Signing Day Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Mel Tucker

Opening Statement
"To start off, we have a great recruiting class. Every kid, every young man that we signed, we wanted. We targeted them and we signed them. We were very intentional about the guys we went after. All of these guys are relentless, they're accountable, and they love the game of football. These guys understand what we're building here. It's one thing to identify guys, evaluate them and recruit them, but once you get them on campus, we're not in a vacuum. We know there's other schools recruiting these guys. But these players, and their parents and high school coaches, they saw the vision here with our coaches, with our current players, with our entire staff, with our entire athletic department and with Rick George and Phil DiStefano. Everyone can see it; they see the vision and they felt the culture. That's why these guys signed up. They understand that we are all in for championships here. It's not just lip service, it's very authentic. And these are things that you just can't fake. You can't fake being all in, or being authentic, or caring about players, or caring about academics, or caring about education, and making these guys the best that they can be. That's not something that you can fake, and a lot of these guys will tell you that. Their Mom will tell you, their Dad will tell you, the kid will tell you, 'Hey, what stood out about Colorado is that they were real.' We trust these guys and the recruiting process is all about building trust. We always do what we say we're going to do and we proved that to these players during the recruiting process."

"So, just to wrap it up, I want to thank you guys for coming out. Again, we can't really do what we need to do without you. You guys cover us thoroughly and are very fair, and we appreciate that. Our staff has worked around the clock, each and every day, for an entire year to put this class together. We're very proud of it and our staff understands it's important to recruit every day. Recruiting is the lifeblood of the program. If you want to be a good coach, you better have some good players. If you want to be a great coach, you better have some great players, and that's all about recruiting. I want to thank all of the high school coaches that have supported us in our state and across the country, and most of all, I'm thankful for the parents and for the families that have believed in us and have bought into what we're doing. They really have gone all in. The families of the recruits, the incoming guys, and the families of the guys who are currently on the team. This is a special deal and we're going somewhere. I really want to thank the families for trusting us with your sons. We don't take this lightly, we know that everyone has high expectations, academically and athletically. Everyone wants to win championships and everyone has choices that they can make, and these young men today chose Colorado. It was very intentional and not an accident, so I'm very proud of this class. With that, I'll give you a go Buffs, and we'll open it up for questions, if you guys have any. I'm sure you have a couple."

On Carson Lee Helping Recruit Other Players
"It's very important for instate recruiting to get the best players to stay home. Carson is one of those guys, and he was one of the first guys to jump in the boat, and he really went to work as an ambassador for our program to help build this class. That was each and every day, he was out there strong, but in his own right he's an excellent football player. We feel like he's got tremendous upside. He's strong, he's physical, he's relentless, he finishes plays, he's a winner and a state champion, he's won a lot of football games and played a lot of football games, so those are the type of guys that you can win with. That's how you build a championship team. And again, we're not just collecting players, we're building a team, and he was a big part of that."

On Re-adjusting For Recruiting In The Pac-12
"I really haven't had to re-adjust very much. In order to win a championship, you have to win your conference, first and foremost, and that's how you get in. It's the same thing in the NFL, you have to win your division first and then you go from there, that's the goal. We're building our football team to win a championship and we're building it through recruiting. In order to win a championship here, we know who we have to beat. In order to win a championship, you know who you're going to have to play. It's going to be one of the teams that's in it right now, or teams like that. As you know, not only do you have to get in, but you have to beat two of those teams back-to-back. We know what those teams look like and I have experience with those types of teams, so we're building our team to be like those teams so we can win a championship."

On The Quarterback Competition
"We'll just see how it goes, but it's going to be fair. It's going to be intense and it's going to be a lot of fun. Competition brings out the best in everyone and in order for us to get to where we need to get to as a football team, we have to create more competition on our roster. Not just at the quarterback position, but at all the other positions on offense and defense as well."

On The Team Effort To Put Together This Recruiting Class
"It's a total team effort in terms of recruiting. We have an awesome recruiting department. Our coaches know that recruiting is a big part of what they're here to do. It's not just good enough to be an X and O guy, you have to be able to get out there and beat the bushes and bring in players. It's all hands on deck every day with our entire organization. I really believe that everyone here in this organization that is involved in football is at some point involved in recruiting. You're going to have an effect on a player, on a Mom, on a Dad, or a high school coach, and you have to be accountable for that. Again, recruiting is the lifeblood of our organization, that's how we build our team. That's how we get to where we need to go, and our coaches have done a great job. It's been a total team effort."

On Recruits Being Champions And Winning Championships In High School
"I believe that winning is not by accident and there's a lot of things you have to do in order to get in position to win. These guys come from winning backgrounds and winning cultures. Hard work, dedication, accountability, sense of urgency, attention to detail, mental and physical toughness, teamwork, being unselfish, that's how you win. All of the guys that are on this board, the guys we signed, are those types of guys. Again, we're not just collecting players, we're building a team and we're very intentional about who we go after and who we target."

On Recruiting Nationally
"Obviously we want to start in our state and we want our best players to stay home, and we're working hard every day to make that a reality. Outside of our state, California and Texas are huge for us. We've done a really good job in Arizona so far. We go to places where we have connections. Places like New Orleans, Louisiana, and Georgia are all places that we have strong ties with. Outside of those areas, if you go for distance, it has to be a player that you can't get in the four or five hour driving radius, or where you have a strong connection. You want to be efficient and you want to be effective in recruiting. For example, Caleb Fauria, he's all the way on the East Coast in Boston. His Dad was a former Buff, so there was a connection and a great fit for him, so we made it work. Rick George made it clear to me a year ago, he said, 'Listen, you go wherever you need to go to get the players and we're going to support it, we're going to give you the resources.' so that's what we're doing."

On The Importance Of Recruiting Instate
"We have to show progress on the field and that's what these instate players are looking for. We're going to do that and it's up to us to put our best foot forward and sell our program to the point where they want to come here. As these instate players have grown up, they haven't seen CU winning or going to bowl games. So, if you look at it from their perspective, why would you want to go here? As we shift the culture and as we build our program I think that they will start to see that if you come to CU, you're going to win and you're going to win championships and you're going to be in the conversation year in and year out, but that is a process. We're going to do it and we're going to get it done instate one player at a time."

On The In State Players That CU Didn't Sign
"We're very aggressive with our offers, we started in our state first. We offered the guys that we thought could help us based on the evaluation of the tape and all the background stuff. Then we had conversations and we got guys on campus and we went to the schools and talked to the coaches. We put our best foot forward and we recruited them. Everyone's looking for the right fit and the right seat on the bus for them. For example, with Carson Lee, this was a place that he wanted to come. He had other options and he felt like this was the best place for him. He felt like we were moving in the right direction and it worked out. That's the process that we're going to continue to follow and we're going to be very, very aggressive, and I expect things to change."

On The Importance Of Having Size In The Trenches
"We have a profile for players at each position. Football in general is a game for big men. So at every position we want to make sure that we don't deviate from what we want to get and who we want to sign. We don't want to make a lot of exceptions because if you make exceptions, you'll have a team of exceptions, and that's not what we want to do. We want big guys that are strong and powerful. They can move people, they have athleticism, initial quickness, ball skills, change of direction, guys that can match up. Because what happens is as you go down that road and you're marching towards a championship, the games get bigger and bigger and the opponents get tougher and tougher. At some point you've got to be able to matchup player for player. We don't ever want to be in a situation where we're playing for a championship and we can't match up, because you don't know who you're going to see. We have to build our team to be able to match up against anyone in the country."

On Pursuing A Graduate Transfer At Quarterback
"I'm not in the portal. That's not a consideration for us right now."

On Building The Culture At CU
"It's a daily process. It's about how we live day to day, how we work, how we support one another inside our building. How the coaches support each other, how they interact with the players, how the players interact with the coaches. This is a total family atmosphere and a team effort. That's our culture. Our sense of urgency, accountability, attention to detail and being relentless in everything that we do. In every aspect of our program, that's something that we work towards every single day and we don't relent and we never back off of it. It's not something that we talk about one day and then we don't talk about it again for another month. It's day after day after day and it's never going to stop. It's always going to be that way. And at some point, it's going to show up on the field in our performance. I saw that this year with our football team towards the end of the season. I saw our culture start to take hold and it's because of what we do on a daily basis. That's what it's all about. That's how you build the culture, that's how you shift the culture, and then that's how you maintain it and build upon it, it's every single day."

On If He Was Relieved To Land DE Justin Jackson Over Other Big Schools
"He's a really good player and he has the skill set that we need. He's got really good quickness and he has the ability to hold up in the run game. He's also got inside pass rush ability and we all know that we need that. But there was no relief, I don't believe in relief. Relief syndrome is when you say I got an A on my first test, I can get an F on my next one and still get a C in the class and I'm good. I'm not into relief. It was a battle, not just here towards the end but all the way through the deal with him because he's a good player. Again, we're not in a vacuum when recruiting these guys. Everybody else wants the same guys too, but he saw the culture, he felt it, he saw the vision, and he wanted to be a part of it. He's all in with us and we're all in with him. It was like that from the very beginning. Jimmy Brumbaugh did a great job in his recruitment."

On How Folsom Field's Atmosphere Plays Into Recruiting
"The recruits talk about it and the parents do as well when they come to Folsom. Folsom is rocking and again, I want to thank our fans. They supported us all season long in a major way. The stadium is rocking, there's a lot of energy, it's loud, Ralphie is running 27 miles an hour and I'm trying to keep up. It's one of those deals where it's a unique college experience and that atmosphere is part of the culture. So when they come to the games, they're evaluating us and comparing us to these other schools that are recruiting them. And they see it and they say, 'Wow this is really special. Colorado is building something special here. I want to be a part of that.' and they're jumping in the boat."

On How Big Of An Emphasis There Was On Getting Pass Rushers
"The pass rush is huge. In order to have a great defense I believe that you have to be able to get pressure with four guys that just straight rush. If you can get pressure with four guys that straight rush you're going to have a heck of a defense. You have to be able to affect the quarterback with the rush and the coverage, but it all starts with the rush. As you can see, as the season went on we were able to affect the quarterback, but a lot of it was with pressure packages and attacking protections to get a free run at the quarterback and things like that. That's always going to be a part of what we do. Fundamentally, we need to be able to line up four guys and straight rush with our four guys on their five linemen and a running back and get pressure, period. We recruited to that and these guys that we have in this class have shown pass rush production throughout their entire careers."

On Recruiting Players Regardless Of Their Other Offers
"It's all about self-imposed limitations and I don't believe in self-imposed limitations. I'm not looking at any player that's maybe the highest rated player in that state, being recruited by the top five programs in the country, and saying 'You know what, I don't think we can get that guy, let's go to the next guy," I'm not into that. Our evaluation is that we're looking for the best players. We're going to write them up, we're going to give them a grade and we're going to rank them. We don't look to see how many stars they have and I don't ask who else is recruiting them. You have to trust your eyes. It takes talent to evaluate talent and we have great evaluators here. We identify those guys, we target them, and we sign them. We fight for them and we tell them, like I was telling a kid this morning, 'I'm fighting for you today right now to get you here and that's how we're going to fight for you when you are here, both on and off the field,' and they get that. You're going to be disappointed sometimes in some of these recruiting battles but we're going to win our fair share of those battles. And you can see that today."

On What He Saw In WR/DB Montana Lemonious-Craig
"Montana is a phenomenal athlete. When I first saw him I looked at him as a safety because he plays both sides of the ball, he's very athletic, he's long, and he's got great ball skills. He's a physical player, he's tough, and he had very good production on offense. As we got into the process a little bit deeper he expressed to us that he wanted to be a receiver and I said, 'That's great, because we need receivers too,' so we recruited him as a receiver. He's got very good versatility and he's very productive. He's a great young man, he's one of the finest young men that you'll ever want to come across. He immediately saw that this is a place where he can fulfill all of his dreams both on and off the field. The culture is something that he bought into and he was very excited about joining this football team."

On If Colorado Will Sign Any More Players On Feb. 5 (National Signing Day)
"We're going to continue to recruit and we may continue to sign guys. How many spots we have left is kind of a fluid deal, but recruiting is nonstop and we'll recruit all the way through that date."

On The Momentum Created By Getting A Five Star Player Like Antonio Alfano
"A lot of recruiting is momentum and competition, and competition is about comparisons. This is a really small world, it's a small recruiting world and it's getting smaller. All of these top players know each other and they're all looking to see who's going where, who's visiting, and they're comparing notes. Coordinators, head coaches, facilities, stadiums, everyone's looking for the next program on the rise. So when you get a guy like Antonio Alfano or Christian Gonzalez or Brendan Rice, it signals to other guys coming behind them, 'You know what, I need to take a look at Colorado, something's happening over there.' We've just got to get them here. If we can get them on campus we've got a really good shot at them. Because, and I've said this before, if you can't recruit to Boulder then you can't recruit. This is a great place and everyone in this room knows that."

Colorado University Athletics

Colorado Head Coach Mel Tucker

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Antonio Alfano

Caleb Fauria

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Carson Lee

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