Tuesday Football Press Conference

Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Opening Statement
"First off, I don't know how Mike Leach does it, but when you get the son of Zeus to play D-line for you it really helps you. Hercules [Mata'afa] is an amazing player. He's so active. They do a great job with how they use him. Of course, Luke Falk can make every throw. It's amazing how much stuff he checks when you watch the tape over and over. He's checking every single play basically. He does a great job. They've got an excellent team. It's fun watching them on tape. I just hope it's not fun watching them on Saturday."

On Whether Washington State Quarterback Luke Falk Is An NFL QB
"I'm not in the NFL, but he can throw it and make all the throws. He reads it. He's not this guy, but he reminds me a little bit of Tom Brady the way he manages, the way he gets the ball out of his hands, the way he can see the blitzes coming and how he sits in there and moves and stays open and makes throws. He reminds me of him, but of course Tom Brady is unbelievable. The way he operates on his college game, he's like that on the field."

On How WSU Will Play After Their First Loss Last Week
"They always play hard. That was a weird game. They moved the ball; they did some things; they played pretty good on defense. It kind of got away from them. Any time you have seven turnovers – of course Cal caused a few of those, but Washington State caused quite a few of them themselves – it was weird with balls bouncing in the air. I definitely think they'll come out and play hard. I thought they tried to play hard in that game, but sometimes the bounces just happen. Maybe they'll have another week of bad bounces. That'd be good."

On The Matchup Between WSU's Offense And The Defense
"Our guys have got to know right where to be. They've got to understand if his first option's not open, he's able to go to his second and third option. It looks like to me sometimes he's holding the ball sometimes to get the ball downfield. I really don't think (WSU head coach) Mike Leach cares if he takes a few sacks, honestly. He knows if he keeps doing that he's going to his right reads. Eventually that big play is going to come open. They want him to sit in there and go through his keys and read it and see it. Of course they don't want to take sacks, but I do think sometimes he'll give up a sack to be able to know the next time they run the same play he'll hold it and get it to the guy. It's amazing. It's almost like he's got eyes on the back of his head sometimes."

On How WSU's Offense Is Consistently Good Every Year
"They get good receivers coming in. It took him a little while to build the offense. Now that he's got it set, all the backups know it, all the receivers know it, all the quarterbacks know it, all the running backs know it and all the linemen know it. It's a system that they have and he's done a good job with it. It's key on that quarterback; I mean he checks everything. It's pretty amazing what he does."

On How The WSU Defense Has Gotten Better
"They've got a lot of kids back from last year. They're playing hard and reckless. I think that their secondary is playing better this year than it did last year. I think they're a little more aggressive and able to contest more balls and contest more third downs. In the system they do a good job. They have some athletes. They've got guys up front that can make some plays that can harass the quarterback by themselves, which is always key."

On What He's Learned About Defensive Coordinator DJ Eliot
"Number one, DJ's an excellent coach. He knows the system well. He has a great attitude all the time. He's not a finger-pointer. He's a real team guy. I've been very impressed with that and how he's worked with the staff and how the kids have kept responding to him. Even Saturday, as we got going down there, all those kids believed in what we were doing and what he was doing. It showed at different times, especially on the last drive. We haven't been able to do that the last couple times. They had enough fortitude to do it again. They made plays; it wasn't like the other team didn't make plays. We made plays. Sometimes it falls in your lap. We made plays there to get it done. I thought that was good and I think it shows that they believe in him and that he believes in them."

On How Often He Gets Involved Coaching Different Position Groups
"I'm pretty much hands-on in every phase. I'm not a dictator in every phase, but I know what's going on in every phase. Some head coaches are on one side of the ball and they don't have a clue what's going on the other. I'm in every single phase and I meet with every single phase. I try to make sure that we're all trying to go in the right direction. I'm also trying to be a sounding board. They'll ask me. I'm involved in all those phases of it. They can ask a question and they can make a decision and it's an informative decision. It's not something they're doing on their own. I want us all to be on the same page. It creates continuity and trust, when everything is going good or when everything is going bad, so you're always together. You're going to have that throughout a season, a game and a week. I try to be there in all those areas."

On Pressuring WSU Quarterback Luke Falk
"It's important to create some hurries on him there's no doubt. It's important to be able to hit him a little bit too. They do an excellent job. Their offensive line is huge. He's able to get rid of it when he wants to and when he's trying to get something down field he'll hold on to it a little bit. We definitely need to be able to get to him a little bit, there's no doubt."

On How Close Inside Linebacker Drew Lewis Has Been To Getting A Sack
"He knows, but as you watch the film he's harassed a lot of throws and a lot of hurries. His play Saturday, I'm glad it wasn't a sack. I'm glad it was a barely-there and an interception. That was a huge play in the game."

On If WSU's Offense Is Simple
"In anything, it's all in the execution in what the guys on the field can do. I've never worked with him, but he must be an unbelievable teacher and his staff must be unbelievable teachers in how they execute what they do. The whole key is, he has a connection with that quarterback. He knows exactly what he wants to do. That's where I see the genius in it. He's able to be an extension of him and he knows where he wants to go with it and know what he wants to do. It's uncanny."

On How Former Quarterback Sefo Liufau Was Able To Read Defenses And Check Out Of Plays
"Sefo had the ability to do that a lot and was able to see things and do things. He grew into the system. With him, we did it a little bit different. He had different runs and different things to the strengths of what he did. It was similar in a lot of ways."

On How Outside Linebacker Jacob Callier Has Been Able To Rush The Passer
"Jacob has a knack to pass-rush. He's getting better and better every game. He's playing a little bit more every game. We're excited about Jacob throughout the rest of this year and the rest of his career. He's a very good pass-rusher, but I think he can end up being an excellent pass-rusher as he keeps getting better and better and keeps improving and understanding how to go against college tackles every day. He's starting to show that."

On How He Compares This Defense To Past Defenses
"Our D-line last year was really stout. Our D-line this year, a couple of them have been hurt and they've been having to play a little bit more. That's an area that if you're really good there, it shows up. All of a sudden you stop them on a third down or first down play, instead of it going for five it goes for two. Now it's second-and-eight instead of second-and-five. It's little things like that. The pile falls forward. If we were fitting some things up right in the secondary or knock down a pass here or there will make a big difference on it. Like everybody thought, we've had some tough times and some really good games. I knew it would be a little bit of a growing experience when you've had eight of those guys that went to NFL teams last year. They all played a lot of plays and they've seen things. Now our guys can see things. We've had some good moments and we've had some really tough moments. The whole thing is you've got to just keep working with him and keep maturing. All of a sudden they'll get a little bit better and a little bit better. Now it's second-and-eight instead of second-and-five. You make a play when it's third-and-six and you don't let them get passed the sticks. You knock it down. Hopefully we can make a few more of those."

On Keeping In Touch With Former Players Who Are In The NFL
"I do talk to those guys every once in a while. As a matter of fact, Sefo's coming to the game Saturday. His parents were at our game last week. I talked to them for a long time afterwards. I look forward to seeing him. I've talked to all those guys. It's been good. I think [former wide receiver Nelson] Spruce got picked up last night (by the Chicago Bears) I was told. He's been up to a couple games. We do stay in touch with those guys. It's not on a daily basis, but I would say once a month or every couple weeks. They show up. they know they can come around; they can come to my office; they can come to practice; they can come to games any time they want to come. We love having them around."

On The Importance Of Outside Linebacker Derek McCartney To The Pass-Rush
"He's key. He had one on the very first drive the other day. I don't know how the guy got the ball off. They caught it on that third down. If we were that much closer to getting a sack fumble and picking it up and running it in. It changes the whole game. Those are the things you're talking about. You're just so close, but you've got to make them. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, I was always told as a little kid. It doesn't count in football. He is getting better and better. He made a couple really big plays the other day. They ran a reverse and he came out of there. If he doesn't get the guys leg, he had great effort. They ran a wheel route on him with number 34 [running back Ryan Nall]. He ran right down the sidelines. It was run on us earlier in the year. They copied it. He sees it and runs. He is doing better and better. He's a phenomenal kid and he'll make some big plays here as we go."

On George Frazier Playing Both Offense And Defense
"He's extremely valuable. He played really well for us the other day in the game. He made some really big blocks on offense too. He's a big part of our football team. He's doing really well on the defensive line and he's getting more comfortable in there."

On If He Believes In Bigfoot
"Do I believe in Bigfoot? Wow. I guess if I saw Bigfoot I would."

On If He Believes In Aliens And Life On Other Planets
"Wow that's an interesting question. There's a lot of galaxies out there. I don't know."

On If He Believes Seinfeld Is The Best TV Show Ever
"That's a good one. Most of the kids these days don't even know who Seinfeld is. Seinfeld has his moments, there's no doubt. I enjoyed Seinfeld. The scenes were amazing. George was hilarious. As a matter of fact I ran into someone who has his job at the Yankees. So I said, 'Tell me a little bit about it!' He said, 'No I'd be shot if I did!' That's a great show. It's still one that you watch late at night when you get home. You turn it on just to get through the day. If you kind of have a rough day and laugh a little bit, so you can forget about things. It's an excellent show."

On Having Different Players Return Kicks
"We had KD [Nixon] back there, he's done pretty good. We put Kyle [Evans] back there. KD was covering punts and other kicks too. We have Ronnie Blackmon back there. We've just got to do a better job blocking for them. We've got to do a little bit better than that. When you play here, you never get any returns. Then you go on the road, get returns and they just haven't done it enough. Hopefully, we'll be better this week because I guarantee they'll kick it to us to return. We didn't get it out very far. We've got to do a better job of that and I believe we will."

On If Weather Will Be A Factor Against WSU
"No. It's football. It's one of the beauties of football. I just wish it was grass with mud. It'd be even more fun."

On CU SID Dave Plati's Football Game Streak Ending
"I talked to him about it after the game. As soon as the game was over I went in and called him. I was in the locker room and thanked him. I told him I was sorry he couldn't be there. I asked him what it was like watching at home and if it was as nerve racking. He said, 'It was nerve racking watching it from there.' I think he could yell a little bit more, because you can't yell in the press box. He could probably scream and yell a little bit. He could throw things at the television or yell at me. We did miss him on the trip and we definitely hope he gets well where he can go in the future. He had 410 in a row and missed one, that's pretty hard. He does a great job and we missed having him there. He was excited when I called him and excited we won. He's been a huge part of this program for years and years and years. I was just waiting for him to give me some 'Plati-ism'. I think I shocked him when I called him. He did tell me that Phillip [Lindsay] was only five yards away (from 1,000 rushing yards on the year). He already knew that so he was on top of it."

Wide Receiver Bryce Bobo

On How He's Emerged As Steven Montez's Favorite Target
"We just talk a lot. On and off the field we've kind of developed a relationship, but I mean he has relationships with all the receivers, honestly. I feel like he thinks of me as more of a kickstand, if he's ever in danger of getting sacked or anything, I'm always there to be open for him."

On His Evolution As A Passer
"Playing in youth leagues and stuff like that, I used to play quarterback. Then when I got to high school I switched my position to wide receiver. I always knew I could throw the ball. When I got here I would throw the ball 60-yards just playing around jokingly with some of the other receivers, and Coach [Daniel] DePrato saw me launch the ball all the way across the field one day and he said I had a big arm. I said jokingly, 'Tell them to put me at quarterback, tell them to let me throw a pass'. Next week (Coach DePrato) was like, 'Hey against USC we have a pass play for you.' We practiced it and it worked so I guess they kind of rely on me for trick plays like that."

On Confidence Gained From Long Fourth Quarter Scoring Drives
"As an offense we kind of knew that these kinds of plays could get us going. After that, we were just confident in ourselves. Every single time we stepped on the field we knew we had to put points on the board, and those types of plays boost your momentum."

On His 2-Point Conversion Play
"The play wasn't even supposed to go to me, it was supposed to go to Eddy [Lopez] but I guess they ran that play every single Thursday at practice so once we lined up they pointed it out right away, right as we came off the ball. I was working the back end line, and usually at practice I don't even keep going, but I saw Montez in a bind so I just kept going across the end line. I happened to be wide open and took a hard hit."

On How Catching Passes From Montez Is Different Than From Sefo Liufau
"The speed of the ball (is the big difference), honestly. Sefo would get it there but Steven has a bigger arm and so he'll just gun it in there. I would say he can fit (the ball) into tight spots better."

On The Current Standings For CU's 'YAC' Board And Knockdown Board
"For the YAC board, I think Devin [Ross] is still winning. I'm in third place, Shay [Fields] is in second for that. Then the knockdown board, I'm winning that, I'm always going to win that one.

On The Mood Of The Team After Picking Up Their First Pac-12 Win
"I don't think any of us are complacent, which is the good thing about our team. We all see that we have the potential to win big games. We're going into this week with the mindset that this is going to be a close game. (Washington State) has a really offense, and to me their defense has improved a lot since last year. We know that it's going to be a good game. We know we can't look past any team."

Inside Linebacker Drew Lewis

On Washington State's Offense
"Their quarterback (Luke Falk) is definitely a talented quarterback as you all know. He's one of their main playmakers on offense so we put a big emphasis on wanting to stop him. Last week's game against Cal, Cal was able to effectively stop their offense and we want to mimic that and lock down that pass game. He's notorious for passing the ball, they pass the ball more than they run the ball. So we want to stop that and force them to run the ball, stuff like that. We're doing a lot. We're in pretty good shape right now in terms of stopping their offense."

On Desire To Record A Sack
"There have been multiple times where I've gotten close to the running back. I'll get in the pocket and be able to put pressure but I can't finish it so I want to change that stat, definitely."

On How Colorado's Defense Has To Execute
"It's a matter of how well they (Washington State's offense) execute their simple tasks. They run a lot of deuce formation, simple two by twos. They'll run the ball and pass the ball like that. So we want to shut down with our one on one battles. If everyone can win their one on one battles, then that's a victory for the defense on every snap. We just have to do the regular stuff really well."

On Defensive Coordinator D.J. Eliot
"I've learned a lot from Coach Eliot. He's a great coach. He's really hands on and gets to know everybody. He'll coach you up one on one, personally. I feel like that's definitely beneficial. I really like him as a person. He works really hard to make game time adjustments and working on the fly. When you screw up, he's not going to be the one to chew you out. He's going to work with you and help the team get better. I really appreciate that. He's getting better, we're getting better with playing under him. The chemistry is definitely getting better."

On The Defense's Struggles Stopping The Run
"It does vary from game to game. When it comes down to it, it's just execution. It might be just one person who makes a mistake like playing front side when he should have played backside. That'll cause a four or five yard gain every time. When teams look at us and think that our defense isn't stout, that's what they're talking about. We're getting better at that. Every day we're trying to finish plays off and come together as a defense. Everyone needs to come together to finish a play. It can't be one person that lags the play."

On Arizona QB Khalil Tate's Performance Against UCLA
"We watched that on the flight back from Oregon. It was interesting to watch him do that against another defense. They had a similar problems as we did. They didn't wrap up when Khalil Tate would cut back and have the whole field in front of him. So, I wouldn't say it makes me feel any better but it makes more sense of what happened. We're not too focused on that now though."

Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Wide Receiver Bryce Bobo

Inside Linebacker Drew Lewis

Players Mentioned

Ronnie Blackmon

Bryce Bobo

Jacob Callier

George Frazier

Drew Lewis

Sefo Liufau

Derek McCartney

Steven Montez

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