Brooks: Buffs’ MacIntyre-Led Turnaround Is One To Savor, Appreciate
November 26, 2016 | Football, B.G. Brooks
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Fourth-year coach has taught players how to persevere, succeed
BOULDER – Long after the hundreds of revelers had cleared Folsom Field and all that remained in the stands were scraps of paper and rented chairs, the score boards at each end of the field kept flashing, telling and re-telling Saturday night's story.
BUFFS WIN 27-22!
SOUTH DIVISION CHAMPIONS!
It was the nuts-and-bolts version of what happened, but the real story of Colorado football's turnaround under Mike MacIntyre is difficult, leaning toward impossible, to tell with digital figures and fireworks
.
It might be as improbable a U-turn – worst to first, sad to glad, sorry to glory – as college football has experienced in decades.
Feeling the buzz (and the heat) from the multi-million dollar facilities facelift that had sprung up around him, MacIntyre went into his fourth regular season with a 2-27 Pac-12 record.
Saturday night he came out of it with four times as many conference wins, only one loss (8-1) and now is one win away from coaching a Pac-12 championship team. Other coaches in his sport can be insufferable in victory as well as defeat; MacIntyre hasn't been in either scenario.
He's living his dream and remains humble doing it, deflecting the praise to his players and displaying gratitude to an administration that has had his back and made a commitment to his program.
Saturday night was the reward, but not the final payoff.
MacIntyre, who should be a no-brainer for conference coach-of-the-year and the front runner for the national honor, opened his post-game media conference as coach of the South Division champs like this: "Wow . . . these young men are special. Special, special, special."
There can be no doubting his sincerity, or how he's viewed by his Pac-12 peers. When Utah and CU joined the Pac-12 for football competition in 2011, the league's hope was that a long-dormant rivalry would be rekindled.
It was tagged "The Rumble In The Rockies," and in the six games the Buffs and Utes have played as conference members it's been quite the rumble. Close games, hard-fought games, pivotal season-ending games such as Saturday night's.
But as for it being a genuinely nasty rivalry, it falls a little short, according to veteran Utah coach Kyle Whittingham.
"No (it doesn't feel like a rivalry) because there's no bad blood," he said. "I've got all the respect in the world for these guys (Colorado). They do it the right way, they're well-coached.
"Their players act the way they're supposed to act . . . and that's very impressive, how they act and carry themselves and conduct themselves on the field."
And that points to MacIntyre, the son of a coach who has done it the right way since he took his first head coaching job at San Jose State. After last weekend's 38-24 win against Washington State, MacIntyre told of the "three P's that I use all the time personally and our guys use it: persistence, passion and prayer.
"The thing that they've done is they've united as a bunch of guys believing that they can accomplish anything. It's really special to see. To me – there's no doubt it's awesome right now – but I feel like I always get graded when they're 30 or 35 (years old).
"I think they've learned a lot of great life lessons: caring about other people, blocking out the outside and keep putting one foot in front of the other. They're going to have a lot of hard times ahead of them in life and hopefully they can revert back to some of the lessons they've learned here."
Pass it off as trite, or coach-speak if you want, but there's a difference in telling it to players and making it stick. MacIntyre has accomplished that, getting the "buy-in" and the senior leadership required from a class that saw enough hard times to fragment.
It didn't, which made Saturday night even grander.
"We have been working hard for the whole time I've been here and we don't have much to show for it – but this year we do," said quarterback Sefo Liufau, one of those 27 seniors who makes MacIntyre nearly tear up at hearing his name.
At game's end, Liufau received the Buffalo Heart Award, presented annually by a group of fans who sit behind the CU bench to the player who epitomizes, well, the heart of a Buff. It is an award that screams toughness and dedication – and Liufau had to be a runaway winner this season.
"It's a great honor to get that award," Liufau said. "Nothing but thanks, praise, blessings. I couldn't have done it without my teammates pushing me and getting through these years because it's been a grind to get through all of the bad to get to the good."
MacIntyre said the full impact of the good – a South Division title – will come unexpectedly, maybe silently, when his players have left the locker room and are alone with the reflections of a special season.
"The feeling in the locker room was awesome," he said, "but it will hit them when their families leave . . . they'll wake up in the middle of the night and say, 'Wow.' They'll have that moment when it's just them by themselves, when you've accomplished something that nobody thinks you're going to accomplish and you do something nobody thinks you can do – and really you probably doubted yourself at times."
As for when the magnitude of it all will hit their coach, MacIntyre said, "I guarantee I'll wake up sometime in the middle of the night and go out in the den and just sit there, and pray and cry and yell. It's an emotional deal. Then we'll get back together and get ready to go play Washington, which is going to be awesome."
And how's this for a player-coach bond, particularly among those seniors like Liufau who poured themselves into MacIntyre's program and had the faith and guts to stick around: "I can't say enough about these seniors," MacIntyre said. "I'm speechless to be honest. They're my heroes, that's the best way to say it . . .
"I think some of these guys should be CU legends for what they've gone through and what they done for the University of Colorado and the University of Colorado football program."
Ask his players about being called legends and they will tell you it starts at the top. Mike MacIntyre isn't there yet and won't tell you if he gets there; you'll have to hear it from someone else. But 2016 has been a fitting, fulfilling start.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
BUFFS WIN 27-22!
SOUTH DIVISION CHAMPIONS!
It was the nuts-and-bolts version of what happened, but the real story of Colorado football's turnaround under Mike MacIntyre is difficult, leaning toward impossible, to tell with digital figures and fireworks
.
It might be as improbable a U-turn – worst to first, sad to glad, sorry to glory – as college football has experienced in decades.
Feeling the buzz (and the heat) from the multi-million dollar facilities facelift that had sprung up around him, MacIntyre went into his fourth regular season with a 2-27 Pac-12 record.
Saturday night he came out of it with four times as many conference wins, only one loss (8-1) and now is one win away from coaching a Pac-12 championship team. Other coaches in his sport can be insufferable in victory as well as defeat; MacIntyre hasn't been in either scenario.
He's living his dream and remains humble doing it, deflecting the praise to his players and displaying gratitude to an administration that has had his back and made a commitment to his program.
Saturday night was the reward, but not the final payoff.
MacIntyre, who should be a no-brainer for conference coach-of-the-year and the front runner for the national honor, opened his post-game media conference as coach of the South Division champs like this: "Wow . . . these young men are special. Special, special, special."
There can be no doubting his sincerity, or how he's viewed by his Pac-12 peers. When Utah and CU joined the Pac-12 for football competition in 2011, the league's hope was that a long-dormant rivalry would be rekindled.
It was tagged "The Rumble In The Rockies," and in the six games the Buffs and Utes have played as conference members it's been quite the rumble. Close games, hard-fought games, pivotal season-ending games such as Saturday night's.
But as for it being a genuinely nasty rivalry, it falls a little short, according to veteran Utah coach Kyle Whittingham.
"No (it doesn't feel like a rivalry) because there's no bad blood," he said. "I've got all the respect in the world for these guys (Colorado). They do it the right way, they're well-coached.
"Their players act the way they're supposed to act . . . and that's very impressive, how they act and carry themselves and conduct themselves on the field."
And that points to MacIntyre, the son of a coach who has done it the right way since he took his first head coaching job at San Jose State. After last weekend's 38-24 win against Washington State, MacIntyre told of the "three P's that I use all the time personally and our guys use it: persistence, passion and prayer.
"The thing that they've done is they've united as a bunch of guys believing that they can accomplish anything. It's really special to see. To me – there's no doubt it's awesome right now – but I feel like I always get graded when they're 30 or 35 (years old).
"I think they've learned a lot of great life lessons: caring about other people, blocking out the outside and keep putting one foot in front of the other. They're going to have a lot of hard times ahead of them in life and hopefully they can revert back to some of the lessons they've learned here."
Pass it off as trite, or coach-speak if you want, but there's a difference in telling it to players and making it stick. MacIntyre has accomplished that, getting the "buy-in" and the senior leadership required from a class that saw enough hard times to fragment.
It didn't, which made Saturday night even grander.
"We have been working hard for the whole time I've been here and we don't have much to show for it – but this year we do," said quarterback Sefo Liufau, one of those 27 seniors who makes MacIntyre nearly tear up at hearing his name.
At game's end, Liufau received the Buffalo Heart Award, presented annually by a group of fans who sit behind the CU bench to the player who epitomizes, well, the heart of a Buff. It is an award that screams toughness and dedication – and Liufau had to be a runaway winner this season.
"It's a great honor to get that award," Liufau said. "Nothing but thanks, praise, blessings. I couldn't have done it without my teammates pushing me and getting through these years because it's been a grind to get through all of the bad to get to the good."
MacIntyre said the full impact of the good – a South Division title – will come unexpectedly, maybe silently, when his players have left the locker room and are alone with the reflections of a special season.
"The feeling in the locker room was awesome," he said, "but it will hit them when their families leave . . . they'll wake up in the middle of the night and say, 'Wow.' They'll have that moment when it's just them by themselves, when you've accomplished something that nobody thinks you're going to accomplish and you do something nobody thinks you can do – and really you probably doubted yourself at times."
As for when the magnitude of it all will hit their coach, MacIntyre said, "I guarantee I'll wake up sometime in the middle of the night and go out in the den and just sit there, and pray and cry and yell. It's an emotional deal. Then we'll get back together and get ready to go play Washington, which is going to be awesome."
And how's this for a player-coach bond, particularly among those seniors like Liufau who poured themselves into MacIntyre's program and had the faith and guts to stick around: "I can't say enough about these seniors," MacIntyre said. "I'm speechless to be honest. They're my heroes, that's the best way to say it . . .
"I think some of these guys should be CU legends for what they've gone through and what they done for the University of Colorado and the University of Colorado football program."
Ask his players about being called legends and they will tell you it starts at the top. Mike MacIntyre isn't there yet and won't tell you if he gets there; you'll have to hear it from someone else. But 2016 has been a fitting, fulfilling start.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
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