzle and there's a lot more guys on this team who have put in a lot of hard work. So just to see us finally having some success on the field, it just means a lot to the team."

On Having a Healthy Offensive Line
"To be able to have some consistency up front and to not have as many injuries up front as we've had in the previous year definitely helps. You get a rhythm with those guys, and you can make calls a little bit quicker since guys know what they're doing. And if I have to switch something at the line, I can do it a split second faster and they'll quickly make their checks as well. So it definitely helps, and it helps the running backs as well. It gives them more confidence knowing who's up front blocking for them. As you can see they were pretty good last week for Phil (Lindsay). So hats off to them, they've played really well this year. They've given myself and Steven Montez time to stand back there and throw. And they've given the running backs big lanes to run through."

Running Back Phillip Lindsay

On Being Named Pac-12 Player Of The Week
"We had a great week of practice. And we had a great game plan going into our game against Arizona State. There was a big time focus on the offensive side of the ball especially after the game against USC. We really needed to focus up against Arizona State and I think we did that."

On Relationship With Christian McCaffrey
"Christian and I know about each other because of football. And we heard about each other for a long time. He had a great year last year and it's hard to duplicate what that man did, especially with how healthy he stayed. So I really respect him for that. Going into this game I'm just focusing on Colorado football and at the end of the day we're going to have to play ball. I don't look at it as I'm going to compete against somebody. I'm happy he's representing Colorado (the state) football well. But I'm just focused on playing Colorado football"

On Becoming Bowl Eligible With A Win This Weekend
"That's going to be a great feeling and it's going to have a big impact on the University. Our goal is Pac-12 Champs. There's nothing less than that for us. The bowl game will come as we continue to win games. We just need to focus on ourselves and Colorado football."

On Getting Excited About The Offense During The Offseason
"Definitely started to feel excited during spring football. Coach Chiaverini came in and it was a different more fast paced offense and we needed to get in shape. So going into spring we kind of knew what we were in for. So we knew coming into the summertime that we were going to have to be in shape to get to where we are today. It just gives us a lot more options and the offense is a lot more spread out. We've got guys making big plays. Coach Chiaverini and coach Lindgren have done a great job of coming in and implementing what they wanted and we just needed to go out and execute, which we've done so far."

On Biggest Change To Personal Role
"It was the same from before, I just have different reads now. It did help that coach Hagan did become our running backs coach which brought something different to the table for us. It helped us get over the hump, and I feel like we're having success right now. It was just the tempo of the offense and reading different gaps and holes."

On Being In A Conference Championship Race
"When you're winning you have to learn how to practice winning and having fun. At the beginning we had a little success, and we went into the USC week and we weren't as focused. Because you're winning and you're hearing all this outdoor stuff coming in, but then we had to get refocused. It is fun, but we have to know that we aren't where we want to be. We've worked so hard to get to where we are so far right now. We've been here for four years and we've been dominated by teams. But now we have to stay consistent and that's about us being older and learning how to win, and learning how to take the good and to continue to roll with it. To have fun but to remain focused and stay in your lane, and let's play Colorado football."

On Being Ninth In All-Purpose Yards At CU
"Those running backs ahead of me are great. I just want to continue to help my team win. Coach MacIntyre gave me my opportunity, and he didn't have to take me coming in as a new head coach, with my knee the way it was. He came in and honored my scholarship and he's been a father to all of us seniors and juniors. And for that I want to thank him. It's all about our team, it's great that I'm on the all-time list, but it's about winning and helping the team win."

On Who Had the Best Hair on the Team
"I think Sam Kronshage has some pretty nice hair, its long. Addison Gillam has some nice hair to. I'm up there, I'm probably number one. When I pick my hair out, it does help with not getting any concussions."

Outside Linebacker Jimmie Gilbert

On Preparing For Stanford While Christian McCaffrey's Status Is Unknown
"We prepare like he's going to play. We prepare for every contingency whether he's playing or not. You practice full speed. You just go in with the mentality that you're going to see him on the field and be prepared for what they do."

On His Growth From Freshman Year
"Freshman year you're learning the whole system, learning about the weight rooms, the rules and what to eat, how to build your body properly. By your sophomore year you're starting to take advantage of the extra weight room time, the extra meals. By the time you're a junior, senior, you've gained the experience and you know what to do. You've had older guys who played here before you who guided you and progressed you through this whole experience. By the time you're at the top, it's your job to show those young guys what to do and how to do it. When we go in the weight room, yes it's fun and we joke but it's all business. When we condition, it's all business. At the same time, just having older men and being able to teach the younger guys what to do and how to do it [means a lot]. When they become older, having them do the same is what we've been doing."

On Team Goals
"Our goal is to be Pac-12 Champions like everyone else in the Pac-12. Just a bowl game would be nice but that's not our main goal. Our goal is to shoot for the stars and if we reach that, that's what we want but if not, we tried."

On Defeating Stanford's O-Line
"The main thing is stoutness within the front three. Our defensive tackles, defensive ends, nose guards, they do their jobs which is set. Stanford has a big O-Line, a strong O-Line but we have big strong guys too. If our big guys can do their jobs and play to their abilities then that allows all of our skill players to make plays. That's what we have to do."

On 'Getting Over The Hump'
"Winning is fun, everyone wants to win. You can have fun when you're winning, it's not fun when you're losing. Now that we've finally been able to pick it up and get on the other side of the program, the game is so much more fun and better for us. Now we can relax and have fun. We're not running around with sticks up our butts trying to play with so much pressure coming down to the end of the game. Now that we're finally winning, we can sit there and enjoy the game and not just focus on one mistake that you do. That just kind of rolls off of your back. For us it's just been doing what we do every day. Coming out and busting our butts at practice, busting our butts in the weight room, running and conditioning. Now were finally showing everyone else what we've already seen, what we've already been doing. It's just now being put on display for everyone

On How The Linebackers Need To Improve
"Us personally, we're not where we need to be with the pass rush. There have been games where we didn't get a sack at all and there were games where we got to the quarterback but the ball still got off. There are still improvements that need to be made with the pass rush. One thing Coach Mac has said is that we've accomplished a lot, we know what our goals are but we've never arrived. We still need to improve, increase production in the pass rush. Our front three guys do a great job of collapsing the pocket which really allows the outside linebackers, the DBs that come under pressure, it really allows them to maneuver, use their ability to work the edge. If the quarterback tries to bail out, we're there to corral it. If he steps out, we have our big defensive tackles in the inside ready to catch him too."

On The Growth Of This Team
"Everyone from my freshman class has felt this from the very beginning. We felt we knew what we were able to accomplish here and do what we could do. We just had to do it. I feel like this year we finally started to step up and do it."

On The Progress of Addison Gillam
"I'm not Addison, I can't speak for him. From what I've seen, he's been flying around, doing things phenomenally. He's reading out, making great hits on the quarterback, great hits on the running backs. He's making plays from sideline to sideline. That's the Addison that I knew and the Addison that I know. As far as I've seen, he's back. He's been able to do what he can when he can and that's what we love about him."

On The Growth Of The Offensive Line
"For everyone on our offensive line, except for Jeromy Irwin, I've practiced against them for the past three years. They all started out on scout team and I played my freshman year so I went up against them. The guys who are on the O-Line become more and more experienced from working on pass rush against Chidera [Uzo-Diribe] when he was here to now, they've gained a large amount of experience. They've done a phenomenal job of accepting coaching and what they can and can't do and working on it. Now they're more mobile, they're stronger, they're more experienced and you see them doing things that two, three years ago you'd be astonished to see them doing. And now I expect it. They've made amazing strides.

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Quarterback Sefo Liufau

Running Back Phillip Lindsay

Outside Linebacker Jimmie Gilbert

Players Mentioned

Nu'umotu Falo Jr.

Jimmie Gilbert

Addison Gillam

Chris Graham

Jeromy Irwin

Alex Kelley

Sam Kronshage

Phillip Lindsay

Sefo Liufau

Steven Montez

Davis Price