Colorado-UMass Quotes
September 12, 2015 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre
General              Â
"I'm excited about our rushing attack. We added another guy to the fold (TB Patrick Carr) and we'll keep rotating them in and out, as many plays as we ran; keep sticking fresh backs in there. They all ran well. I was really excited with what they did."
On not just winning, but dominating UMass       Â
"I would have taken a one-point win, of course. But doing what we did showed, I think it showed (the kids), they just kept believing, kept believing. When you get them down, put them away. Last year, we got up on a few people and didn't put them away. Even this team (UMass) came back on us. They got up on us, we got up on them, and they came right back in the end and it was a nail biter. I think that they are starting to learn how to do that. And we have more depth; we're more physical; we're stronger; we don't wear out as quick. And they've been there before, so they don't let up at all they keep the pedal down."
On when the team settled down and got in a groove       Â
"After we got the interception by [DB] Ryan Moeller, the game completely changed and I think that was big. We had one there that was fourth and about a foot, on their 40 that I decided not to go for and then we had the bad punt and that kind of gave them some momentum. But if I go for it right there, that early in the game, and we get stuffed, you know. I still think the right thing was to punt there. They got a little momentum they hit us on a wheel route. Ryan Moeller got beat on that; he collected himself and then he made the great play in the end zone. I think that kind of changed the tone. And then we went down and scored and scored again; did a good job at the end of the half."
On what led to such a hug rushing performance
 "Our offensive line is doing a phenomenal job of staying on the blocks, and our running backs, if you've noticed, they're not hesitating; they're hitting and cutting and going. They're fast and athletic. CP (TB Christian Powell) is a little different; he's so physical that he runs through some of those instead of running by them. He made a great run. Then, [QB] Sefo [Liufau] is doing such a great job of, we look at stuff going into every game and then he looks and he'll make checks. You see the backs move and then we run the other way, he's checking all of that. And sometimes he'll even check to a pass, so he's doing a good job on all of that, a really good job. I think also, the threat of him being able to run has helped us, because he's able to run it now. He's making some really good plays with his feet on passing situations. We have to protect him a little better. But he's getting out of that and making good runs. He's able to run the ball for first downs too on some power plays; he's a big boy."
On Ryan Moeller being a walk-on from small school        Â
"[850 KOA Radio] asked me at halftime when I was walking off, 'You know you kind of dropped to your knees there,' I said, 'Yeah, Ryan Moeller is so special.' They are all special, but Ryan Moeller is such a special young man. Any time a guy who lived and breathed (football) . . . leading rusher in the state of Colorado; we don't give him a scholarship when we first get here, I'm not sure how good he is. So, he walks on and he pushes himself, and pushes himself and gets a scholarship and ends up starting. He got beat earlier in the game on a wheel route and I just said, 'Hey calm down.' He said, 'I screwed up.' I look at him and say, 'You'll come back, you'll come back.' He comes back and makes that play. That shows you the maturity factor of him and the effort of him. I think that shows you a little bit about our team. I really do. He has great parents, great support. He loves the University of Colorado; he loves the state of Colorado. If there is another guy out there on the western slope again that dominates like a Ryan Moeller, I'll know to sign him next time, if I know that he has the same heart that Ryan Moeller has."
On the targeting penalty called on DB Afolabi Laguda    Â
"That's a bang-bang play, but that's the call they made so I stand by that call. We want to protect everyone. Those are bang-bang plays, they're hard. I'm glad the young man is ok, I'm glad Afolabi is ok. The main thing is those kids are ok. But you have to tell them to go play football because if they're hesitant . . . they can also get hurt being hesitant."
 On WR Lee Walker's block that sprung a touchdown     Â
"Lee is a young man who we signed in a January situation where he was going to go to another school and it got all messed up and we kept recruiting him. He comes from a single parent home. I even made a statement this week, 'Lee, I've watched you grow up. You've finally grown up, you're finally turning into a man.' He stopped doing his knuckle head stuff, and we've all done that. It's just so awesome to see that. His role, he doesn't play a lot, but he . . . we're at Hawai'i, and I turn around in the fourth quarter and you know who is running up and down the sidelines trying to get everybody up, swinging a towel? Lee Walker. He epitomizes that fight. He believes in us, and we're helping him be the man he is going to be. The great father, the great husband he's going to be one day. And he's also going to be a great football player before he leaves here; he's only a freshman. Knowing his role, he knew he probably wasn't going to get the ball thrown to him but he goes and makes a phenomenal block and pancakes the dude. That's hard to do; and springs a touchdown. I was really, really excited to see that. Because that's another guy playing a role with all he's got. Those little things are what makes a difference in truly winning and losing consistently."
On whether he believed this team could dominate the run game like they did today       Â
"Yeah. I did, and I thought we had enough running backs. I thought our line was more physical. Our defensive line is more physical. So, when you go against the same thing in practice you get better. If you're going against people that aren't very good and not very physical then you don't get better. Then, when you play a physical team they kick your butt. So, we're more physical as a team which is helping us."
On the significance of beating a team that is as mature as UMass              Â
"It's really big for us, because we haven't done it before. So, those kids can put it as a bench mark and say we can do this consistently. So, we need it. It's just one game though. It's just one game. It really is, but it's one good one."
On TB Christian Powell coming back from a shaky performance at Hawai'i           Â
"Christian is a great leader. He's on our leadership council. He was one of our captains today. I knew he would bounce back. He's really never fumbled for us except for that one situation (at Hawai'i) and it was a bad timing. But I'm really proud of Christian and he brings a different dynamic in our running game. I think we have four guys that are good runners."
On fixing mistakes made at Hawai'i        Â
"It's good, because we were talking to them about if you could correct those things and come ready to play; come with a little chip on your shoulder every week. Understand that winning in football is fun. If you're not winning, it's not that fun. You have to find ways to win. We show them that. We kind of said this is a draw a line in the sand kind of week. This is, we're not going to take it anymore. I was hoping they would do that. They really did better than I thought they would do. I thought that we would definitely beat them, but I didn't know if we would dominate them that well. It shows that they can do that consistently."
On Looking Towards the Rocky Mountain Showdown     Â
"It's a big game next Saturday. I'll let our guys enjoy this tonight but I'm already (looking towards CSU). I'm going to go watch the last part of it (right now). And I'll watch it again tonight before I go to bed. We'll be on it tomorrow morning. I'll go to church tonight. But after that, I'll go. That's a huge game for us, a huge game. That's a fun game, I enjoy playing in that game. I haven't enjoyed it for the last 365 days, though, I'll tell you that much."
On WR Nelson Spruce setting the CU record for career receptions            Â
"That's awesome and he deserves it. He's a heck of a football player. He's going to make a lot of plays this year and he's doing well. That run he made for the touchdown was an incredible run, it really was. He's really getting good at that."
On CU having to overcome a hungry UMass team with revenge on their mind from last year        Â
"I think it's a process, I just think they're maturing. We have to do it again next week or we will have a bad taste in their mouth. They work too hard, we work too hard, we're away from our families too much to not win football games. They're starting to understand that if you put the person first, which they know we do. Once they start realizing how much we believe in them, I think we'll keep seeing these results. I know it's just one game, but I tell you, I believe in this football team, I believe in these young men."
UMass Head Coach Mark Whipple
General        Â
"Well, I'll give Colorado a lot of credit; they played better in all phases. We didn't respond when they ran the ball. We did a poor job on that side of the ball; we didn't make any plays on that side of the ball."
On Success of CU's Running Game           Â
"We knew they were going to run the ball. We didn't make them punt more than once I think, in the first half, so they have a good offense. I think Coach Jim Leavitt has done a good job on their defense. They had a lot of confidence and they just played better."
On Ryan Moeller's Interception
"I was really disappointed. I don't think [Blake] Frohnapfel played very well at all, and that was disappointing. We talked about it on that 3rd down, we wanted to get points. That was a huge play. Before that there was a big 50 yard play, Guys just didn't play well. That pick, he threw it off of his back foot. He missed three touchdown throws. You can't play a team like Colorado's caliber and miss those throws, because you're not going to get them back."
On The Team Working Out Kinks            Â
"We've been running those plays for 10 days. We had them on tape, we just missed them. Sometimes that happens. We had them exactly where we wanted it to go, and where the play is designed, and we missed them. If he does that, against a Pac-12 team, we're not going to have a shot."
On The Team's SchemeÂ
"We practiced all of that. It was just poor preparation by the coaching staff, and myself and everybody. They hit us in the mouth, and we didn't even respond to it, and that's really disappointing. They were just running power, zone, and things we've practiced against. It's one game, so we'll see. We weren't competitive, that's what's really disappointing."
On Moving Forward       Â
"We just got to get ready for Temple; that's the only thing."
Colorado Players
DE/OLB Derek McCartney
ON THE CSU GAME-"They're fun to play. It's going to be good."
ON HIS PERSONAL GROWTH-"We're getting better every week. Coach (Tyrone) McKenzie is working with us on a lot of the details and we're just getting better every week. "We worked really hard on defense and we're definitely heading in the right direction. "
TB Christian Powell
ON THE WIN–"It was very important. We needed to get that taste in our mouth and accomplish that. I've been telling myself all week that I needed to come out strong. Everybody's happy."
ON RUSHING 100 YARDS TODAY-"It always feels good to reach that century mark. I'm thankful that I was able to do that and I'm thankful that my teammates came out and we had the successful game that we did today."
ON HALF TIME MOMENTUM-"It's always huge to have momentum going into halftime and that lead definitely helped us. From half time, you want to capitalize on that."
ON THE FUTURE OF THE SEASON-"We want to keep working harder. We're not satisfied yet. We have 11 more games to go. "It [winning] is definitely a good feeling for us. It's a good way to go into next week. All week in practice we have to come out even harder with even more of a chip on our shoulder to the best of our ability."
DB Chidobe Awuzie
ON THE WIN-"It's so big; just getting that confidence from the win. Everybody was heartbroken from last week knowing that that [Hawai'i] was a team we could beat, this [UMass] is a team we could beat; every team is a team we can beat. Just getting a win really helped our confidence."
ON THEIR MOMENTUM GOING INTO HALFTIME-"The defense stood up. We told each other that that was the last time we they were going to score. We had a couple of mistakes on coverages but we knew after that touchdown that that was going to be the last one. We had that mindset and it helped out."Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
ON THE DEFENSE'S PERFORMANCE TODAY-"I say it was pretty decent. We still have to work on the little things like tackling and mental mistakes; those are big. We have to keep repping tackling and I think everything else will play out."
ON DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JIM LEAVITT-"We love coach Leavitt. We love how he has that passion for the game and it makes you want to play harder for him. We really listen to him because we know he's been to the NFL, he's been to the pinnacle of college football. We just really try to listen what he says and follow it."Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
ON GUARDING UMASS RECEIVERS - "The key was knowing where my receiver was, especially number 1 [Tajae Sharpe]. He's a great receiver so I just had to figure out where he was and I think we did pretty well against them."
ON THE DEFENSE'S STRONG SECOND HALF - "We really played off of the crowd. The crowd was yelling and we know that Afolabi [Laguda's] hit was a clean hit but it counted towards something, getting that turnover. Ryan Moeller made a hell of a play. That was an incredible interception and we got things going. They could get in the red zone but we have to play well in the red zone. They can play to the third downs but we have to stop them on third downs."
DB John Walker
ON THIS WEEK'S GAME PLAN-"Coming into the week we knew that they have a couple of good receivers and the game plan was to stop their deep ball. We know that we can go out there and play and just compete and do what we do best which is competing."Â
ON DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JIM LEAVITT-"Leavitt is an awesome coach. We are just buying into what he's saying. It's a lot at one time but we are getting comfortable with each other as the season goes on. We're getting into those situations, the third down situations, the goal line and red zone; once we get out there and get comfortable then it's all going to come naturally. We're still learning."
ON THE SCOUT TEAM GETTING A CHANCE TO PLAY - "Afolabi [Laguda] made an awesome play. I don't think it was targeting but like I said, the way we practice, we all get reps. The starters and the scout teams get equal amounts of reps. When stuff like that happens, the next person can step up and compete. We're ready to get back to practice and get ready for CSU."
ON THE DEFENSE'S ABILITY TO CAUSE TURNOVERS - "We've practiced it and our coaches are influencing it. In practice we do a lot of tackling drills, stripping the ball. We do a lot of catching drills so that we catch those interceptions when we get the opportunities. Turnovers win games and if we want to be a good defense, we have to force those turnovers. We're practicing hard and doing that. He [Leavitt] has been stressing turnovers because if you win the turnover battle, it ups your chances of winning the game."
QB Sefo Liufau
ON THE WIN–"It feels great to go out there and get a win and get ourselves back on track for the season. I think our consistent manner, especially of offense, was good to see and boost our confidence when we prepare for our next opponent, Colorado State."
ON RUNNING GAME–"The offensive line and our running backs did a really good job today. A couple times I think the UMass defense knew what was coming. We put in the same formation, same shifts and everything but the offensive line and running backs did a really good job blocking it up front and hitting the hole."
ON MUCH NEEDED WIN–"We put in a lot of work as a team, especially this team. Ever since last season we've had a chip on our shoulder and I think today we finally came out and played how we are supposed to play which is exciting to see. But it's just one game and we want to be ready for next week and weeks after that."
ON BEING IN CONTROL-"I think we knew what they were doing for the most part. We came up with a lot of runs. If they are going to keep playing too high against us, we are going to run the ball the entire game, I am totally fine with that. Our main objective is to get a win. I am excited and happy for what happened today."
ON TEAMS OVER-FOCUSING ON NELSON SPRUCE–"They (UMass) didn't cloud him or double cover him. Maybe they did once or twice but they have shown to do that against other teams as well. If they want to run tuck to high that's fine with us, we'll run the ball. If they go single high we can run our pass."
ON PASSING GAME RHYTHM–"I think the passing game got in a better rhythm today. Even though we didn't throw as much I think we were still in a rhythm. We still kind of knew what they were doing. I think I would like maybe one throw back, I kind of got hit as I threw, which is frustrating. But for the most part we were in a rhythm; we knew what they were doing, bumping out, trying to set underneath everything. So for the most part I think we were in rhythm and just have to continue to be."
ON MOTIVATION AFTER LAGUDA'S EJECTION–"I think it was a big sequence, especially for our defense to get a stop and take away a field goal is big. For us to come down after that and score a touchdown to keep the momentum going is especially great for the team. We just have to play like that more often and I think we showed ourselves what we are really capable of today."
ON CARRYING TWO FULL HALVES–"We always talk about playing four strong quarters and I think we did that today, which is exciting to see. We just need to be able to continue on this path because we have big games coming up and so we need to play four quarters every game."
TB Michael Adkins II
ON THE WIN–"It was a good win. We played well and didn't make too many mistakes, so that's good, and is improvement from last week."  Â
ON BEING A RHYTHM RUNNER–"The line blocked well and opened up some holes and I was able to run through them; it was that simple. We played well."Â
ON BEING ABLE TO KEEP UP PERSONAL PACE–"I think I can for sure. I just have to keep taking care of my body."             Â
ON ESTABLISHING PHYSICAL NATURE–"Running physical excites the whole team. When you have a running back running physical, like all of us did Christian Powell and Phillip Lindsay, it just excites the whole team. If we can bring that every week it will give us a different mentality as a team."
DB Ryan Moeller
ON HIS PICK–"As far as that pick goes, I think it definitely helped boast our morale but as an entire team we are expected to make plays, offensively, defensively, and on special teams, so when we can make that happen it definitely swings the momentum our way and gives everyone else a boost so that they can do what they need to do to get their job done. A couple plays before they tried to hit me on a similar route and when they came out in the empty set, I just expected to play man and a specific coverage and stick with them and it turned out to be the best thing for us."         Â
ON HIS PLAY TODAY-"I feel relieved that I made it through the whole game. I've been pushing through some sickness but I wasn't the only one so I couldn't back off for anyone else. As far as playing well, I think I'm going to recognize that I had some busts and I had some mistakes but as far as moving on from that goes, that's the best thing that we can do. We definitely want to forget about those plays to make some better ones."Â Â
ON FIXING THE DEFENSE'S MISTAKES-"Each week, you're not going to play a perfect game and so as we watch film and see what we missed up on whether it's missed tackles or coverages and what not, everything is going to be addressed and taken care of for the following week against CSU."Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
ON LAGUDA'S EJECTION - "I thought that it was a great play, a great read and unfortunately it didn't go the way we had hoped. But, I believe it was a good test of adversity for the team. We believed it was a great, clean play and it was seen differently. We faced adversity and didn't give it up. We easily could have backed down, being pinned in there and given up some points to get the offense back out there. But, I think the adversity factor that we've been trying to find all through camp has been an emphasis through all of the coaches, offense and defense. It's not always going to go our way and whether it goes good or bad, we just have to deal with it and move on. Having a short memory is definitely a big thing for us." Â Â Â Â Â
WR Nelson Spruce
ON HIS TOUCHDOWN–"Part of why we haven't thrown it as much is because we have been doing so well on the run. On that play in particular, I was a back side option and we didn't get the coverage we wanted on the front side and Sefo dumped it off to me and I was able to make a play on that. I think we caught a little bit more of a rhythm so I think that as we get going, we can continue that."
ON THE WIN-"It was huge for us because coming into Hawai'i we felt like we had such a good off season and that we were such a different team. To lose was a little bit demoralizing but hats off to the rest of the team. We never got too negative about it all and we were able to get a big win here today which is huge. I think we're building some momentum going into CSU."
ON PLAYING WELL ALL FOUR QUARTERS-"It was huge because, like I said, we had a different feeling about this year. To have that slow start set us back. I think we got back on track today and played the way we could for all four quarters so it's reassuring that we can do this."
ON SITTING OUT THE FOURTH QUARTER-"You never want to have that feeling but when we started getting into the substitutes; I was sitting on the bench and in the four years I've been here, I've never been able to sit out a fourth quarter so this is the first time I was able to do that. It was pretty cool getting some of the guys that bust their [butts] in practice into the game. It was cool."
ON THE CSU GAME-"I've already thought about it [the CSU game]. I already checked the score of their game against Minnesota. I didn't realize, coming from California, how big this game is. It's my last season and I don't know how I'll be able to live with myself if we don't come out with a win."
ON LEE WALKER'S BLOCK-"We talk about receivers in the run game like it's a big thing, something we really emphasize this year. Seeing Lee Walker, a guy who doesn't play nearly every snap, go in there is an attitude that we've been trying to emphasize all year. It was great to see. Seeing Coach MacIntyre get fired up about it shows how important it is, how little things like that gat him fired up. It was awesome."
UMass Players
QB Blake Frohnapfel
ON THE GAME (GENERAL)–"I think we started well and I think it showed. This was obviously a game we thought we had a chance to win, for it to turn out like that, it's extremely disappointing. But we've got to move on."
ON PLAY OF MARQUIS YOUNG–"He had a play there in the second quarter where he made something out of nothing, to see that out of a freshman on the first touch of his career, that's impressive. As we go further and further we'll expand his packages to get the ball in his hands."
ON SELF-INFLICTED MISTAKES–"It's disappointing to have a couple plays go our way in row, then we'd get a penalty, or in the red zone I threw an interception. We can't do that. That really kills momentum. But we've got to learn from it and go into next week new energy, really."
ON SLOW START ON FIRST FEW DRIVES–"The first couple drives we were definitely throwing the ball a lot, I was missing a couple throws here and there, kind of first game jitters, a little excited overthrowing receivers. Then once we got in a rhythm, we started stepping on our own toes a little too much. Penalties, drops, interceptions, that's stuff you can't really do."
ON LACK OF RHTHYM IN SECOND HALF–"They had two quick touchdowns, it gets out of hand pretty fast and takes you out of any game plan you had."
ON COLORADO DEFENSE–"They're a very athletic bunch, they had a pretty good handle on what we were going to do, they did a good job stopping the run, they were able to play a lot of man to man coverage, and basically challenged our guys to beat them."
ON PLAYING AT FOLSOM–"It was a true cross country (game) for us. There was the altitude issue. But for us, it was really execution and the challenges that we had there, but you learn from it and move on."
WR Marken Michel
ON WHAT WAS WORKING-"Communication; and just the ability to trust each other to make plays."
ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES- "I wouldn't ever say anyone is shutting us down because we've got an explosive offense. It was just a failure to execute. It was the first game, we had some first game jitters and first game mistakes. We have to get cleaned up for next week."
ON DISAPOINTMENT OF LOSING TO COLORADO FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR–"It's very disappointing, nobody likes taking loses. Like I said, all we can do is look ahead and learn from our mistakes."
LB Shane Huber
ON DISAPPOINTING LOSS-"It's very disappointing. We felt going into the game that we were more than prepared, things didn't go our way. We came out in the first half and gave up some plays we should have made; then it was an uphill battle."
ON COLORADO RUNNING GAME- "We knew going into the game that Colorado wants to run the ball. Tomorrow we'll need to take a look at what they did and what we did. Teams are going to try to run the ball, so we have to be able to stop that."
