Montez, Worthington Join MacIntyre At Tuesday Football Press Conference

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Opening Statement
"I know everybody's been talking about Las Vegas, which we should there's no doubt about it. It's an absolute tragedy, but I did not realize it would hit this close to home. Darrin Chiaverini lost his brother-in-law and his wife's best friend got killed in Las Vegas. It's been rough on them and us helping him. When a 28-year old loses his life and a 35-year old with kids – all of the situations, no matter what they have – is tragic. When you come in to work and all that's going on, you just think that's just in Las Vegas. When two of the 59 people are close, a brother-in-law and a life-long friend, it's extremely tough. You can imagine Darrin's family and what they're going through right now with this situation. When we all think about that I think we all get angry. We don't understand why. It's an extremely, extremely sad situation all the way around. Please remember Darrin and their family and all the things they're going through."

"Arizona is playing really well. They could easily be 4-0, but they're 2-2. They've gotten beat by two good football teams that have played well for the last few years. It's going to be a very tough contest. They're much improved on defense compared to where they were last year. Offensively, [quarterback Brandon] Dawkins reminds me so much of Colin Kaepernick when I coached against him when I was at San Jose State. He's long, athletic, fast and he can throw the ball forever. He has great arm strength. That's what Kaepernick would do in college, he'd run everywhere and do that kind of thing. We've got to be able to stop their running game and hopefully corral Dawkins. They've been causing a lot of turnovers on defense too, so we've got to be able to take care of the football which has hurt us at times. It's going to be a tough game and we're excited to play at home, I know that much."

On The Mood Of The Team
"They are focused and ready to go. We got in at six in the morning on Sunday, so on Monday I scaled back practice quite a bit. Today was our first day of being physical and I thought they had a good practice, got after it and were very, very focused. I thought it was a good practice. We always say it was a good practice, but some are just a little better than others."

On The Development Of Linebacker Drew Lewis
"Last year was a good year for him to get his feet wet. He played on all the special teams and backed up Kenneth Olugbode who had a phenomenal year. He was able to do everything and learn everything, then we kept the exact same system. We saw of his strengths. He's a good blitzer, he's extremely fast and athletic, so we were able to use him a little differently than we did with Kenneth. Kenneth was great at what he did. D.J.'s [Eliot] has done a great job at utilizing Drew to his strengths and he's played well."

On Linebacker Drew Lewis Pressuring The Quarterback
"The way we do it with the pressure is they sometimes see him coming up the middle and they get it off. He truly pressures the quarterback; they know where he is. He hurries a lot of throws and causes a lot of incompletions."

On Defending Arizona Head Coach Rich Rodriguez's Read Option Offense
"Tackle the running back and tackle the quarterback, those are the keys. It's easy to say and hard to do. It has option aspects of it. They're bubble guy is really like the pitch guy. The dive guy is kind of like the fullback and here's the quarterback. If you brought the wide receivers in and put them in the slot, it's a little bit similar to what Georgia Tech does. He'll pull it, he'll run or he'll throw it out there. The other thing is it's similar to the Wing-T with the quarterback runs and the pulling guards. He's taken a combination of those two and couple different offenses and turned into his own. It's really the Rich-Rod offense. Not a lot of people run this type of offense. The key is if they can get the running back going, you just can't stop them. We've got to somehow keep the running back from getting going and then we've got a chance. If they get the running back going just like you do in the option game against Georgia Tech, if they get the fullback going you can't stop them."

On The Difference Between Evan Worthington Than In Years Past
"When he was young we played him quite a bit. I would have liked to have redshirted him the first year, but he was so athletic that we ended up playing him. It's like all of us, the lightbulb came on and he matured. His athletic ability is still the same, but he's mature, he doesn't take anything for granted, he's focused and he's always into it. He's doing great in school, off the field and in football. It's just like I always say, if you keep developing as a person then you'll develop better as a player. That's what I see in him. He's always had the tools. I've always thought he's had phenomenal athletic ability. Now he's putting it all together and playing really well."

On Quarterback Steven Montez Play
"I thought Steven played well. The quarterback has to play well and then everybody else around him has to play well. In the UCLA game, he played well enough for us to win. Could he have made more plays? Yes, but you can always say that. I thought he played well enough for us to win that football game, there's no doubt. In the Washington game, he played good, but if you look at it he probably didn't play well enough for us to win the game."

On The Changes Players Must Make To How They Tackle Due To Targeting Penalties
"It's hard, but you just have to target differently. It's kind of like pitching. They kept changing the pitching window. It's the same way in tackling. You went from you could hit him anywhere to now you can hit him low, but they're ducking and trying to make you miss. It's a little bit tougher. The quarterback's really the hard one to hit. You can't hit him. You have to hit him in the strike zone. You have to hit him above the knees and below the chin. You're head can't hit anywhere up in here. That's why it's hard to tackle those guys sometimes. It's tough. They're protecting them. I understand all that and agree with all of it. It's just hard on those guys. We work on it all the time. I think he's just more conscious that he can get kicked out of the game."

On Tension Between The Coaches Due To Offensive Struggles
"No. Not any. None whatsoever. You've just got to keep working and keep going. Like I said the other night after the game, we could have easily had 17 more points. It comes and goes. You keep working and breaks end up coming your way. I definitely think we're talented enough and good enough at what we do that we'll make those things happen."

On The Experience Of Playing For His Dad And Coaching His Own Son, Jay MacIntyre
"I really enjoyed playing for my dad. He was a phenomenal coach and a phenomenal man. The way he coached me is the secondary coach would coach me. I don't remember him saying two words to me much, except maybe 'Move faster' and 'Get going.' With Jay, I let 'Chev' (wide receivers coach Darrin Chiaverini) and them handle everything with that. They handle playing time and all that stuff. With him, I just let them do it so there's no pink elephant in the room. It's fun getting to see him every day, even if I might not talk to him that day. I'll see him at practice. It's good to see him."

On Balancing A Sense Of Urgency
"I know they understand that any game is important. A Pac-12 game at home, we lost two here, this is an important game for us to win. A lot of our guys have played a lot football now and understand the sense of urgency and make sure that we're taking care of business. The only way you can do that is to take care of it during the week. You can't all of sudden get excited on Saturdays. That doesn't do anything. It's their work ethic and how they're preparing. I've seen them prepare well the last couple days. I didn't see anybody dragging. I've seen them prepare and kept working. That all builds. You can't all of a sudden just turn it on this week if you didn't do it the week before and the week before that. Their sense of focus, understanding and hopefully their intensity level keeps rising as the games get more and more important. They understand what we want to do."

On If There Will Be Any Coaching Changes During The Week To Accommodate Coach Darrin Chiaverini
"Not right now. I talked to 'Chev' about it. They're trying to figure everything out at this moment. He went home early after they found out. I told him the other day, whatever he needs to do, go do it. If he needs to go, he can go for sure. I'm going to let him take it. They're could be or they're could not be. It depends on what their family decides. He's completely free to go do what he needs to do. It's a lot more important than football. Other people are ready to jump in"

Quarterback Steven Montez

On Whether He Feels Himself Taking The Next Step As A Quarterback
"I think it's been kind of progressing each week. It's just more comfortable in the pocket, staying in the pocket and not bailing out early. We're still working on that and (Offensive Coordinator Brian) Lindgren has helped me out a lot with that."

On Coach Lindgren's Role In His Development
"He's a huge help to me, for sure. He's improved my game ever since I got here. He got that senior kid from El Paso, Texas and kind of turned him into a quarterback. That's kind of how I would describe it."

On The Mood Of The Team
"I think we're really motivated right now. We're 0-2 in the Pac-12 and obviously you never want to start 0-2, but we've got Arizona coming to Folsom and we just have to go out there and play our hardest. Hopefully the ball will bounce in our favor this time."

On The Ball Not Bouncing In CU's Favor In First Two Conference Games
"I think that's how everybody on our team sees it. We've kind of been shooting ourselves in the foot. There's really no team we've played so far that's beat us, I think we've just kind of beat ourselves. I think that's how everybody sees it. It's extremely frustrating. You just have to go into practice every day and just use that as fuel and motivation to get the little details down."

On Growing Role In The Run Game
"I was always pretty comfortable with running the ball because I was running around the backfield a lot and we did a lot of read option and power read stuff at my high school, so I think coming out of high school I was pretty comfortable with that. But I'm even more comfortable now because I've gotten that many more reps, so it's starting to look really good."

On What It Takes To Stop Shooting Themselves In The Foot
"Attention to detail is the biggest thing. Making sure that we have all those details fine-tuned so that plays run smooth on offense. When big plays happen (we need to make sure) we're not holding downfield, and don't have any missed throws, dropped balls. All the things that can halt drives, we need to stay away from those. I feel like we're extremely close, I feel like we've been extremely close since the second game of the season. We just need to keep paying attention to details and practicing hard."

On Father-Son Player-Coach Duos And Family Weekend
"At practice you can't really tell (that there are two father-son duos on the team) because Coach Chev treats Curtis just like he's any one of the players, and it's obviously the same with Coach Mac. Coach Mac treats Jay just like he's another Colorado Football player. I think you have to respect that, because they don't treat them any different than they treat any one of us because we're all one team. I also obviously know that Coach Chev loves Curtis (Chiaverini) and Coach Mac loves Jay (MacIntyre). It's family weekend, it's a great time, my family will be in town. A lot of people are going to be happy and enjoying their time with family, especially because of the events that have been happening in the United States lately."

On Added Pressure Playing In Front Of Family
"I don't know there's more pressure, I feel like pressure is kind of a negative thing. I think people are just going to be excited for their families to them play and just to spend time with them. Coming out here, especially if you're a freshman, you miss your family when you get out here so it's always good to see them when they come out for family weekend."

On What He's Seen From Arizona On Film
"They're a good defense. They've got some (good) players. We're just going to do what we do on offense, and hopefully we get some things going."

On Importance Of This Week's Game
"I think this is a very important game. Obviously nobody wants to start Pac-12 play 0-2, and you definitely can't start 0-3. I think everybody is very excited for this game and we're kind of just waiting on Saturday."

On His Health After Taking Several Big Hits Against UCLA
"I'm feeling good, just getting a ton of rest, taking a couple Epsom salt bathes, getting my body right. I feel good though. I mean, we're playing football; it's not like golf where you're standing out there swinging clubs… no offense to Tiger (Woods), Rory (McIlroy) and all them, they're freak athletes too, but it's a contact sport so you're going to be a little sore after games. (I'm) not any more sore than I've been."

Defensive Back Evan Worthington

On Whether He's Happy With The Defense's Performance This Season
"We're not happy right now. We have a lot of (room for) improvement, so we're going to have to work on that during practice and get everything all cleared up."

On The Mood Of The Team Sitting At 0-2 In Conference
"The mood of this team is that we can't lose any more. We've got to keep pushing. This is a big week for us so we're just really fighting hard during practice, it's getting physical out there, there were a couple fights today, but it's all part of it."

On Whether He Sees A Sense Of Urgency With The Team
"We're definitely more motivated. You can tell at practice that everybody is locked in and ready to do everything we're supposed to do. We need to get this W, that's all we're thinking about right now."

On Missed Opportunities Costing Team In Two Losses
"Those little opportunities are what determine the game sometimes and we just always have to be 100% on everything. Once we get that all fixed we're going to be cruising."

On What He's Seen From Arizona On Film
"They've got a good quarterback and a fast running back. We just have to get them down and contain them, that's about it."

On Preparing To Face A Dual-Threat Quarterback
"We're working on it in practice, we've got plays for him so he's going to have to do what he needs to to beat us."

On Message From Coaching Staff This Week
"We just have to keep on top of everything. Those little mistakes have been hurting us so we just have to eliminate those little mistakes and we'll be fine."

On His Own Personal Play In First Four Games Since Rejoining Team
"You know I really love being back. (Football) is definitely my favorite sport, of course. I've loved being out there with my teammates, it's just amazing, it's hard to explain, it's something you have to experience yourself. It's been a really great experience being back out there with my fellas."

On Balancing Sense Of Urgency With Staying Loose
"Having fun out there is part of winning. When we're playing hard, making plays out there, that's really fun. That's how you have fun, just by doing what you're supposed to be doing."