Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre Quotes

Opening statement

“The thing that I kept saying and I’ve seen in this team, and you guys might have felt my vibe a little bit as I’ve gone through since January, that is what I saw. - a mentally tough football team, a team that is never going to quit and never give in. They showed that, we made some good drives in the second half, our coaching staff did a good job of making some adjustments at halftime. Kind of couldn’t get in the end zone, our field-goal kicker was an excellent kicker. Our holder broke his collar bone, our punter, so he’s out for the year. So, we had to put in a new punter and he’s also our holder. Our holder did a great job, and our guy missed a couple. After he missed the second one, our defensive guys are in the huddle saying ‘We’re going to stop them and win the game,’ and I hear our offensive guys say ‘We’re going to get the ball and we’re going to go down and score. I didn’t have to say a word, and when I’m not having to say a word that means the coaching staff has done an excellent job and the kids have bought in. They didn’t flinch one bit and that’s what I see in this football team.”

On seeing his vision of the team in a game

“It shows me how mentally tough they are and how they truly have a brotherhood. They really truly care about each other and they really truly want to help each other. We had a lot of guys having to go in at different times, we had a lot of guys getting knicked up as it went along. It was a physical, tough game. That is a physical football team, that is one of the most physical teams we will play all year. The size of their D-line, the size of their linemen and their powerful backs. I couldn’t be prouder of the players and the coaching staff and their never-flinch attitude and their togetherness to me was amazing.”

On the winning touchdown

“Well, as soon as they walked up and pressed Laviska (Shenault) that he was built into that play, I said go get him. So, I saw it in the air and I thought ‘way to go, Laviska, he caught it!’ Right then, as soon as he caught it I knew we were going for two, and my thing was I didn’t want everyone to run out on the field before we get our two-point set up. As soon as I saw him catch it, I called two-point conversion because we had talked about it earlier. They made a great play and stopped our two-point conversion.”

On coming to Nebraska

“First trip into Nebraska was an excellent atmosphere like we talked about. It was really exciting to play and I thought our kids handled it tremendously and handled all of the noise and everything. We had a couple movements but so did they, so it was good on that side of it.”