MacIntyre, Moeller Preview Northern Colorado

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Opening Statement
"This week in our country is pretty amazing. 9/11, all the floods, all the tornadoes and everything that's been going on puts things in perspective. I thought our guys had an intense practice today, they were getting after out there, and they're excited about playing at home at Folsom again this Saturday."

On Northern Colorado's Second Game Getting Cancelled
"We did it here our first year when we had the flood. We were going to play Fresno State and we didn't play them. I think we made a decision (to cancel the game) on Friday morning. It was the right decision, no doubt. It was interesting, that whole weekend Rick George and I were on the phone trying to get an opponent, and there was only about eight teams that could fit in there, and we were able to get Charleston Southern to play us. They were undefeated when we played them too, and ranked high in 1-AA (now FCS). It's funny, we paid for the lights for their stadium. Rick [George] and them bargained and ended up paying them something like $800,000, or however much their lights were going to cost, and they decided it was worth doing it. That was the only regular season game [Charleston Southern] lost before the playoffs. [Northern Colorado] knew a little bit earlier, so they could take extra time to prepare for us. I would imagine they probably took a day off to let their kids recover a little bit, and then went back at it."

On Steven Montez Stepping Up In The Pocket
"In all fairness to Steven, when he was in high school, he was the biggest, the fastest, the most athletic guy on the field. When people would rush him, he could see it and make them miss, or knock them down and run around them so that was kind of ingrained in him. Him and I sat down right before halftime and talked about it. I said, 'you just have to sit in there and trust it. I don't want to take away your playmaking ability, but you've got to sit in there and understand what a flash and what a free guy is.' And he did, he sat there in the pocket good, and there was one play in the third quarter there where he was able to scramble out and make a play. It's just him doing it over and over. I thought that he grew up a lot in that second half. He's been doing a good job with that in practice this week, also. Some guys can't run well enough to get out of the pocket, he can make plays when the pocket breaks down but we've got to get him to stay in there. That's him just getting comfortable with it, and he will."

On Saturday's Game Being Part Of A Pac-12 Pilot Program To Reduce Game Times
"When I was in the NFL I think we had 12-minute quarters and it went so fast. Then when I came back to college, it seemed like we were there forever. I think basically all the coaches in the Pac-12 would not be against a 15-minute half time. I think it's something that would be good, as long as we don't do things to cut down on what's actually happening in the game. Right now we're cutting down a little bit of commercial time. I was flipping through the channels the other day and I think it was a soccer game or a baseball game, they had a commercial on while the game. You could kind of see the commercial and kind of see the game, and we're so used to multitasking now anyway, so I think maybe they'll put more of that in. It's all television driven, there's no doubt about it. Especially for us on the West Coast playing a late game, we want people to stay tuned. If we have a long halftime and a lot of long commercials, they look at their clocks, and on the east coast they go to bed. If they could go, 'hey, I can stay up through this,' [it's a success.] That's the whole idea I believe. The clock doesn't stop on first downs in pro football and there has been talk about doing that until the last two minutes of a game. That would affect the game a little bit because it would cut down on the number of plays, but with how fast teams are playing it might not make as big of a difference."

On The Difference Between Playing And Coaching In Shorter Games vs. Longer Ones
"Honestly I think if you asked most of the players, they would like to get a drink of water, get some fluids, go to the restroom, relax for a minute, warm up for a minute, and get back in there and play. The only thing that we do in the locker room when it's really hot is sometimes kids get IV's or change their jerseys and that type of stuff."

On How Tailback Kyle Evans Will Fit Back In After His Injury
"We're going to throw him in there on special teams and we'll throw him in there at running back. We'll see how it'll all work out. Michael [Adkins II] has been playing good, Beau [Bisharat] has been playing good and Kyle's good. Fortunately, everybody's stayed healthy, but usually running backs get nicked up and you're going to need all those guys at different times during the season. We're going to have them all prepared to go. They'll all play on special teams also."

On Mixing In New Offensive Linemen
"We'll mix them around. It gives us more options on our offensive line and able to have more depth to keeps us fresh at different times. We'll have moving pieces. We played Jeromy [Irwin] all spring at guard, so he can play guard. We've got multiple things we can do there. That gives you flexibility. We played Timmy Lynott at center in the fourth quarter and that was good. You always want to try to get your best five out there in different ways. Offensive line and secondary don't rotate much, but if they've played a lot of snaps, then you can do that. I think it creates a lot of competition."

On What He Wants The Team To Accomplish Against Northern Colorado
"I'd like for us to put together a full game on all phases the whole entire time. You always want to see that in every game. I think every coach in America says that after every game or says that going into a game. It's cliché, but it's also true. You want to see good rhythm everywhere and everybody doing well. I'd like to see our coverage units on special teams make a jump. Our guys have been kicking so good that we've had some errors that you see on film, but we haven't had it exploited. I'd like to be able to fix those things before it exploits us. Those are some things that we're working hard on that we're trying to sharpen up. We kick so many out of the end zone, there are some times that we don't cover correctly. I'd like to be able to see our coverage units on our special teams sure up some more this week."

On Northern Colorado Making The Jump From Division II To I (FCS)
"It's a good move for them. They have an excellent school up there. They've had great football history there. I was at a school, University of Tennessee-Martin. They were a Division II program that moved to I-AA (now FCS). I was in the second year of that type of situation, so I know what they went through. It takes a while to build it up. It took a while for UT-Martin to build it up. Coach Collins had a good year up there last year. They had a phenomenal quarterback. This year they're good, they started off 1-0. I think they've turned the corner, now he wants to climb to the top of the Big Sky (Conference), which is a very good I-AA league, no doubt about it. They jumped into one of the very best (FCS conferences). That also makes it take longer to catch up. Their talent gets better every year."

On If The Staff Has Determined Who The Five Best Offensive Linemen Are
"We know who are seven or eight guys are and we'll be able to move those guys around. We haven't completely settled on who the best five are, if it's a guard, tackle combination or what. I think we're closer to that once Isaac [Miller] started playing."

On How Good The Defense Has Been
"I expect us for all 12 games not to allow a touchdown. What I've been so surprised about is that we haven't totally blown a coverage or blown a situation. We've lined up right, we've played hard, we've made checks, we've handled different situations and we've played third-down situations correctly. It's like an accordion. They've got to make checks and they've got to move with it. It's not a cookie-cutter thing. I was most impressed with so far that they've played all those situations really well. We gave up that one long run to open the game; thank goodness Isaiah [Oliver] can fly. They rallied right there. They've handled different adverse situations well and been able to line up correctly. I know that sounds simple, but it's not when teams are going fast and lining up in different formations. They make a lot of good checks that have really helped us. That's an area where I thought we'd struggle with early. We haven't really had any bone-headed mistakes. That's a credit to players and I think that's a huge credit to the way our coaching staff and Coach Eliot has been teaching them with some of the different things we've done in practice, our meetings and our walk-throughs that D.J. brought."

On The Team Looking Ahead To Playing Washington
"Everybody asks that, so that's always on their minds. You can't get away from that. I'll find out this weekend, but I sure hope not. If we do (look ahead), then we don't have a team that I think we have. This is an emotional game this weekend. A lot of our kids know a lot of their kids. There's two brothers in this game, the Lindsay brothers. That brings a lot of energy to it. It's a situation where a lot of the people coming to the game are excited about Northern Colorado playing us. That puts an extra incentive into it and so you're going to have lot more energy if we would have just played another 1-AA team from Texas or something. I think it makes a big difference. They know that – the year before I got year – Sacramento State beat us. They've already watched that film, we've already shown it to them. Montana State beat us a few years before that. I believe Northern Colorado beat Sacramento State last year. Our kids know what's at stake and what can happen. You've always got to come to play."

On If He Watches The Pac-12 After Dark Games
"I'll watch some of them. Not many because I'll be up Sunday morning going to church and then coming here to work. I need to get my rest, plus I'll see the whole game on film over and over and over. But of course I'll watch some of them. I do enjoy 12 o'clock kickoffs. My favorite time is the 3 o'clock kickoffs. I like that you can get going, we can have a good breakfast, meet with our guys, and spend some time with the players at the pregame meal. However with this time of a game, you eat a quick breakfast. You don't really have time to meet you've just got to get going. When I was in the NFL, I loved the 12 o'clock games, you had a little down time. But I enjoy the afternoon games, especially in Boulder. It is so beautiful here in the afternoons, especially October afternoons which are spectacular. It seems like we get a lot of night game in October. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. Last year we played a 3:30 PM game and then a seven o'clock game, which were excellent."

On If He Sees The Team Building Towards a "Complete Game"
"Yes I do. I see the intensity level and the fight in them. I see them at the end of practice, instead of just trying to get through practice, which they don't do, they're thinking, 'Okay, we've got one more period.' I'm seeing more competition and guys wanting to stay out afterwards and do a little bit extra. I always watch for that and I am seeing that."

On Outside Linebacker Dante Sparaco's Development As A True Freshman
"I don't know how IMG Academy helped him for this situation. I know that him coming in early helped him. He graduated in January. I remember the first time I met him, he was living in Glenwood Springs and he came up here for camp. He was a rising tenth grader and he looked just like he does now. I thought he was a grown man. He was playing quarterback at the time, now of course he's playing outside linebacker. Dante has had a really good fall for us, he's played really well in the games. He's got a bright future ahead of him. He's physical and athletic. He's bright. He loves being at the University of Colorado. I'm excited about what Dante's done so far and he's got an excellent career ahead of him."

On Other Younger Players Getting More Playing Time
"There are a few guys we've got sitting on the shelf, so to speak. They're practicing and playing their roles. We are going to see how injuries go. I hate talking about injuries but that's how our sport is. We've got to have those guys ready. It's kind of similar to what they do in the NFL. You have a practice squad, you're getting a couple guys ready, you're getting guys from other practice squads. You have guys that you don't activate in the 53, but you're not quite ready for them. We've got a couple guys sitting there. I imagine that a couple will pop up here in the next three to four weeks if we have injuries. If not, we'll have to mix and match and work from there."

On What This Upcoming Game Against UNC Means To Phillip Lindsay, Who's Playing His Brother
"I can sense the excitement with how feisty the Lindsays are. We can't let them cross paths in warm-ups because there might be a big-brother little-brother fight right there. They'll be into it. What a special family. It's been fun watching Phillip's little brother on film. They look very similar. He's a little bigger than Phillip. It's fun. I know they're very excited about it. They have one brother at CSU-Pueblo, one at UNC, and one's here at Colorado. That family bleeds the state of Colorado. They have made the people of Denver South and the community very proud. Great family and great kids."

On Specific Matchups With Northern Colorado
"I've been very impressed with their quarterback. He can throw it. They've got two receivers that are really fast and have made a lot of big plays. Alex Wesley mad a couple good plays in the first game and last year. They've got Hakeem Deggs, he'll remind you of K.D. Nixon in a way. He's real quick and athletic at that size. He makes a lot of plays. Jacob Knipp can make all the throws. I've been really impressed with his arm. He's a big, athletic, good quarterback. Defensively, they're older at their corners. They're good corners. Isaiah Williams is a good pass rusher off of the edge, he's made a lot of really good plays. They've got two really good linebackers, Luke Nelson and Noel Reid that have played really well. They beat Montana which was a good game. They should have beat Eastern Washington who was loaded. They're played really well against teams that have beaten teams in our conference. I was really impressed with their film. We only have the one game from this year. They were up 28-0 within a blink. Their offense has the ability to score and the ability to throw over the top of us. They'll take some shots on us. Their receivers have the speed to do that."

On The Affect Player Suspensions Have On The Team
"I felt like our team responded in both games well."

On 'Hike for Her'
"My mother-in-law passed away November 11^th two years ago. My wife started doing this last year, it's called 'Hike for Her.' It's this Sunday September 17^th at 9 o'clock at the NCAR-Table Mesa Trail. We'd like for everyone to bring their families and friends to battle ovarian cancer. We had a good turnout last year and we hope to have more and more people come out and represent it. This is like the silent cancer that you don't find out until too late. It's something we want to bring more awareness to after living it. It's dear to our hearts."

Safety Ryan Moeller

On The Shorter Halftime Against UNC
"It might make it a little harder to get corrections done if we need them but other than that, Coach Mac and the other coaches around us haven't really emphasized that the half times are any shorter or what not. But my focus is elsewhere anyways I guess."

On Where He Needs To Improve
"In order to keep winning and get better on defense, we have to get better at the things we haven't been doing so well with in the past weeks. Maybe things I could identify for myself is tackling. I've missed some tackles and when you get in Pac-12 play, against the Washington's and USC's, those are going to be touchdowns when you miss those tackles. There's a big emphasis on fine tuning the details while we can right now and definitely putting the package together so we can be ready to hit the ground running with Pac-12 play next week."

On The New Defensive Scheme
"I think we're coming together really well. It's more of a similar scheme than some people might think. All defenses, each coach is going to have his own twist to what he wants to and that's just going to happen, that's just life and that's just ball. I think that everything that we're doing is pretty similar to a lot of things that we did last year so it makes the whole transition a lot easier for those of us who played with that scheme last year with Jim Leavitt. Now with Coach Elliot, we're on a great track to elevate our level of play and get better each week as we go on so that we can be that dominant force that we really want to be."

On Evan Worthington's Role On The Team
"Having Evan [Worthington] around is a great edition to the team. He's been around before but him being able to help us out on many different facets, special teams and defense, he's that extra body that we can rely on to get the work done that we need done. We kind of 'insert here,' he's the x in the equation and he's done a very good job of learning the defense after taking some time off. He definitely hasn't wavered any bit."

On The Fact That CU Hasn't Allowed A Touchdown Yet This Season
"The defense, when we go out there, we expect to make stops. The fact that we haven't given up a touchdown yet isn't surprising. It's something that we should strive to carry on through the entire season. I haven't hough about that statistic or heard anyone bring it up until now but I'm proud of what everyone has done. I'm proud of the work that we're getting in and all of the changes that we're making to become a better team so that we can continue that. I think football is a volatile game and stuff is going o go. Sometimes it goes down the chute when we really don't need it to and sometimes it works out well. It's a great statistic for now but I'm looking forward to seeing the fourth down stops, third down stops, the three and outs, the turnovers, everything that we can produce and everything that will carry us through the rest of the season."

On Being A Team Leader
"I think that's the maturity and being older. you have a little better understanding as the years go on. If I were to talk to freshman Ryan he might look more like a deer in headlights at times. Not saying that doesn't happen now but now you still have to ask the questions and the big difference between maturity in a player is being able to ask those questions. You have to see things unfolding before your eyes. Visualization is huge. The preparation that I've taken from day one since I've gotten here at Colorado has put me and elected me into where I am today. I'm not looking to settle right now and I'm looking to continue elevating my play."