Gillam Aims To Send Buffs Seniors Out On Right Note

BOULDER — Next Thursday's Valero Alamo Bowl will be a bittersweet moment for Colorado linebacker Addison Gillam.

Gillam, a member of CU head coach Mike MacIntyre's first recruiting class, will suit up one last time with those players who came to Boulder with him.

It is a special group, one that will forever be remembered by CU faithful as the class that turned Colorado's fortunes around. Being part of that class has always been a matter of pride for Gillam, particularly this season. The class has been a driving force behind CU's Pac-12 South title run, a 10-3 record and top 10 national ranking.

But Gillam won't be leaving with those seniors. Instead, he'll be returning for one more year with the Buffs, thanks to a 2015 redshirt season when he was sidelined by a knee injury for much of the year.

"It's going to be awesome playing in the bowl game," Gillam said Thursday morning. "It's great for the seniors .... in a way, I kind of wish I was going out with them on this note. But it's great to have this for them, and it makes me look forward even more to next year and what this team can do."

Gillam's time in Boulder hasn't been easy. After a spectacular freshman year, when he finished with a team-leading 119 tackles and earned first team Freshman All-America honors, he has battled injuries ever since. Despite a variety of ailments, he still managed to produce a 79-tackle sophomore year, but suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2 of 2015.

That brought him back this year as a junior while many of his original recruiting classmates — particularly those on the defensive side of the ball — will finish their CU careers in San Antonio.

"It will be interesting," he said. "Those are all the guys I hang out with, all the guys I spend my free time with. I definitely see myself as one of them. That's going to be the difficult part. They'll be playing their last game. I'm just glad they get to go out with the kind of success we've had this year. It's what we were all aiming for when we got here, and it will always be nice to know we accomplished it."

Despite more nagging injuries, Gillam played in all 13 games this year, finishing with 66 tackles, four sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery that helped clinch a win over Washington State. He played alongside a number of those original MacIntyre recruits, including Chidobe Awuzie, Tedric Thompson, Kenneth Olugbode and Jimmie Gilbert.

Along with producing wins on the field, the CU upperclassmen have also been responsible for helping change the culture of the program. They have instilled in the team the importance of a strong work ethic, accountability — and a reminder that nothing comes easily.

"Sometimes you don't even have to say anything," Gillam said. "I think the younger guys see it in us when we got frustrated after a bad game or even when we didn't play as well as we liked and still won. They saw how important it is. They're well aware of the past here and they see it in our attitudes. They know it's important to be accountable."

Not all of the members of MacIntyre's original recruiting class will be graduating. A number of them redshirted their first year, and will be returning with Gillam for their senior seasons in 2017. The list includes a number of key contributors, among them Phillip Lindsay, Bryce Bobo, George Frazier, Jonathan Huckins, Timothy Coleman Jr. and Devin Ross.

"I think our next challenge will be keeping this thing going," Gillam said. "We don't want it to be a one-year thing. We're losing a lot of guys up front on defense and we have to get guys ready to play and ready to make an impact. But I think everyone is really excited about keeping the ball rolling."

An Alamo Bowl win over Oklahoma State would be one last feather in the cap of the senior class. It would make the 2016 Buffs only the fourth team in CU history to win 11 games and would almost assuredly give them a top 10 final ranking.

"It would definitely be icing on the cake," Gillam said. "It would be all that much better. But really, I don't think any of us are worried about rankings or anything like that right now. I think we're all just focused on going down there and winning another game. That's the way we approached it all year and that's what we want to do for this last game."

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu