Colorado University Athletics
Woelk: MacIntyre's Honor Well-Deserved, But Buffs Merited More First-Teamers
November 29, 2016 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — To no one's surprise, Colorado's Mike MacIntyre was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year on Tuesday.
Was there any other choice?
No doubt other coaches deserved to be in the conversation. Washington's Chris Petersen, whose Huskies the Buffaloes will face in Friday's Pac-12 Championship game, has clearly done an outstanding job at UW this year. USC's Clay Helton, whose team survived a 1-3 start to win eight straight, also had to be considered.
But at the end of the conversation, only one coach could lay claim to leading the most dramatic turnaround in conference history. As they say, the scoreboard doesn't lie.
"These young men and how well they've played, they've bought into everything we've asked them to do," MacIntyre said. "Our coaching staff has done a phenomenal job with them. And all of our auxiliary people – everyone who has touched our young men have the pride to make them successful. From our trainers, our strength staff, our equipment managers, our football ops. Everybody has done so much to put confidence in them and belief. That's what's happened. I'm just fortunate enough to have head coach in front of my name. I just get to go along with the ride, and it's pretty special."
MacIntyre is clearly honored by the award. It's a deserving honor for a man who has never wavered from the process, never given up on what he believed was the correct path to success. What he has accomplished in Boulder is a once-in-a-generation occurrence.
But on the day he was recognized by his peers for those accomplishments, MacIntyre also had to carefully choose his words on related topic. Carefully because as a team, the Buffs were, to put it bluntly, snubbed by the league's coaches. Ignored. Spurned.
Or, pardon the pun, rebuffed.
You see, the team that won 10 games this year, the team currently ranked No. 9 in the nation and the team that will play for the Pac-12 championship Friday, had exactly two players selected to the All-Pac-12 first team — and just one on offense or defense.
CU outside linebacker Jimmie Gilbert earned first-team honors. Ryan Moeller earned special teams honors. Well-deserved recognition for both players, no doubt.
But after that, all the other players who led Colorado to their turnaround season were relegated to second team or honorable mention.
It means safety Tedric Thompson, who led the league in interceptions with seven — three more than anyone else in the conference — was a second-team selection. It means cornerback Chidobe Awuzie — the only player in the league to finish in the top 20 in sacks (four) and passes defended (10) — was second team. It means cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, who tied with teammate Thompson for the league lead in passes defended (21), was also second team.
All three helped produce the league's leading pass defense — but none, apparently, played well enough to be named to the league's first team. That's some math that just doesn't add up.
If you're keeping score at home, Washington had nine first-team picks. UCLA and Utah — two teams the Buffs beat — had three first teamers, as did USC (Trojan Adoree Jackson was selected at two positions, defensive back and special teams). Stanford and Washington State had a pair, matching Colorado's total.
(By the way, the Associated Press all-conference team will be released in mid-December. We're hoping the Buffs land a few more first-teamers then.)
But don't worry about keeping score at home.
Guaranteed, the Buffs have quietly been keeping score in their locker room all season, and it's a good bet they tallied up the score Tuesday.
But they didn't complain.
Instead, they simply took notice, shrugged their shoulders and did what they have done all season.
They went to work on the practice field with the goal of going 1-0 this week.
MacIntyre, of course, took the high road — but there's no doubt where his feelings lie. When asked about the selections, his jaw squared and his smile disappeared.
"The reason we won this year is because we have really good football players," MacIntyre said. "We have a lot of good football players and we have excellent assistant coaches that have done a really good job. But I definitely feel like we should've had more guys on the first team all-conference. That's how you win.
"But that's how they chose it. And the thing that I think is awesome is we truly are a team. We play as a team. We don't blink. They can play us hard but they really don't care who gets the credit – they really don't."
Indeed, this has been a team that has played for the greater good all years. Individual goals and records have been established, but those have been a byproduct of the process.
The main goal has always been team. The main goal has always been to win, to leave a legacy that will be remembered.
Not that this team hasn't played with a chip on its collective shoulder. When the season began, the Buffs knew not many folks truly believed they could produce a turnaround season.
But they've kept that chip private. They have seldom spoken openly about the doubters.
And now, while they have no doubt convinced their fans that they are for real, they also know there is still an underlying feeling outside of Colorado that the Buffaloes can't really be this good.
It's nothing they haven't heard before, and nothing that will bother them now.
Instead, they'll simply continue to remind themselves of how they got here — which brings back to fall camp.
Way back in August, before the Buffs had played a single game, left tackle Jeromy Irwin was asked about the Buffs' upcoming season. He was asked what he would tell people who didn't believe this was going to be a team that would turn the program around.
After all, it was a story CU fans had heard before.
"When people don't believe in you, you have to give them something to believe in," Irwin said. "We understand why people might doubt us. It's up to us to prove that it's going to be different this year."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
