Tuesday Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Opening Statement
"We're looking forward to going and playing in Arizona on Friday night. It's been a short week, this is like a Wednesday to me, I'm already on to Arizona."

On How Much Last Year's Tape Can Help Prepare For Arizona
"It does help a little bit. They had a great offensive game last week against Oregon. They had tons of yards and scored a lot of points against Oregon's defense which is a good defense. We watched that and of course the other games. They are utilizing him a little different, he made some good passes and does some different things. He can still run. His ankle looks a little more healthy than it was earlier this season. We all vividly remember him running wild against us, there's no doubt about it. When I turned on the tape and saw 14 [Arizona QB Khalil Tate] I definitely had nightmares. He's a great athlete."

On Dual-Threat Ability Of Arizona QB Khalil Tate
"He's a dual-threat guy. He can make plays with his feet and can also make plays with his arm. Their receivers are doing well for him. I think he really understands their system after doing it this many games. His ankle is much healthier, in the USC game he couldn't hardly run. He looked really good last Saturday for sure."

On Slowing Down Arizona RB J.J. Taylor
"Taylor's extremely quick and explosive. He can make jump cuts in the hole where he can get there and he can jump all the way over here and you're going, 'how did he get over here?' He's really good at that. They're utilizing him well, getting him on the edge on some plays where they get wide splits and pull guards, and he can hit anywhere from all the way backside to frontside. They really allow him to use his vision. He does a good job making linebackers miss in space."

On Not Letting Losses Snowball
"Hopefully everything that we've worked on prior to this. We've got to have guys step up, we have a lot of good players and we need to step in and play. Hopefully their brotherhood, their team unity, understanding what they have to do and going to Arizona and playing well. I feel like this is a tight group of guys, I think that will definitely make a difference."

On What He Learned Last Season That Will Help Him Now
"That goes back to when we start in January, everything we've done since January. You can't just all of the sudden make stuff up. Friends stick close when there's good time, you have fun with them. (When) hard adversity strikes, brothers stick closer than friends. Hopefully they have a close enough brotherhood they'll stick together and that'll make a big difference. Other guys that haven't played a lot have got to step up and play well."

On Team Holding Players-Only Meeting On Monday
"I thought it was good. They got together and talked about things that other kids need to step up and do, making sure they weren't pointing fingers is basically what they told me the meeting was all about. I've been on teams that have had player meetings before, I've had teams that haven't had them, I've had teams have them in the spring, I've had teams have them in the winter, I've had teams have them during the season. I think it's good that they got together and talked a little bit about what they want to do and also talk to the younger kids who have to step up and take places of guys. You can't just go out there and say 'I get to play.' I thought that was good."

On Not Losing Perspective On What's In Front Of Them After One Bad Loss
"You have to put off the last game. You can't be too happy about the last game because you played good, you can't be too down about a game that didn't the way you wanted it to. Everybody always says that, but that's a true statement. Somehow you've got to find a way to be able to do that. It doesn't happen on game day, it happens now. It happened how it was Sunday and how it was Monday, how it was today and how it will be tomorrow because your preparation determines your chance of having success. It doesn't guarantee it of course, but that gives you your best chance of having success. If you don't have good preparation, you've hurt yourself."

On Working With CBs Dante Wigley and Trey Udoffia After Frustrating Outings On Saturday
"They've got to keep working on their fundamentals. You show them the fundamentals, you keep working on that, you do certain drills for that and the things they're having issues with. You're trying to instill them with confidence at the same time. That's a tough position to play. We haven't played as well there, at least the last three games, as we have in the past. For you to win games, you have to play good at corner. That's the bottom line in major college football now. If you don't, you're going to have a hard time winning. We've got to play better at corner."

On Less Experienced Players Being Pressed Into Action
"I definitely hope so. They showed flashes of some good things and showed flashes of some things that weren't as good. Hopefully they'll play better this week. They've had a good week of practice and attention to detail understanding that they're going to be in there more. I think that helps them be a little more focused but you want them to be focused from the very beginning."

On Offensive Identity And Not Utilizing The Jet Sweep
"There's always certain things you want to hang your hat on. Everybody's defense is a little bit unique. USC and Washington took that play away from us. The way they (Oregon State) lined up on Saturday took some of that away also. You don't want to just run it into a brick wall so to speak. That is stuff that we do in our offense and we'll do again at different times. Then just guys being able to make plays. We were making plays there early and in the second half we didn't make as many plays. We shot ourselves in the foot on a few third downs. We caught a third-down pass and had the first down and ran behind it. We ran another third-down route that you're supposed to run at the sticks and the kid runs a yard short. We practice that all the time. We have the sticks out in practice and they know where to run them to. We didn't come off the ball good on a fourth-down play where we should be able to knock them back and get half a yard. We couldn't. Those are situations where guys have got to make the plays and keep drives going, keep things happening for us."

On What He Could Have Done Better
"You do look at different things you could do. We've practiced some of those things this week for situations like that. We sat down as a staff and talked over it and did that on different situations where we could maybe help ourselves stop the momentum. You always look introspectively. Coaches make mistakes. Players make mistakes. Nobody is perfect by any stretch and we do look at that and different things that we could try to do to help resolve that."

Quarterback Steven Montez

On Playing In Tucson
"I should definitely have some family and friends who come out to the game and come support. I think it's only a four and a half or five-hour drive from El Paso. I have a bunch of family in Arizona too. My grandparents and my mom live there. I'll have big support group there hopefully this Friday."

On Bouncing Back After Tough Loss
"We kind of internalized it, understood what happened, and got right back to work. The attitude that has been circulating the team has been a pretty good attitude to have. It's been the same attitude we've had all year long. Oregon State is over now. What happened, happened. We have another game coming up and we have to focus on UA now. That is what our focus has been on."

On The Team's Mentality
"We want to come out swinging. You need to have a chip on your shoulder and come out hungry. Our guys have that and are doing a good job of keeping that attitude around the entire team. The attitude is still come of swinging. That has to be our attitude this week."

On Offensive Execution
"We had opportunities offensively. We have to clean up the small details and the things you don't really think about in practice like catching the ball. We have to get back to doing the little things and that is how we started the season. Doing the little things right and doing things correct, worrying about those small details. We are getting back to that and focusing on those details. Catching the ball, ball placement on my side of things, and picking up pressures on front. Doing all of those types of things and focusing in practice so when we see it in the game, we are not surprised or shocked."

On Players-Only Meeting Earlier This Week
"It was a great thing. There were a lot of great things said in that meeting. There were a lot of good things said from older guys all the way to younger guys. Younger guys stepped up and said what they thought was going on, how we can fix it and how we can get back on track. There were a ton of good things said in that players-only meeting. It was a holistic unit. That same brotherhood that Coach Mac has been talking about. It showed up in the players only meeting as well, with the younger guys saying some very good things and some true statements. We needed to look ourselves in the mirror and get back to what our goals were in the beginning of the season. We can still accomplish all of the goals that we wanted to accomplish. It was a good, productive meeting."

On WR K.D. Nixon
"K.D. had an absolutely phenomenal game. He played well. He Is tough to guard out there on the perimeter. There are very few guys in the Pac-12 that can stay with him with his speed and his quickness. He is a very good receiver and we have some other guys that can also make big plays and have breakout games. K.D. played his butt off."

Wide Receiver K.D. Nixon

On Bouncing Back After Saturday's Loss
"I am ready to bounce back. I had two great practices. Last week was disappointing for myself, but I am ready to bounce back."

On Team's Mindset
"This was one of our best two practices on offense because we all connected. We are all ready to handle the challenge. Our goals are still on the line. We had a players meeting that had young guys talking and was real. Everybody was wide open. We weren't arguing with each other, we just said things and went about our business. It was a good thing we had it."

On His Performance On Saturday
"It was amazing connecting with Montez. I wanted to contribute to the team and I got a chance to."

On Laviska Shenault Jr.
"He wants to play football. That is what he is working to get back to."

On His New Puppies Sky And Shy
"We wanted dogs last year, but we were in a dorm and they've got rules. Having two dogs is amazing. After the game, I was sad and disappointed in myself, they made me happy by showing love and jumping up and down. They are getting smarter and smarter by the day. They know how to pee outside now. They are finding ways to get out of their cages. Sky jumped out of the cage last night four times. It is amazing to have two dogs."

Colorado Linebacker Nate Landman

On Arizona QB Khalil Tate
"At the beginning of the year, he wasn't doing much running which I think is his best attribute. He is an athletic quarterback and makes a lot of plays with his feet. At the beginning of the year he wasn't doing that as much, I was keeping aware of his stats. He wasn't rushing as much as I thought they'd have him. He also had an injury which he was recovering from. He still has that ability to make plays with his feet and we are seeing that on film. He is an athletic guy and keeps drives alive with his feet and can make anybody miss in space. He's a great athlete. Last year he killed us with his feet. We have been watching film on that. He still has that athletic ability and is still looking to run."

On Playing Arizona
"This year we've been looking to give paybacks to those teams we lost to last year. Arizona is definitely one of them. They are a great team. Coming off of this loss (Oregon State), it is a little sore for us. It is always in the back of our mind. We are going to move on and focus on Arizona. It is going to make playing that much sweeter. That adds extra motivation to the fact that we are going down to Arizona and we want this win. It is going to fuel the fire for us."

On Containing Khalil Tate
"I like our game plan for what we've got going for this week. He is going to make plays, but we are going to make plays too and hopefully more of them. He is an athlete. He'll make plays, but we are looking to stop him."

On Arizona RB J.J. Taylor
"He is an athletic back. He is one of the hardest running backs I've seen on tap so far. When he sees the hole, he hits it. He is full speed and a downhill guy. He doesn't really get stopped and gets a lot of yards after contact. He's quick on his feet and does a lot of cuts. He has pretty good speed too. We have to keep him contained and not let him break out on those long runs."

On Players-Only Meeting
"That was good for us. We had a lot of guys step up and talk. Even younger guys stepped in and talked. It was motivation but also cleared a lot of things in the air. It brought us closer together as a group and a unit. We developed goals in the beginning of the year and were able to do that again in the player meeting and develop some more goals of what we wanted to accomplish in the year and what it is going to take to accomplish those goals. We want to go to the PAC-12 Championship. We want to win out and win the South. There are a lot more personal goals that I don't feel comfortable sharing."

On Bouncing Back From Saturday's Loss To Oregon State
"You are never out of it in football. We learned that on Saturday. We played a good first half of football and let our foot off the gas in the second half. The way we've been practicing this week has me confident and should have our defense confident. We have been preparing hard and everybody has been focused. There has been a new attitude. What happened last week was tough, but we are willing to forget that and move on. This week we are going to have a great game."

On Opposing Run Games
"Both Oregon State's running back [Jermar Jefferson] and [Arizona RB] J.J. Taylor are physical guys. J.J. Taylor is little quicker. He doesn't have the breakout speed, but will hit the whole. I think we did a good job of stopping Oregon State's run on Saturday. They got us with some trickery, but that is about it. J.J. Taylor may be one of the most explosive ones (RB's) we'll see all year. He is so quick and so fast. When he sees the whole, he'll hit it."