BOULDER — Until Saturday night, we’d never seen Mike MacIntyre like this.
He hasn’t been here that long, so we were bound to see the less sociable side at some point, but when he rushed into the CU defensive meeting room for his post-game session with the inquiring minds Saturday night, he started out as if determined to insert himself into the ESPN coaching meltdown highlight reel.
You know the one. It includes Mike Gundy (“Come after me! I’m a man! I’m 40!”), Steve Spurrier on multiple occasions, even former CU coach Dan Hawkins (“It’s Division I football! It’s the Big 12! It ain’t intramurals!”).
Here’s how MacIntyre began his post-game presser after Arizona beat Colorado 44-20 Saturday night at Folsom Field, effectively ending CU’s chance to become bowl eligible in MacIntyre’s first season, barring some truly incomprehensible outcomes the rest of the way.
MacIntyre, sitting down as reporters approach to deposit their recorders on the table: “All right, ready? Start shooting away, let’s go. I’ll take three questions, I’m outta here.”
Q: You were down 14 points . . .
A: Yeah . . .
Q: . . . with 18 minutes to go . . .
A: Take a chance. See us try to play defense? Next question. Let’s go.
Q: Uh, problem stopping Denker . . .
A: Yeah, we had a problem stopping him. Next one?
Q: You gave up 670 in total offense.
A: Yeah, we did. Exactly. Next one?
You get the idea. Perhaps sensing he was about to create a video clip that could haunt him for years, he calmed down a bit and answered well more than three questions. The entire transcript is below.
MacIntyre had targeted Arizona as a Pac-12 opponent his Colorado team could beat. He said it publicly and he presented it to his team as a challenge. Beat the Wildcats, he said, and the Buffaloes could play meaningful games in November, meaning bowl eligibility would be at stake. With three non-conference wins and a Cal team winless in the Pac-12 coming to Boulder in November, a win over Arizona would leave CU needing just one upset to get to six.
Perhaps MacIntyre put too much stock in his own challenge. When push came to shove, it was the first-year coach, hungry for success his team is not yet ready to deliver, who salted the game away for the visitors from Tucson.
Even without MacIntyre’s premature desperation, CU almost certainly would have lost, and for the same reasons that drove MacIntyre’s desperation: The Buffs couldn’t stop the Wildcats, who put up 670 yards of offense — second-most under coach Rich Rodriguez and third most in school history — 405 of them on the ground.
But that didn’t make MacIntyre’s tactical decisions helpful. The Buffs trailed 24-13 at halftime. Not great, but not nearly as bad as two weeks ago in Tempe, when Arizona State led 47-6 at intermission. The Wildcats came out in the third quarter and drove 66 yards, but the Buffs held them to a field goal. CU responded with a 75-yard touchdown drive to cut the deficit to 27-20. Arizona roared back with a 70-yard drive to extend the lead to 34-20.
CU drove 47 yards to a first-and-goal at the Arizona 7-yard line. After two rushes for three yards and an incomplete pass, the Buffs faced fourth-and-goal at the 4. MacIntyre eschewed the field goal and went for it. Freshman quarterback Sefo Liufau rolled right and threw incomplete into the end zone.
The Buffs stopped the Cats, then found themselves deep in their own territory as the third quarter expired.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, down 14 points with 15 minutes to play, the Buffs ran a fake punt on fourth-and-5 from their own 17. Punter Darragh O’Neill tried to run for the first down. He gained one yard.
Arizona took over on the CU 18. Two plays later, the Buffs’ deficit was 21. And that was that.
“If you see us playing defense, we couldn’t stop ’em,” MacIntyre explained. “Thought it was a good place to try it. He was supposed to read it. We’ve had five on this year and he’s punted all five. We thought we had a chance and he thought he had a chance and didn’t get it.”
The Buffs’ defensive game plan was so focused on Arizona running back Ka’Deem Carey that their defenders repeatedly allowed quarterback B.J. Denker to run free. Denker finished with 192 rushing yards, 73 more than Carey.
“We couldn’t tackle the quarterback,” MacIntyre said. “We must have missed him seven times. Probably 200 yards of offense off of missed tackles on the quarterback. We gotta work on tackling better.”
Like a lot of folks in Boulder, MacIntyre wants the Buffs to improve more quickly than they are. It’s understandable. It’s hard not to feel for his players as they try to answer questions, honestly mystified as to their helplessness against Pac-12 opponents. It’s just a play here or there, they keep saying. Even MacIntyre fell back on this canard.
It’s not just a play here or there. MacIntyre is at the start of a major rebuilding project. He took over one of the worst teams in Division I history. It plays in a conference with some of the best offenses in the nation.
A fake punt on your own 17 does not help. Down 14 with a full quarter to play, it sends a signal of desperation to your players. When I asked MacIntyre if he regretted that decision in hindsight, his answer was firm and immediate: “No. Do not.”
The mirage of bowl eligibility should now fade and the Buffs will go back to focusing on the details, trying to get better each week. To achieve competitiveness in the Pac-12 is going to take a while. That’s not the fault of anybody now involved with the program. But trying to rush the process by getting desperate will not help.
Here’s a full transcript of MacIntyre’s post-game presser:
MacIntyre: All right, ready? Start shooting away, let’s go. I’ll take three questions, I’m outta here.
Q: You were down 14 points . . .
A: Yeah . . .
Q: . . . with 18 minutes to go . . .
A: Take a chance. See us try to play defense? Next question. Let’s go.
Q: Uh, problem stopping Denker . . .
A: Yeah, we had a problem stopping him. Next one?
Q: You gave up 670 in total offense.
A: Yeah, we did. Exactly. Next one?
Q: Why are you in such a hurry?
A: Because I’m ready to get out of here. We played our hearts out. We gotta play better.
Q: How do you feel Sefo played?
A: I thought he did good. Missed a couple guys he coulda hit. And we had a couple out there he could have made, but I thought he did some good things. He’ll keep improving.
Q: Why’d you fake the punt?
A: Because if you see us playing defense, we couldn’t stop ’em. Thought it was a good place to try it. He was supposed to read it. We’ve had five on this year and he’s punted all five. We thought we had a chance and he thought he had a chance and didn’t get it.
Q: How concerned are you about your defense?
A: Very concerned. Playing as hard as they can play.
Q: Jered (Bell, the junior free safety) said they have the talent, they’re just not executing. Do you feel that’s true?
A: There’s part of that, yes. We gotta do a better job of coaching ’em and just keep fighting. There’s great offenses in this league.
Q: Does this one hurt you a little bit more than some of the others?
A: Oh, definitely. 100 percent.
Q: Seemed like there was a lot of pressure on Sefo tonight . . .
A: Yeah, there’s been pressure on him every time he’s stepped back there.
Q: Why does it hurt more than the others?
A: Cause we can beat that team.
Q: Why do you feel like you didn’t?
A: We didn’t tackle ’em. We couldn’t tackle the quarterback. We must have missed him seven times. Probably 200 yards of offense off of missed tackles on the quarterback. We gotta work on tackling better.
Q: Obviously it hurts to lose, but this game was a step in the right direction in conference play. Do you feel that way?
A: No. We shoulda won the game.
Q: Did you do anything special to stop Carey and that made it harder to stop Denker?
A: Yeah, we stopped Carey pretty good. We had one he bounced outside and we didn’t play our . . . we shoulda stayed outside, he wouldn’t have gained that yard, and then he ran over us a few times, and he’s going to do that. He does that against everybody. Just very disappointed we didn’t do a better job against Denker. He did a good job, B.J., he threw the ball better than I’ve ever seen him throw in every game I’ve ever watched him play. So he came through, he really did. He did a great job. Their quarterback did a great job.
Q: You said they played as hard as they can play, yet you seem disappointed in the effort or outcome or . . .
A: Yeah, I’m very disappointed in the outcome.
Q: When the offense got in Arizona territory, why were there so many struggles of getting seven as opposed to just three?
A: We just couldn’t get it in. I’ll have to go back and look at it. We left a few out there we had chances at.
Q: How happy have you been with the tackling so far this year?
A: I mean, I think we’ve improved from the film I watched last year and from spring practice and early in fall. We just didn’t . . . he made us miss tonight and I’ve seen him make people miss before, it was just very frustrating for our kids.
Q: In hindsight, do you regret not kicking the field goal . . .
A: No. The guy was open. We had a chance. We just couldn’t get it to him.
Q: In hindsight, do you regret the fake punt?
A: No. Do not.
Q: Did you see the same thing you saw against Oregon from the defense when you ran that trick play to (junior receiver Paul) Richardson?
A: Yeah, but we did it different than that one. It was a different formation. And they lined up differently than they had been, too. That kind of threw us off. But PRich did a good job. We had worked on if that happened, throw it out of bounds.
Q: How is he?
A: I think he’s fine. He said he was fine. Hopefully it doesn’t swell up or something tonight.
Q: How disconcerting is it, just the lack of success against . . .
A: Very disconcerting. Very disconcerting. We keep improving, we’ve just got to do it. Very disconcerting. We’ve just got to keep fighting and keep moving forward. It’s just disheartening for the kids, you know? We’re battling right there and just . . . a few plays here or there.
Q: Is that similar to your first year at San Jose State?
A: I don’t know. So long ago.
Q: You sparked the offense with some personnel changes. How do you spark the defense?
A: We just keep working at it. We’ve made personnel changes there too. Just got to keep working, keep fighting and keep pushing. Find ways to keep trying to help ’em. I thought we did a few things tonight to help ’em and they just made some more plays than we did.
BlitzKrieg 
Leave a Reply