Mike MacIntyre Spring Practice Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Opening Statement
"We're excited about spring practice starting tomorrow. Our guys have been working extremely hard in the weight room. Drew Wilson and those guys have done a great job with them. We have a few guys that have had some injuries and got operated on that won't be out at spring practice. Some other guys are going to be a little bit slow starting it from other injuries that are giving it time to heal. We're excited about getting out there. The staff's been working extremely hard getting ready for it and meshing everything. We're getting ready to go."

On Potential Depth Issues During Spring Practice
"One of the things that helped us is getting those young men in in January. You've got nine of those guys, so that helps a tremendous amount. Timmy Lynott is still out and he'll be out the whole spring. Isaac Miller is not going to be able to go this spring either with his knee situation. That bumps up those other offensive linemen and some of those freshmen will get some more reps and opportunities, which will be good. We've got enough guys to practice well and do well on the D-line and O-line. That's where you're always nervous to be able to practice enough. I feel good about all of those guys being able to go. Jake Moretti's going to be able to go some, we'll ease him into it and go from there. [Jared] Poplawski's out, because of his ACL but he's coming along good. [Jonathan] Van Diest is out, because of his ACL. They're all doing really well; they'll be ready to go for sure in the fall. 100 percent sure. We have plenty of guys to go at it and have a good spring practice."

On Jake Moretti's Recovery
"Mentally and everything – as far as understanding our offense – he's in good shape. He's going to go out there and work and bring him into individual drills. He's been in the weight room and doing all of the agility circuits. It's going to be a day-to-day basis and ease him into it and see how he does. We want to just build him up. He's worked extremely hard. I'm amazed at that young man's work ethic and toughness."

On The Value Of Starting Spring Practice Early
"There's a couple reasons we start it now. Number one, if you have an injury it gives you another month or so. I wanted to start it a little earlier, but we still had some guys recovering. Even one of our guys was [defensive coordinator] D.J. Eliot, he had to have hip surgery. We wanted to make sure he was moving around. Also, the way our calendar falls for our school and for recruiting. Now, you go out in April. You can have official visits in April, May and June now. I wanted to have everything done before spring break for the recruiting side of it. Our exams start the first full week in May, then graduation is on May 10^th. You also have to have discretionary periods. I've split it up before – before spring break and a little bit after – but I'd rather get it all done and finish before spring break, then come back and keep lifting. We've had almost a six-week lifting cycle. We'll keep lifting hard through spring practice, then we'll have spring break off and come back and have another four-and-a-half-week lifting cycle, which is good. We can keep it flowing the whole time. They're ready to go. They're excited about getting out there and get practicing."

On Competitiveness In Position Battles
"I think it's always competitive, relative to how it all works out. Every year we're going to lose a lot of seniors. I definitely think it's competitive, especially with how many guys we had coming in in January, which is excellent for our football team. I'm excited about watching all of those guys compete."

On Long Term Concerns For Isaac Miller's Injury History
"There's definitely some long term concerns. We're not sure on all of that yet, but there's definitely some long term concerns with his situation."

On What Position Groups He Is Anxious To See
"There's a little bit at every position that I'm anxious to see. Definitely some of those young offensive linemen and some of those young D-linemen that we have out there to see how they look. They look good in the weight room and look good moving around. They've gotten bigger and stronger and they're athletic. I'm excited about to see how they respond to being out there competing and being in some intense situations."

On Getting The New Coaches Acclimated
"One thing that helped us a little bit this year more than usual is the early signing date. We basically had everybody signed. We were still out recruiting and all that, but I had them come off the road one day a week and meet as a whole entire staff. We didn't have as many big recruiting weekends, so we were able to do some work on the weekends. In the past, you would have been in here with eight or nine guys recruiting, then flying out. We were still able to cover a tremendous amount recruiting-wise, but with signing 21 guys it wasn't like we were pushed up against the wall. In moving it back a little later, we've had a good three weeks to dive in completely into football and work on that day and night to get ready for it."

On The Format Of The Spring Showcase
"I've done the spring game before, and then with our limited number of days of contact and practice and fundamentals that you can do in pads, I felt like we went out and did the spring game and we didn't get a lot of fundamental work done. You missed a whole day of that. On the other side of it, I watched a few other teams around that weren't doing full games all the time, one of them being Washington, and noticed a little of what they were doing. I kind of tweaked it. It also gives you a less chance of injuries that late in the spring. I think overall it helps your team, so you truly have another day to practice. It's a half practice and half scrimmage, which we do a few other times during the spring. It enables you to really concentrate on fundamentals and some different things. I've liked it. I think it's worked out well for us."

On The Changes Donovan Lee Has Made After His Redshirt Season
"Donovan's right there ready to graduate. He'll be in good shape in graduating, so he's taking care of business academically. He definitely has matured through the years. I'm not saying he was immature, but you just do and he's done a good job of that. This spring is a big spring for him to see where he fits and takes his spot in the offense. I'm excited about having Donovan back. We've been able to use him as a jack-of-all trades for us. Hopefully we'll be able to find ways to use him and he'll find ways to show us that in the spring. I'm excited about having Donovan out there."

On The Team's Biggest Area Of Improvement
"There are a lot of areas of improvement. The overall theme is we're trying to be more self-disciplined at each position, more team-oriented at each position and understanding that and more mentally and physically tough in each area for the whole team. That's what you do as your building a team, so you do that in the spring and during the winter workouts. It all goes hand in hand. We've been talking about that as a team. I think at each position, the spring is more, you're developing the team, but you're also developing the individual to fit the pieces together. Is that guy better at center and that guy better at guard? We're going to experiment and see that. Is that guy better at tackle or is he better at guard? Those types of things are what you're looking for, so when you're coming out of spring, you know the makeup of your team and where your puzzle pieces fit. That's making a team. That's what we're trying to look for."

On Phillip Lindsay Not Being Invited To The NFL Combine
"I wish they would have taken him. I don't know the exact statistic, but I think at least 40 percent of the people that go to the combine don't get drafted, or something to that effect. It matters what he does on film, when they meet him, when they come here for pro day and what team will take him. Somebody's going to take him and he'll do well. The combine's not the be-all-end-all. I talked to him about that a little bit. I think he understands that and he'll do well with whoever takes him."

On What He Would Tell NFL Teams About Phillip Lindsay
"The same thing I've told about every one of them that's called me over the last month. I think they've all called. He can do all three things as a running back: he can run the ball, he can catch the ball and he can block. He can play on every single special team and he never fumbles. 301 carries and no fumbles. He has qualities where you can go to a game and think about the number of plays, not if he's the starting tailback. He could be the gunner on the punt team, he can return kickoffs, he can run down on the kickoff team, he can hold up on the punt team and he can be your third-down back. If your other guy gets hurt, he can play inside and run the football. There's multiple plays that Phillip can play for you when you go into a game; he's not just a guy who carries the football. I think that's why somebody will take him."

On Steven Montez Taking The Next Step As A Leader
"I think it's important for Steven and he's kept doing that. I've been impressed with him being vocal during the workouts. I also think it's important that Sam Noyer does and Tyler Lytle does. I'm excited about seeing Tyler out there. I'm excited about seeing Tyler and Sam and them doing a lot of things also. All of those guys need to take a step. They're one play away from being in the game. I think Steven having another spring under his belt will be a big benefit. Going through last fall when he was in there all the time I think really helps him understand the importance of every snap, read, thought, play and RVA (routes versus air). Everything is a little more magnified for him."

On Utilizing Quarterbacks Coach Kurt Roper's Experience As A Former Offensive Coordinator
"Number one, Kurt is an extremely humble guy and very knowledgeable. He'll do a phenomenal job with our quarterbacks, training them fundamentals, understanding the game. Watching them now with (co-offensive coordinator Darrin) Chev [Chiaverini] and Klayton [Adams] and all the guys in the offensive room, they work really well together. Kurt will do an excellent job of not trying to overstep his bounds and make his suggestions and he'll also speak from a perspective of a guy who knows how to block things and knows how to call it. I think Chev and Klayton understand that have really listened to some of the things Kurt's said. Chev is doing a great job with it. Chev's very understanding. Just like with him and Brian [Lindgren] there'll be give and take, which is good. I feel good about that whole situation."

On The Outside Linebackers
"We feel like we have some good athletes out there at the outside linebacker. Nu'umoto [Falo], we're glad he's back. He's made some plays for us in the past. He didn't redshirt when he was young, so he had to play right away. I'm excited to see what he does out at practice. We've got Jacob Callier who played last year, Dante Sparaco and some other guys there who we think can help. Then, you've got Davion Taylor who will play at outside linebacker, but he'll mainly play the Buff position where Ryan Moeller played mainly. That's the ability to pass-rush and do different things there. I'm excited about seeing him do that. Those are the guys that are working extremely hard on that area for us."

On The Younger Players Stepping Up In The Secondary And At Receiver
"I'm looking forward to watching those guys go. We lost a couple guys in the secondary. Evan Worthington's played well and Nick Fisher's had his moments, so I'm looking for those guys. We signed Aaron Maddox and Ray Robinson. Aaron had to get his shoulder operated, so he'll be out this spring and Ray's coming off that knee surgery, but he'll be able to do some stuff. We've got all the corners in there competing. I'm looking forward to watching Chris Miller fly around a little bit. I'm excited about a lot of those guys. The secondary, I feel like we have good guys back there. We have a few guys that have played a lot of plays and played well and then we have a few guys that we feel are very talented that haven't played many plays. We've got to see where they go. Our receiving corps, I'm anxious to see how those guys do. I feel like we have some talented guys, but we only have one guy coming back that's played two years, made a bunch of catches and been dependable. The other guys have shown flashes and this is going to be the first time they have to show it all the time. I'm excited about seeing how they do."

On Introducing Up-Tempo As A Fundamental Of The Offense
"That's part of a fundamental really. You have to know the way we call it, the way we get lined up, the way we call out our signals, how we're going to the play. We have to practice that way and we do, but we want to keep pushing the envelope there. That's a major fundamental: how you take the field, how you get lined up, how the center calls it out. If you can get those things narrowed down and take three seconds away, that's a big deal. I know you saw that at Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, how they were able to do that at times. We've been able to do that at times. Now with Steven in a little bit longer and we're going to have a new center, so we'll have to see how they handle all that. Those types of things there are fundamentals that we have to get done. The way we practice, we will practice with a high tempo and have the clock going and pushing the pace and making them understand that. The quarterback, when you play like that then they have where their eyes are. They have to understand everything. Those are fundamentals – just like blocking and tackling – that you have to consistently do well or you malfunction and you sputter and you don't look right."

On If They Tried To Work In More Tempo Last Season
"I guess that the best way to answer that is that we weren't quite as good on defense in some games as we'd like to be. If you go out there and play super fast you better score, but if you're not keeping those other guys off of the field it becomes a little bit of a give and take. I would like for our guys to play fast and get better, which I believe we definitely will be, so we will be able to do that.

On Javier Edwards
"He is improving, and working at it hard, so I am excited to see where he keeps going in that area. He is going to need to keep improving that to be able to play as much as he wants to play. We talk about that often, and he is a phenomenal young man and he is very talented. He is working on that extremely hard and making big strides. I'm proud of what he's doing.

On Not Having Much Personal Time Outside Of Football
"I got to take my wife to the basketball game last night, so that was a good date. (Men's basketball head coach) Tad [Boyle] and those guys are playing hard, and our basketball team's got some good young talent. I'm excited about the future with those guys. One weekend I flew down to California to watch my son play football at Chapman University, he plays quarterback. They had an early spring practice and he's already on his ninth practice, so I got to see him practice for a couple of days, which was fun. If you have any college kids, you show up at the school and you go out to eat dinner and not just your son comes along, everyone wants to come along, so that was a fun time to do. We will have some time after spring practice is over, over spring break which I think is the best vacation time for a college coach. You don't have to worry about getting kids in school, you don't really have to worry about recruiting at that time in March, and you don't have to worry about all of your guys being in class. Everybody's got a break, so we will take some time in that spring break and we will get a way for a little bit.

On New Trends In College Football
"I think that every year what you see tweaks a little bit, and we do have a couple things that we're working on that I think will help us offensively and defensively. I really don't want to say those things, and I really just want to practice them and see them. I do think that there are some trends that are kind of reverting back a little bit, but the fast pace is still there, as well as the change of tempo. We have to be ready for that on defense especially, and we need to practice that against our defense to help us. There are definitely a couple things you always look at, you look at teams, and watch different defenses. You don't try to overhaul everything or else you aren't going to be any good, but there are tweaks within your system that help you be prepared. I am looking at who the new coaches are in our league. We will take a look at the new offensive coordinators, new defensive coordinators, who the head coach is, what their mentality is. You look at that, and start experimenting during spring practice. "

On What He Saw From The Bowl Games
"I have some film, but I didn't watch a lot of games because I was so mad that we didn't go to a bowl game that I kind of boycotted watching any bowl games, but I've brought a lot of different film in, and we've watched a lot of different things. You look at the teams that are playing, and the schemes that they are using. Alabama, to win the game, had to kind of spread out and throw it a bit more. You still see that trend moving, even with teams that might not do that as much. I thought that was a great move by them, and that wasn't something they just thought up at halftime. They were prepared, and they knew that if they got into a scoring game that they were going to have to do that. It was really interesting to see what they did in the second half of that game, especially coming from a defensive minded coach like Coach [Nick] Saban.

On Having Stability
"We love it here at Colorado, I've always wanted to be a major college football coach. After our great year a year ago I could have gone quite a few places, but I didn't make a big deal about it, and we decided as a family, with our future here and our relationship with Rick George and the chancellor and all the people, we felt like we could stay here for a long time and make it a special place. We decided to do that, and we decided to stay. We love where we live. We're here to stay, and enjoy it and love the area. We like what we've built here, and I like the infrastructure of our athletic department, and I like the infrastructure of what we have in our academics, and our strength program. The biggest deal for me was having stability in our staff, and the work in congress to get the new contracts, and for me that is a huge stability factor. As we get better, people pluck our people, but if they are under contract and making a decent salary then I'm going to be able to keep continuity.   want people to be able to grow, but I don't want to be ravished and have to look around at an empty cupboard. That is a big deal, because it creates stability in recruiting, and it helps stability in your team, and it helps to keep continuity of the staff. They are doing a lot of things at the University of Colorado to help us be successful in the long run.

On Alex Fontenot
"Alex is over 200 pounds; he's 205 pounds and getting bigger. He's powerful and fast. I don't know who we have had here since I have been here who I think he's like. He is a big powerful back, and when we get Travon (McMillian) in, he is 210 pounds, and six feet tall. He is a big back that has very good speed and power. When he (Alex Fontenot) got here I think he weighed about 185, but he has worked really hard and he has done an unbelievable job in the weight room. I'm excited about watching him get out there and run this spring. He has shown flashes during the last eight weeks of the season. I kept all the young guys out for a good 30 minute practice every Wednesday and Thursday so that we could get more practice time, and more involvement. Now we feel like we know more about a bunch of these guys than we have in the past. That is something that I changed in our practice schedule to be able to do. I am excited about watching him run, I think that he will be an awfully explosive back, but he's got to go do it. One thing that you are always concerned about with young guys carrying the football is putting it on the ground. We have been very good at that and that is something that we are going to make sure those young guys carry the ball correctly, and hopefully he can do that.

Mike MacIntyre Spring Practice Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Players Mentioned

Jacob Callier

Javier Edwards

Nick Fisher

Alex Fontenot

Donovan Lee

Phillip Lindsay

Tyler Lytle

Aaron Maddox

Chris Miller

Isaac Miller

Ryan Moeller

Steven Montez

Sam Noyer

Ray Robinson

Davion Taylor

Evan Worthington

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