Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Openers Can Be Hard To Forecast ? This One In Particular
August 31, 2015 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – Mike MacIntyre is uneasy, which is the state of mind most college football coaches would be residing in with their season opener three days and 3,325 miles away.
Opening in Hawai'i is no day – or for his Colorado Buffaloes, no night – at the beach. There's the matter of travel, the nearly eight-hour flight and the time warp that usually requires a day of acclimation, even if it is adjusting to paradise.
MacIntyre is a detail guy; he has built that adjustment day into the Buffs' travel plans. They'll leave Colorado on Tuesday and have Wednesday to reboot before Thursday night's game with the Rainbow Warriors (7 p.m. local time, 11 p.m. MDT; CBS-SN).
But his uneasiness isn't so much about the rigors of such a long trip or the preparedness of his team, although there are questions – mostly on defense and special teams – that need swift and solid answers. He's taken teams to Hawai'i – or “The Rock” as he calls it – before, having traveled with his first San Jose State squad to Honolulu in late November of 2010.
(You'll probably want a score . . . it was Hawai'i 41, SJS 7 – but it was in no way indicative of what the reconstructed Spartans would become two seasons later under MacIntyre.)
This week's trip to the islands ratchets up MacIntyre's apprehension level because it's a trek into the unknown. Here's why: After last season's 4-9 finish – his third consecutive losing season – Hawai'i head coach Norm Chow reconfigured his staff. Chow, now 8-29 overall and undoubtedly experiencing some tropical heat, hired new coordinators (Don Bailey, offense; Tom Mason, defense) and a new special teams coach (Jake Cookus). There are also first-year assistants tutoring the secondary and defensive line. There's a new quarterback, too, and we'll get to him in a bit.
New can mean very different, and MacIntyre calls this “probably the only game I've gone into with (the opponent) having everything new on both sides of the ball.”
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CU is recognizing Hawai'i's habits last season under Chow, but also compiling the tendencies of his new coordinators. It's a crapshoot. “You're watching film from all their other schools,” MacIntyre said. “I would say this is the most (unknown) opponent we'll play.”
But under any circumstances season openers can be a piñata. Surprises can be subtle or come in waves. Buffs offensive line coach Gary Bernardi likens first games to bowl games, noting that in both a month of preparation (actually more for an opener) can produce very different schemes, formations, etc.
Then an assistant at Southern California, Bernardi recalls USC's 1991 opener against Memphis State in the L.A. Coliseum. Heavy underdogs against the No. 16 Trojans, the Tigers changed defenses under coordinator Joe Lee Dunn, held USC scoreless in the second half and won a 24-10 stunner.
“They (MSU) played a 'three-three stack' (front),” Bernardi said, referring to three linebackers “stacked” behind three down linemen and slanting in various directions. “That's not what we prepared for and it discombobulated us a lot. We were a good team that year, but not a great team. It was an eye-opener.”
The 2011 Buffs had their lids lifted in their opening game in Aloha Stadium. Preparing for UH quarterback Bryant Moniz's passing, CU's defense didn't adjust well when Moniz began running the read-option in the first half of a 34-17 Rainbow Warriors win.
Directing UH's run-and-shoot offense, Moniz hadn't shown much leg the year before in a 31-13 Buffs win in Boulder; he rushed six times for minus-five yards. But in CU's first game under new, now former, coach Jon Embree, Moniz rushed nine times in the first half for a career-high 120 yards, including a career-long 57-yard touchdown run and another 14-yard option carry for a score.
The opening-night damage was done early. Moniz finished with only one more rushing yard, also scoring a TD on that carry, but added 178 passing yards that included a score. His final numbers: 299 yards in total offense and four TDs.
The Buffs were baffled. “The one play that you know is coming with the run-and-shoot is the speed option; that was no surprise,” ex-CU defensive coordinator Greg Brown told me a couple of days later. “But the thing that was a nice wrinkle – and to their credit – was the zone read play. When you run that, it's a whole different animal . . .
“It's unusual you get a run-and-shoot guy who does all that. Usually, they're the big-armed guy who drops back, not the guy who takes off and can run like a jackrabbit. But he did.”
The Buffs aren't expecting that from current Rainbow Warriors quarterback Max Wittek, but who knows what Chow and his new OC have in mind. At 6-4, 240 pounds, Wittek is constructed along the lines of quarterbacks Chow tutored during his tenure at USC – Wittek's former school.
CHOW'S SPECIALTY IS GROOMING quarterbacks; over the course of his coaching career he's worked with Jim McMahon, Steve Young and Ty Detmer (all at BYU); Phillip Rivers (North Carolina State); Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart (USC).
In fact, Chow told reporters in July at Mountain West Media Day that Wittek's arm strength reminds him of Palmer's: “If you had to make a training tape, you'd make it with Carson Palmer. This guy would be second. I'm not kidding you. He has good touch, a quick release and great anticipation. Most young kids don't have that. They'll wait till the guy is wide-ass open. This guy anticipates it.”
In two seasons at USC, Wittek played in 14 games, completing 52.6 percent of his passes for 600 yards (3 TDs, 6 INT). In 2012, he started two games for injured Matt Barkley, was 28-of-60 for 294 yards (two TDs) and was expected to challenge Cody Kessler for the No. 1 job in 2013. Kessler started every game.
Sitting out last season after transferring, Wittek ran UH's scout team offense and, according to Chow, “ripped us every day. He made some very ordinary walk-on receivers look pretty good."
Chow also said had Wittek been eligible in 2014, the Rainbow Warriors would have won more than four games. Now, Chow might be counting on Wittek to save his job.
Wittek hoped to leave USC as a graduate transfer. His first choice for a new school was Texas, but that plan flopped when he failed to get his degree. Hawai'i also beckoned and became Wittek's fallback choice. Chow named him No. 1 early this summer, replacing 2014 starter Ikaika Woolsey, who returns for his junior season and appears more mobile than Wittek. Woolsey started 11 of 12 games last year, but was one of three QBs Chow used in UH's 21-12 loss in Boulder.
New CU defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt expects to see Wittek exercise that strong arm early and often rather than run on the Buffs. Woolsey, said Leavitt, would be more the read-option type if Chow opted for that. Chow isn't likely to go in that direction – but again who knows?
“As a coach, you want to be ready for anything,” said Leavitt, whose 34 years in coaching includes three decades in the college game. “You don't ever really know. I've been in some really great openers, but I don't remember going against a team that was one-back and them coming out in a wishbone – anything like that . . .
“Now, they could come out with a lot (different). Norm Chow is a tremendous offensive coach. He's got unbelievable experience, and he's got one of the best offensive coordinators in the country. Those guys together, they could do a lot of things.”
If a lot of those things are unexpected, the Buffs, said MacIntyre, “have to be ready to adapt. There are times in games halfway through the season where you think you've got a bead on a team and all of a sudden they come out and completely change all their tendencies. Hopefully all of our rules, all of all our concepts, hold up.”
Coaches can expect the unexpected in late November as well as early September. But season-openers on the road against opponents with rebuilt staffs and new starting quarterbacks are prime times for surprises. If MacIntyre is anxious, just a little uneasy, you can understand.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
