Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Tuesday Tidbits
October 17, 2016 | Football, B.G. Brooks
Gillam’s perseverance strikes emotional chord with MacIntyre
BACK TO BEING A BEAST: Addison Gillam's college football career finally appears to be back on track, moving from rehab to reward.
"Oft-injured" doesn't begin to describe the Colorado middle linebacker's four seasons as a Buff; his list of past ailments runs from his knees up, with intermediate stops at his back, elbow, shoulders and above (three concussions).
Fortunately for him and the CU defense, the list hasn't expanded this season. "It's taken a while but I'm finally healthy," a beaming Gillam said the other morning after practice.
And when Gillam is healthy, hair flying in pursuit of a quarterback, there aren't many better linebackers in the Pac-12 Conference. He's slowly worked his back into a regular rotation among Jim Leavitt's linebacking corps, delivering 26 tackles (14 solo), three third-down stops, two quarterback sacks, a forced fumble and a pass breakup in the Buffs' first seven games.
For those stats, his snap count (146) is the lowest among any Buff who has reached double digits in tackles – and there are 13 players in that category.
A freshman All-America selection in 2013, Gillam became CU's first first-year player in history to lead the team in tackles (119). But the next two seasons saw him in and out of the lineup due to injuries, with his 2015 season ending in mid-October to undergo "cleanup" knee surgery.
It's been a long, painful haul for Gillam and when CU coach Mike MacIntyre recounts it, he's obviously moved. Pausing to wipe away tears on Tuesday at his weekly news conference, MacIntyre said Gillam's recent progress puts him "right there now" in comparison with the best play of Gillam's career.
He also described Gillam's last two years as "just turmoil for him. To see him walk through it like he has has been pretty inspirational to say the least, the way he's played these last few games. Now he's 230-something and he can run like he could before and he has that smile on his face.
"I always tease him about his hair flowing, but I love see that hair flow when he runs. It's just been awesome. The kids have rallied around him, because they realize what he is. They've seen him fight through all those things. It's been a great life lesson not only for him, but for me and it's been a great life lesson for our team. I just hope and pray that he stays healthy and keeps playing, because it's a lot of fun to watch him play and he gets pure joy out of it – and so do I."
Gillam's celebrated freshman season was accomplished in spite of a very unlinebacker-like appearance; he was listed as weighing 225, but that might have been 10 pounds on the high side. Former defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Kent Baer said on more than one occasion that the young Gillam's build belonged on a diver rather than a middle linebacker.
Now, Gillam is listed at 230 and looks the LB part. "He's so much bigger now," MacIntyre said, noting that Gillam now has enough bulk and strength to take on offensive linemen and that "when he hits a running back, (the running back) isn't going to fall forward. He's going the other way . . . there's a little bit of an intimidation factor there. He's the same guy, but now he has more power."
Gillam's teammates have noticed his return to form. "From what I've seen, he's been flying around, doing things phenomenally," said defensive end Jimmie Gilbert. "He's reading out, making great hits on the quarterback, great hits on the running backs. He's making plays from sideline to sideline.
"That's the Addison that I knew and the Addison that I know. As far as I've seen, he's back. He's been able to do what he can when he can and that's what we love about him."
Â
Gillam's game last weekend in CU's 40-16 win against Arizona State was among his best this season. He finished with five tackles (one for a loss), a QB sack, one third-down stop and three QB hits. One was in the "oooh" category – a full-speed smackdown that had MacIntyre hoping ASU quarterback Manny Wilkins could right himself.
Next up for CU is Stanford, and MacIntyre believes Gillam's penchant for physical play is precisely what the Buffs need: "It should be a great game for him, I hope so. I think he'll play well. He should be very physical there."
THERE'S TOUGH, THEN SEFO TOUGH: Stanford's physical play and toughness are well-documented in the Pac-12. In seasons past, the Buffs couldn't quite raise that bar high enough to stay with the Cardinal.
This season the Buffs believe they've reached that "tough guy" level. Of course, there's no better place to prove it than Stanford Stadium, CU's stop on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m. MDT, Pac-12 Networks).
MacIntyre has long been an admirer of his quaLrterback's toughness, last week calling senior Sefo Liufau "the toughest guy in the building." This week he called Liufau the toughest quarterback he's coached and said Liufau's demeanor has been contagious for the Buffs.
"I've said a lot about Sefo over the years," MacIntyre noted. "I can say a million things about Sefo and I'm not going to compare him to other quarterbacks I've had, because I've loved them all and they all had different qualities.
"Sefo would be the toughest, I've said that a lot and I think you all have seen that. The other thing is he's also extremely mentally tough. Our team has caught up with Sefo and he just kept pushing, kept going and kept working. Yeah, he had some mistakes here and there, but now that we have a really good football team all around him, now you can really see how good he is.
"He never gave up, he always had confidence. He didn't have a cocky confidence, he had a humble confidence, which is the best to have. He's done that and the team's followed him."
Liufau said Saturday's game will feature two teams testing one another's tenacity: "I don't think it's going to be a blow out in either direction. I think its two very good teams going against to each other. And that's when it comes down to a couple of plays here or there that make a difference in the game. So we'll be ready to test their toughness and I'm sure they'll test our toughness as well."
BOWL TALK ON BACKBURNER: The Buffs (5-2 overall, 3-1 Pac-12) are a win away from becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 2007. But postseason talk – if it's talked about at all – is about winning the Pac-12. CU remains in a weekly 1-0 mode; leave the possible bowl celebration and speculation to others.
Tailback Phillip Lindsay said becoming bowl eligible is "going to be a great feeling and it's going to have a big impact on the university. (But) our goal is Pac-12 Champs. There's nothing less than that for us. The bowl game will come as we continue to win games. We just need to focus on ourselves and Colorado football."
Added MacIntyre: "We're talking about a Pac-12 Championship, so every game matters. If we do that, we'll get to a bowl game too. We control our own destiny in a way, which is good."
KICKING, BUT NOT SCREAMING: The Buffs' pre-Stanford placement situation remains undecided – or up in the air if you prefer. Freshman Davis Price and junior Chris Graham competed against ASU; Price hit one of two field goals and two of three PATs, Graham attempted one field and one extra point and made both.
Where does that leave the PK duties this week?
"It's fluid," MacIntyre said. "That's the best thing I can tell you. Those young men are working hard. They're relatively young in kicking the field goals and the extra points and the pressure of that. So far, it really hasn't hurt us. It's not helped us all the time, it's helped us a few times. We'd like it to help us every game."
MacIntyre said both Price and Graham have strong legs, work hard and want to handle all of CU's kicking chores. Thus far, or since Diego Gonzalez's season-ending Achilles injury, they've split the kickoff duties and done that capably.
"Both of them want to be the kicker all the time, but if one of them is not doing good, then we'll put the other one in," MacIntyre said. "And the other one's always performed. That's a good thing."
RESPECT AMONG COLORADOANS: Lindsay's high school career at Denver South and that of Stanford's Christian McCaffery at Valor Christian overlapped enough for both to be aware of the other.
"We heard about each other for a long time," Lindsay said. "He had a great year last year and it's hard to duplicate what that man did, especially with how healthy he stayed. So I really respect him for that."
Lindsay doesn't look at Saturday's game as head-to-head competition with McCaffery, who didn't play in last weekend's 17-10 win at Notre Dame. Lindsay his focus is on "Colorado football and at the end of the day we're going to have to play ball. I don't look at it as I'm going to compete against somebody. I'm happy he's representing Colorado (the state) football well. But I'm just focused on playing Colorado football."
McCaffery's status for this week hasn't been announced, but Gilbert said the Buffs will "prepare like he's going to play. We prepare for every contingency whether he's playing or not. You practice full speed. You just go in with the mentality that you're going to see him on the field and be prepared for what they do."
When healthy, McCaffery is special. His 104.0-yard rushing average (five games) tops the Pac-12. He was the league's 2015 offensive player of the year after setting the NCAA single-season record for all-purpose yards (3,864). He averaged 144.2 yards rushing a game.
GIMME A HEADFUL OF HAIR . . . : MacIntyre isn't about to put a mandate on hair length, but you get the feeling that he would give a player or two a ride to the barbershop if asked.
Tuesday's "media lite" news conference question: Who has the best/worst hair on the team?
Answered Lindsay, who now sports a budding Afro: "I think (tackle) Sam Kronshage has some pretty nice hair; it's long. Addison Gillam has some nice hair too. I'm up there, I'm probably number one. When I pick my hair out it does help with not getting any concussions."
MacIntyre's answer: "I don't know who has the best hair on the team. Some of them need haircuts, I know that and tell them that all the time. I tease (Ryan) Moeller all the time, because his hair just bushes out. I don't know what it is about the hair hanging out at the back of the helmets, but I guess (Troy) Polamalu started all that. The best hair on the team – everybody on the team would say – is N.J. Falo's. He could do the commercials, there's no doubt."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
"Oft-injured" doesn't begin to describe the Colorado middle linebacker's four seasons as a Buff; his list of past ailments runs from his knees up, with intermediate stops at his back, elbow, shoulders and above (three concussions).
Fortunately for him and the CU defense, the list hasn't expanded this season. "It's taken a while but I'm finally healthy," a beaming Gillam said the other morning after practice.
And when Gillam is healthy, hair flying in pursuit of a quarterback, there aren't many better linebackers in the Pac-12 Conference. He's slowly worked his back into a regular rotation among Jim Leavitt's linebacking corps, delivering 26 tackles (14 solo), three third-down stops, two quarterback sacks, a forced fumble and a pass breakup in the Buffs' first seven games.
For those stats, his snap count (146) is the lowest among any Buff who has reached double digits in tackles – and there are 13 players in that category.
A freshman All-America selection in 2013, Gillam became CU's first first-year player in history to lead the team in tackles (119). But the next two seasons saw him in and out of the lineup due to injuries, with his 2015 season ending in mid-October to undergo "cleanup" knee surgery.
It's been a long, painful haul for Gillam and when CU coach Mike MacIntyre recounts it, he's obviously moved. Pausing to wipe away tears on Tuesday at his weekly news conference, MacIntyre said Gillam's recent progress puts him "right there now" in comparison with the best play of Gillam's career.
He also described Gillam's last two years as "just turmoil for him. To see him walk through it like he has has been pretty inspirational to say the least, the way he's played these last few games. Now he's 230-something and he can run like he could before and he has that smile on his face.
"I always tease him about his hair flowing, but I love see that hair flow when he runs. It's just been awesome. The kids have rallied around him, because they realize what he is. They've seen him fight through all those things. It's been a great life lesson not only for him, but for me and it's been a great life lesson for our team. I just hope and pray that he stays healthy and keeps playing, because it's a lot of fun to watch him play and he gets pure joy out of it – and so do I."
Gillam's celebrated freshman season was accomplished in spite of a very unlinebacker-like appearance; he was listed as weighing 225, but that might have been 10 pounds on the high side. Former defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Kent Baer said on more than one occasion that the young Gillam's build belonged on a diver rather than a middle linebacker.
Now, Gillam is listed at 230 and looks the LB part. "He's so much bigger now," MacIntyre said, noting that Gillam now has enough bulk and strength to take on offensive linemen and that "when he hits a running back, (the running back) isn't going to fall forward. He's going the other way . . . there's a little bit of an intimidation factor there. He's the same guy, but now he has more power."
Gillam's teammates have noticed his return to form. "From what I've seen, he's been flying around, doing things phenomenally," said defensive end Jimmie Gilbert. "He's reading out, making great hits on the quarterback, great hits on the running backs. He's making plays from sideline to sideline.
"That's the Addison that I knew and the Addison that I know. As far as I've seen, he's back. He's been able to do what he can when he can and that's what we love about him."
Â
Gillam's game last weekend in CU's 40-16 win against Arizona State was among his best this season. He finished with five tackles (one for a loss), a QB sack, one third-down stop and three QB hits. One was in the "oooh" category – a full-speed smackdown that had MacIntyre hoping ASU quarterback Manny Wilkins could right himself.
Next up for CU is Stanford, and MacIntyre believes Gillam's penchant for physical play is precisely what the Buffs need: "It should be a great game for him, I hope so. I think he'll play well. He should be very physical there."
THERE'S TOUGH, THEN SEFO TOUGH: Stanford's physical play and toughness are well-documented in the Pac-12. In seasons past, the Buffs couldn't quite raise that bar high enough to stay with the Cardinal.
This season the Buffs believe they've reached that "tough guy" level. Of course, there's no better place to prove it than Stanford Stadium, CU's stop on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m. MDT, Pac-12 Networks).
MacIntyre has long been an admirer of his quaLrterback's toughness, last week calling senior Sefo Liufau "the toughest guy in the building." This week he called Liufau the toughest quarterback he's coached and said Liufau's demeanor has been contagious for the Buffs.
"I've said a lot about Sefo over the years," MacIntyre noted. "I can say a million things about Sefo and I'm not going to compare him to other quarterbacks I've had, because I've loved them all and they all had different qualities.
"Sefo would be the toughest, I've said that a lot and I think you all have seen that. The other thing is he's also extremely mentally tough. Our team has caught up with Sefo and he just kept pushing, kept going and kept working. Yeah, he had some mistakes here and there, but now that we have a really good football team all around him, now you can really see how good he is.
"He never gave up, he always had confidence. He didn't have a cocky confidence, he had a humble confidence, which is the best to have. He's done that and the team's followed him."
Liufau said Saturday's game will feature two teams testing one another's tenacity: "I don't think it's going to be a blow out in either direction. I think its two very good teams going against to each other. And that's when it comes down to a couple of plays here or there that make a difference in the game. So we'll be ready to test their toughness and I'm sure they'll test our toughness as well."
BOWL TALK ON BACKBURNER: The Buffs (5-2 overall, 3-1 Pac-12) are a win away from becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 2007. But postseason talk – if it's talked about at all – is about winning the Pac-12. CU remains in a weekly 1-0 mode; leave the possible bowl celebration and speculation to others.
Tailback Phillip Lindsay said becoming bowl eligible is "going to be a great feeling and it's going to have a big impact on the university. (But) our goal is Pac-12 Champs. There's nothing less than that for us. The bowl game will come as we continue to win games. We just need to focus on ourselves and Colorado football."
Added MacIntyre: "We're talking about a Pac-12 Championship, so every game matters. If we do that, we'll get to a bowl game too. We control our own destiny in a way, which is good."
KICKING, BUT NOT SCREAMING: The Buffs' pre-Stanford placement situation remains undecided – or up in the air if you prefer. Freshman Davis Price and junior Chris Graham competed against ASU; Price hit one of two field goals and two of three PATs, Graham attempted one field and one extra point and made both.
Where does that leave the PK duties this week?
"It's fluid," MacIntyre said. "That's the best thing I can tell you. Those young men are working hard. They're relatively young in kicking the field goals and the extra points and the pressure of that. So far, it really hasn't hurt us. It's not helped us all the time, it's helped us a few times. We'd like it to help us every game."
MacIntyre said both Price and Graham have strong legs, work hard and want to handle all of CU's kicking chores. Thus far, or since Diego Gonzalez's season-ending Achilles injury, they've split the kickoff duties and done that capably.
"Both of them want to be the kicker all the time, but if one of them is not doing good, then we'll put the other one in," MacIntyre said. "And the other one's always performed. That's a good thing."
RESPECT AMONG COLORADOANS: Lindsay's high school career at Denver South and that of Stanford's Christian McCaffery at Valor Christian overlapped enough for both to be aware of the other.
"We heard about each other for a long time," Lindsay said. "He had a great year last year and it's hard to duplicate what that man did, especially with how healthy he stayed. So I really respect him for that."
Lindsay doesn't look at Saturday's game as head-to-head competition with McCaffery, who didn't play in last weekend's 17-10 win at Notre Dame. Lindsay his focus is on "Colorado football and at the end of the day we're going to have to play ball. I don't look at it as I'm going to compete against somebody. I'm happy he's representing Colorado (the state) football well. But I'm just focused on playing Colorado football."
McCaffery's status for this week hasn't been announced, but Gilbert said the Buffs will "prepare like he's going to play. We prepare for every contingency whether he's playing or not. You practice full speed. You just go in with the mentality that you're going to see him on the field and be prepared for what they do."
When healthy, McCaffery is special. His 104.0-yard rushing average (five games) tops the Pac-12. He was the league's 2015 offensive player of the year after setting the NCAA single-season record for all-purpose yards (3,864). He averaged 144.2 yards rushing a game.
GIMME A HEADFUL OF HAIR . . . : MacIntyre isn't about to put a mandate on hair length, but you get the feeling that he would give a player or two a ride to the barbershop if asked.
Tuesday's "media lite" news conference question: Who has the best/worst hair on the team?
Answered Lindsay, who now sports a budding Afro: "I think (tackle) Sam Kronshage has some pretty nice hair; it's long. Addison Gillam has some nice hair too. I'm up there, I'm probably number one. When I pick my hair out it does help with not getting any concussions."
MacIntyre's answer: "I don't know who has the best hair on the team. Some of them need haircuts, I know that and tell them that all the time. I tease (Ryan) Moeller all the time, because his hair just bushes out. I don't know what it is about the hair hanging out at the back of the helmets, but I guess (Troy) Polamalu started all that. The best hair on the team – everybody on the team would say – is N.J. Falo's. He could do the commercials, there's no doubt."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Players Mentioned
OLB
/ Football
OLB
/ Football
ILB
/ Football
PK
/ Football
PK
/ Football
OL
/ Football
TB
/ Football
QB
/ Football
PK
/ FootballVolleyball: #21 Colorado vs West Virginia | November, 19th 2025
Friday, November 21
WBB: Colorado vs Boise State - November 18th 2025
Wednesday, November 19
HIGHLIGHTS: Men's Basketball vs. Alabama State | Nov. 17, 2025
Tuesday, November 18
WBB: Colorado vs. Portland State Highlights | November 16, 2025
Monday, November 17