National Signing Day Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

On If The New Signing Day Was More Hectic Than In Years Past
"It's a little more hectic, because I have to fly to all the houses in three weeks. I personally like it. I'm still a proponent of it. People are going to cry and laugh, but I'm still a proponent of signing just like basketball does. I'm a proponent of signing in July and then having another signing day in February. When you look at our calendars, this year you can have official visits in April, May and June. If kids come on official visits and they commit and they want to come, then why not sign in July so they don't have to worry about it during the season. It helps the high school coaches too with those kids having to travel every weekend for official visits. Then, it helps us to have another signing day in February. I liked it, personally, I really did. Yeah, it makes it more hectic, but I'm glad it's done this way."

On If The Early Signing Day Makes It More Important On Evaluating High School Players Earlier
"You have to do early evaluation, get to know the kids and academics also, because a lot of these kids you're signing them before they get this fall semester done. So, you come in and see that he's an excellent student, here's what he's going to do and go from there. That's a big deal for us, especially at Colorado, which is such a hard academic school."

On Signing The Top Prospects From The State Of Colorado
"We're trying to all that we can. We're always looking for the Pac-12-type players that we feel like will fit into our program and fit what we want. There's quite a few good players in this state each year and we were excited with the three that we got, and Jalen Sami is one that we grayshirted last year that we've got coming in. I'm excited about those guys. I'm excited about what the high school coaches are doing in the state of Colorado. I think the football is getting better and better. It's always population-driven. If you look anywhere, it's population-driven and our state's growing fast. It seems like they're adding a high school every day somewhere and that's good for college football and that's good for us."

On How The Early Signing Day Would Have Conflicted With A Potential Bowl Game
"We had it already set up; we were prepared for a bowl game. You're either going to play one somewhere around New Year's or Christmas or you're going to play one early. We had a whole process done. Our biggest recruiting weekend of December was the 12^th. We didn't have a big one set up for – we ended up having one – the weekend of the [Pac-12] Championship Game, because we couldn't do it. We didn't have a big one set up for the 16^th, 17^th or 18^th, because there were some Pac-12 bowls at that time. We had one set up for the 9^th or 10^th of December. We also brought in a lot of kids during the season, which we haven't done in the past. That's what made a big difference. Our December one that we had in the middle there was mostly commitments that we already had and we felt like they were really solid. We wanted to bring a group of those guys together, so they could keep bonding with their families and meet everybody. That worked out really well. We brought in 10 at that time and all 10 of those guys stuck with it. They really bonded. That was our plan all along."

On Bringing In More Junior College Transfers Than In Years Past
"There's a couple reasons on that. We have a lot connections coming from San Jose State and the California junior college ranks. Being so close to Kansas helps, we've been recruiting Texas hard and we have some roots in Mississippi. The main thing that's changed that's allowed us to do this – because this is such a great academic school – is that the NCAA standards for junior college athletes to get into college changed about four or five years ago. Now, they have to have 48 transferable. You can only have two PE – which we can't take the PE – because we don't except PE here. Your curriculum of the young men you're looking at, there's a higher level of guys that are able to be successful and do well here. Ahkello [Witherspoon] and 'JC' Carrell are just two that played pro football out of that group and I think we'll have some more. We've been able to do that. The other thing is they like it when they come here, they like what we're doing and they understand how we're doing it. You don't ever want to have attrition, but face it, you're going to have attrition naturally. When a kid starts as a freshman and by the time he's a fourth- or fifth-year senior, you're going to lose from that class. So, if you can sign a few junior college kids that are juniors, you're able to have bigger senior classes. We've had good-sized senior classes. Mainly, I look at our juniors and seniors combined and I think that helps you."

On What Junior College Transfers Does For Competition
"It does a great deal for competition. It keeps everybody motivated and pushing. When you get everybody out there at spring practice and you've got nine more bodies than you would have had, that's a big difference. A couple of them are high school, but we plan it that way. That gives you more competition, so you're able to practice better and harder. Hopefully it'll make big dividends this fall."

On Signee QB Blake Stenstrom
"He rotated in the last couple years with the McCaffreys. It's been a good thing. We saw him at camp as a freshman and we saw his ability and all that type of thing."

On Important It Is For High School Players To Enroll Early
"It's extremely vital for them to get in here and get working out with our team and get with Drew Wilson and our spring practice. With NCAA rules now, we're able to meet with them more – two hours a week. When they start in the summer, they aren't just running in in August and are overwhelmed by everything. They know the defense, they know the offense and they know where they are on special teams, they understand what to do and they understand the competition. They've got indoctrinated into school, so that doesn't overwhelm them. That's a big advantage."

On Adding To The Defensive Line
"We were able to find some guys that will really be able to help us. We definitely think that's an area that we can keep improving in. We had some guys that played last year that were young and we feel like adding these guys to it, we'll be able to rotate guys in and be more stout on the defensive line and be able to affect the run game and passing game better. I'm excited about these guys. Definitely having these guys here in the spring and a couple of the freshmen that we think are physically fit to go and play we'll hopefully be better up front."

On Signee QB Blake Stenstrom Not Starting A Lot In High School
"He did start quite a bit there's no doubt about it. I just think it shows his character to be able to handle that situation, the way he worked at it and the way he lead that team. He has excellent character and team-attitude. Sometimes quarterbacks – I call them the 'golden child' – they think they're a little bit special. They've got to have confidence – to me he has great confidence – but he's a very humble, talented young man that I'm excited about having here that I believe will be a great team leader and excellent player as time goes on. "

On If This Is The Most Developed Signing Class He Has Had At Colorado
"Yes, it's the most developed class that we've had coming in. The nine guys we had go to the NFL a year ago, those guys weren't as developed, but we worked to develop them. Hopefully these young men will play a little bit quicker. We had to play those guys quicker just out of necessity, but I think now with these guys they'll be able to play a little quicker and be better at a younger age than those guys were at younger age. Hopefully they'll be just as good in the end, but they'll definitely stronger and more athletic and be able to perform at a Pac-12 level quicker."

On What He's Learned From The Early Signing Period
"The one thing I learned in this early signing period is you have to a great job at evaluating early. A lot of people watch highlight tapes. You might watch a highlight tape and everybody 'oohs' and 'aahs', but the key is to go and watch four or five game tapes. Then, somehow be able to verify height and weight. After that, you're always looking into the academics and what they can do there and be able to get all of their stuff in quickly. That's another key thing you have to do, especially here where our academics are so strenuous and awesome. It takes a team of people to do it."

On Whether Holding Onto Recruits Was More Intense This Year
"It was more intense the last three days and the last weekend, a lot more intense. I was calling kids all last night and they're saying, 'so and so just called and offered me. They don't want me to sign and told me to wait.' It was major universities in our conference and out of our conference and some big independent schools. I think that says a lot about the kids that we have. A lot of that might have occurred too, because there was a lot coaching changes in our league. That might have spurred it more on also."

On What Will Happen During The Second Signing Period In February
"We'll sit down tomorrow, look at different things and then when our kids finish school and come back in the spring, there's always situations where kids might want to transfer if they're not getting as much playing time as they want. We'll just look at the different situations as we go through. I like the team that we have. We just have to push them and get them better and get confidence and keep believing in them, loving them and pushing them."

On The Importance Of Having Back-to-Back Solid Recruiting Classes
"Our whole recruiting staff worked relentlessly and has done a phenomenal job. It just takes everybody involved and they've done an excellent job for us. It does mean a lot. Our guys are working hard. My dad always used to say, 'Recruiting is like shaving. If you don't do it every day, it shows.' You just have to keep working at it. That's what our guys have been doing. I'm very pleased with our staff. They blow me away with their work ethic and commitment. All of our people in our academic staff here have done a great job helping us find the young men that can be successful here at Colorado. That's exciting for what we're doing. We've put two good classes together. They've got to keep pushing and working. I was pleased with last year's class with what they've done and how some of those kids that we redshirted are developing. Hopefully that'll pay dividends this spring and fall. The senior class that just graduated, the two years before we got here – CU had only won four games. Now they've won 15 in the last two years. Yeah we would have liked to have won more, but that's a big difference. People seeing it out there. When I'm out with the guys to eat or do something, people are recognizing them and coming up to them. That didn't happen in the past. Now it happens when we go out to eat with these recruits. They see all that. They see all the excitement about Colorado football in so many different ways."

On His Experiences From Being On The Road
"We had a lot of dinners. There's always a lot of food. There's a lot of fun times. One day in Houston, I had to go to three houses in one night. I had spaghetti at one house, gumbo at another house. It was a lot of fun. The desserts are always awesome, so I'll probably have to go watch my weight again. I'm going to have to go running harder."

On Adding A Quarterbacks Coach As Well As A 10^th Coach
"We've had a tremendous amount of interest in our quarterbacks coach position. I've talked to quite a few people, but now that this is over I'll be able to settle in on it and focus on exactly what we want to do. The 10^th coach, I've had a lot of thoughts on that, seeing how everything unfolds. I didn't just go ahead and push forward with it. We're trying to figure out what's best for our program, team and the continuity of our staff. It's a wide range. I'll really be able to focus in on that now."

On The Season Being A Challenge On Recruiting
"They saw our competitiveness on the field. They were excited and saw where we're going. The thing that sells them is when you bring them and they get to meet the kids, they go out with the kids and the coaches aren't around. They'll let them know if they believe we're good enough or not. I think these last two classes show you the culture of our kids and the belief in our kids. They believe we're going to be successful here and they like it here at Colorado and they believe in what we're doing. That's the telltale sign. That's why we've had such good recruiting classes. Yeah the coaches did a great job, but if you bring them here and there's negativity with your players. That's been the telltale sign of our culture and why great players want to come here and be successful."

On What Makes Signing Day Special
"I always say it's like Christmas. The fun thing about it is you recruit young men and when you see them sign and start on their dream, it's always excellent. When I see some of the guys, it'll remind me of other guys. I think that is special to see the joy of their parents. We have kids from all different kinds of home lives and it's really cool to see them make it. It's the thrill of seeing it in their eyes and seeing the joy of their parents that they've made a goal that they were trying to reach. I always tell them, now you're going to the next step. The grind is your dream. They've gotten this far, now they've got to go another step. That's our goal is to help them realize that and understand that and keep pushing them. That's a lot of fun, too."

On This Past Season
"We didn't come through in the close games like we did the year before is basically what it sums up to. We've got to improve in different areas and we will. Our kids kept battling and kept fighting. We were just off here or there. If you make a couple plays in a couple days, you might change a little bit of the mojo that would have helped us later on. We know we have to improve on and that's what we recruited for. We talked about the different things we need to improve on. We'll do a lot more of that when we get back in the next couple days and when we get back after Christmas as a staff."

On QB Steven Montez's Season
"Steven had some excellent moments – some 'wow' moments – and he had some other moments that were tough. That's what I kept saying at the beginning of the year, can he handle the grind of everything? I think when it was all said and done that he did. He improved as the year went along. You're always going to have peaks and valleys, but I think overall his practice habits – weren't bad – but I thought he started watching them and improving. All of that to me is maturity. His study habits improved with being more prepared for the games. It was good before, but it has to go to an unbelievable level. He's starting to understand that. I'm excited to see what he'll do from there. I thought Sam Noyer made strides. Tyler Lytle, Casey Marksberry and all those guys did. As far as Steven on the field, I thought he did make strides. He started understanding that not every play has to be a heroic play. You don't want to take away his playmaking ability – and we didn't – but there's a way of corralling it a little bit. As our offense gets better and our defense gets better, I think you'll see the same thing that happened with Sefo [Liufau]. As the team got a little bit better around him, he got better. I think we'll hopefully see that next year. We were a few plays where he made the plays, but we just didn't come up with them. That would have been the difference between a 7-5 season for sure."

On If Montez Will Take More Of A Leadership Role
"I thought Steven's leadership improved as the year went along. It wasn't bad, but it has to be exemplary in a way. You start learning that as a quarterback. He does understand that everybody's watching him, from the freshman to the senior offensive linemen. They're all watching you as a quarterback. That doesn't happen at every other position. I definitely think he started understanding that even more as the year went on."

On The Depth Of The Team
"As a coach, you always want more depth, because you're looking at as who's the next guy. You know that could happen. We have to keep improving and keep going. When we start winter workouts, go one day at a time, then spring practice and fall practice. I think our program is better, a lot better than when we first got here. Now, we've got to keep doing it. Our kids are hungry coming back. Our kids coming in are hungry to add to us and be successful. That's what they see. They love playing here at Colorado. Hopefully we're able to do better than we did last year."

On The Season Of Punter Alex Kinney
"He started out really well in the fall camp. On Monday Alex and I were talking about that. We were talking about some of the things we can do to help him scheme-wise to help us. The protection was good for him and he felt confident. That's a big part for a punter. Our snaps were better late in the year, too. He's very talented and that's what I expect out of him. I expect him to be one of the best punters in the country. I think he is that talented."

On The Team's Run Defense
"We had some excellent games against the runs and then we had some extremely porous games against the run. The one that sticks out is the who-can-tackle-Khalil-Tate game. That was a little bit of a surprise for us of understanding what he was going to do. We missed him some and didn't fold across sometimes. He was so fast that he exploited that, so that hurt us. Late in the game against Arizona State, we just had a couple misfits. If you make one misfit when you get up there and try to stop the run and they pop it, that's 100 yards of rushing right there. We've worked on that and looked at it and talked about it. A lot of those guys were new out there in certain spots. A lot of that will go through with experience. I thought Chris Mulumba made big strides as the year went along. I look for him to play really well for us this year. We didn't tackle quite as well as we did the year before, but a lot of those kids that are playing in the NFL didn't tackle quite as well their first time either. They just weren't quite there. The little attention to details that hopefully we can coach better and they can understand better will help us. We've got to improve in those areas and I definitely believe we will."

Colorado University Athletics

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Alex Kinney

Tyler Lytle

Steven Montez

Chris Mulumba

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Blake Stenstrom

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