Colorado University Athletics
Signing Day Press Conference Quotes
Quotes from Colorado football head coach Mike MacIntyre's 2013 Signing Day press conference:
Opening Statement
GÇ£This is always like Christmas to me. Even growing up, my dad was a
coach and he used to always love signing day. My daughter goes to
Baylor and she called me today to make sure everyone had signed. My
wife called me and my kids called me on their way to school. ItGÇÖs
always a great, great day. IGÇÖll talk about our class real quick and
how proud I am of these guys and how proud I am of how hard our
staff worked. When I got the job, the next day I called the 10
young men that were committed. The thing that I am really proud of
is that all 10 young men stuck. They were bombarded by every school
you can name and bombarded even the past week by a lot of schools.
WeGÇÖre really excited about how our staff got out there and got with
these young men and they stayed with us. We were then able to get
some young men that we are really excited about.GÇ¥
On Addison Gillam and Markeis
Reed
GÇ£First of all, IGÇÖll talk about the two young men we got in for this
semester. Addison Gillam is a big linebacker that weGÇÖre really
excited about. HeGÇÖs in school and working out. Markeis Reed is a
young man that graduated high school early from the Napa Valley
area. HeGÇÖs another big linebacker at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds. We
needed linebackers. We were thin in that on the depth chart. We did
not sign any linebackers a year ago and we needed some young men.
We graduated a couple that were good players here. IGÇÖm really
excited about getting these guys in.GÇ¥
On running back Michael
Adkins
GÇ£Michael Adkins is a running back that we signed out of Helix High
School. They won the state championship a year ago and had a really
good year. He ran a 10.8 100-meters last year and should break into
the 10.7GÇÖs this year and IGÇÖm looking forward to him winning the
Southern California section, hopefully. HeGÇÖs a 4.06 student. He
wants to major in either engineering or business. Mike is a heck of
a running back.GÇ¥
On the secondary
GÇ£We signed two defensive backs. Tedric Thompson, a young man from
Valencia, Calif. HeGÇÖs a big young man and a really good player. He
has a brother that is a junior at Minnesota that plays there. It
came down to us and Minnesota, so we were excited to get him.
Tedric is a big, strong, physical safety. The other defensive back
is Chidobe Awuzie. HeGÇÖs a corner from Oak Grove High School in San
Jose, Calif. HeGÇÖs a young man that came to our camps at San Jose
State for three straight years. IGÇÖve known him since he was a 10th
grader. IGÇÖm really excited about him. It came down to us and
Washington State and weGÇÖre excited that he decided to come here.
HeGÇÖs a really good football player and an extremely intelligent
young man.GÇ¥
On the receiving core
GÇ£We needed to get receivers that had a lot of speed. We feel like
we did that. These three young men are really good players. Bryce
Bobo is from Charter Oak High School. IGÇÖve had a lot of experience
at Charter Oak and Bryce is a heck of a player. He plays both sides
of the ball and he can also play corner. HeGÇÖs a very athletic young
man. He can run really well. The other one is Elijah Dunston from
Chaminade Prep. He ran a 47-second 400-meters last year. I was
joking with him this morning and said he needed to get down into
the 46GÇÖs and he told me he was trying to. Chaminade is a heck of a
school there in the Los Angeles area. Devin Ross is from Bishop
Alemany High School. HeGÇÖs a very good athlete. IGÇÖm really excited
about what he brings to the table. HeGÇÖs done a lot of great things
with the football. I had a really neat time at his house. I got to
meet his great-grandfather and his great-grandmother, who is 95
years old. They have been married for 65 years. It was a neat visit
to the see family history. WeGÇÖre very excited about our
receivers.GÇ¥
On linebackers
GÇ£We signed five linebackers. Addison Gillam, who I spoke
about before. Big, strong kid. He also played tailback in high
school. IGÇÖm very excited about Addison. One of the other
linebackers is George Frazier, who is a big GÇ£MIKEGÇ¥ linebacker. He
is 6-foot-2, 255 pounds and he also plays power forward on his high
schoolGÇÖs basketball team. HeGÇÖs from Monrovia High in the Los
Angeles area. IGÇÖm very excited about what George brings to the
table. The other linebacker is Kenneth Olugbode from Bellarmine
Prep. He was a CCS Player of the Year. He was also the Northern Cal
Player of the Year. He played tailback and linebacker. I like to
get linebackers that play tailback. ThatGÇÖs one of the things that I
look for. Basically all of these guys played tailback or
quarterback. Believe it or not, George Frazier played quarterback
until last year when he got too big. They played him as a wildcat
quarterback, a tailback and at tight end also. Kenneth is a
phenomenal young man who plans to major in mechanical engineering.
HeGÇÖll be a good linebacker for us. I talked to you about Markeis
Reed. Markeis is a big young man that has played linebacker and
defensive end. HeGÇÖs one of those that is in between. WeGÇÖll see how
his body grows and figure out whether heGÇÖll stay at linebacker or
defensive end. HeGÇÖs already 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds as a 17-year
old. The other young man is Ryan Severson. He played linebacker and
running back. He made first-team All-California. He made CCS
Offensive Player of the Year and gained 1,998 yards at tailback
this year with 32 touchdowns. He had over 60 tackles on defense and
ran a 10.8 second 100-meters last year. HeGÇÖs a 4.0 student and
weGÇÖre very excited about Ryan.GÇ¥
On the offensive line
GÇ£We signed five offensive linemen. WeGÇÖve got two young men from The
Woodlands High School, Sam Kronshage and Jonathan Huckins. They
both play side-by-side on the same side. One was a guard and one
was a tackle. The other offensive lineman, Gunnar Graham, is a big
young man that plays offensive tackle. His team went to the state
finals; heGÇÖs a very good player. IGÇÖm very excited about Gunnar. He
has a lot of history in his family. If you read his bio, itGÇÖs very
interesting. John Lisella is from Columbine High School. I had a
great visit at his high school. HeGÇÖs a very athletic offensive
tackle. He also plays lacrosse. He can really run and as he gains
weight, heGÇÖs going to be a heck of a player. Colin Sutton is from
Orange Lutheran. His sister Chloe [Sutton] is an Olympic swimmer.
ItGÇÖs a phenomenal family. His dad played offensive line for the Air
Force. We are excited about having Colin here. HeGÇÖs a young man
that can play guard, center, or tackle. HeGÇÖs a very athletic young
man.GÇ¥
On the defensive line
GÇ£On the defensive line, we signed two defensive ends. Jimmie
Gilbert, a 6-foot-4 and a half, 230 pound athletic defensive end.
He also plays basketball. His sister is the starting forward for
Texas A&M. His dad also played basketball at Texas A&M and
played in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls for a while. His mother
played college basketball at North Texas. Jimmie is very athletic
and IGÇÖm really excited about getting him here to play defensive
end. The other young man that will play defensive end for us is Tim
Coleman. Tim is a young man that when we got here, we turned on the
film to look at Mullen High School and Valor (Christian) High
School, two great schools. That was the first film I watched. I
asked for film of some of the best high school football in Colorado
and so I watched Mullen play Valor. We watched about five plays and
I had to know who #56 was. They told me his name was Tim Coleman
and I knew we needed to recruit him. We went after him and IGÇÖm very
excited about him coming here to play for us at defensive end. HeGÇÖs
very athletic at 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds. HeGÇÖs built very well.
With him and Jimmie, IGÇÖm really hoping that someone can help us
this fall because we are a little bit thin at the defensive end
position depth wise.GÇ¥
On running back Phillip
Lindsay
GÇ£IGÇÖd like to talk about a young man that is a phenomenal athlete,
Phillip Lindsay from Denver South. He broke the record for [Denver
South] in rushing. He only played one and a half games his senior
year. HeGÇÖs a phenomenal athlete. HeGÇÖs a really good running back
and a very good defensive back. HeGÇÖs a young man that is just
bubbling over with enthusiasm. He lights the room up. HeGÇÖs got a
great personality and we are really excited about Phillip.GÇ¥
On quarterback Sefo
Liufau
GÇ£I am really, really impressed with this young man. I went to his
home to visit and his family really loves the University of
Colorado. HeGÇÖs a very good football player. HeGÇÖs a heck of a
basketball player. He averages double-doubleGÇÖs in basketball and
his team won the league championship. Hopefully they will make it
to the state finals in Washington. IGÇÖm really excited about what he
brings to the table. HeGÇÖs 6-foot-4 and a half and weighs 215 pounds
and he can really run. He runs at least a 4.6 (40-yard dash). HeGÇÖs
very athletic. He took his team to the state finals and heGÇÖs just a
phenomenal young man that will hopefully be a bell cow for this
class and for our program as he grows. GÇ£