Tuesday Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Opening Statements
"There are a couple things I'd like to do before I start. [Head women's volleyball coach] Jesse Mahoney is back there. They've had a phenomenal couple wins. It's always hard coming in your first year. It's exciting seeing that."

"I have a real connection with the Harbaugh family. My brother played for Jack Harbaugh at Western Kentucky. I know John real well, I know Jim well. When Coach Harbaugh was at Western Kentucky – my brother was playing for them – they almost dropped football. My brother was a senior in college and he called me as I was coaching at UT-Martin and he goes, 'They dropped football, I don't know what I'm going to do. It's my senior year.' Coach Harbaugh, Jack, came in and said we aren't going to let this happen. Jack and Jackie Harbaugh basically kept Western Kentucky University from dropping football. Jim and John invested money in the program. Jim would come and coach in the spring because they didn't have enough money to pay coaches. That family is credited for sure for saving football at Western Kentucky University. The other night, after our game was over, I saw some highlights of Western playing Alabama and it made me think of that whole story. I talked to my brother a couple times about it. We're all coach's kids and we grew up coach's kids. We know how much the sport means to us. For what that family did, I don't know if there's enough credit that goes out to Jack Harbaugh. They were going to drop football, then 10 years later they won the National Championship. One of the coolest things he did – I went back and looked at their football facilities and my brother goes to a lot of Western Kentucky games now – Coach Harbaugh told the young men that were seniors and that team that if they stayed and didn't leave that when they won the National Championship they would put their team picture up right beside the National Championship team picture. They have the Jack and Jackie Harbaugh Football Facility now. That picture is in there. The Harbaugh family means a great deal to the MacIntyre family because my brother wouldn't have been able to finish college there and play. It was a great experience and I don't think enough people know they truly saved a football program which is thriving now."

On Relationship With The Harbaugh Family
"I got to know John pretty well through the NFL when I was coaching in the NFL and he was coaching in the secondary there. I got to know Jim when we were in San Jose and he was at Stanford. I knew Jack long before that when my brother played for him for four years. There is a neat family atmosphere there. Football is in our blood. Jim and John have done a phenomenal job and I know Jack and Jackie are really proud of them."

On If Team Is More Excited For This Game Against Michigan
"You play major college football for a reason. Any time you're playing a major program that's at the top and doing really well and you're playing on the road, there's always a little more excitement in your first road game. They understand it's how we prepare, it's not the opponent you're going to play. If you're prepared to play, then you'll be able to play as best you can and see what happens. But if you're not prepared, it doesn't matter who you're playing or how hyped up you get or how excited you get or where you're playing. It's all about preparation. They're a mature enough team now that they understand that. I don't think those are just words, I think they truly get it. They've been through the hype of going to a place to play before and not playing good because they thought they thought they'd just be excited about playing. Now they understand it's the work ethic that goes into it and being prepared."

On Team Taking Each Game One At A Time
"Every game's different. You're going in there with a different team all the time, you have injuries and different situations happen. Seriously, we take every game like it's one season at a time. It's that big a deal. Every game we play is extremely important to us. You measure yourself after every game and you look at how you played and look at how certain things happened in a game to see if you can keep improving. Our guys had a really good practice today and hopefully they stay focused."

On How The Team Has Gotten Better At Preparing Throughout His Tenure
"I think it's just maturity. They've been out there in the fire. There's a trust factor between the players and the coaches now. They listen to everything. The great thing about our guys is that they ask a lot of questions. Today I was doing something in a meeting and I asked them what we would do on this. I didn't have to tell them, they knew exactly what we wanted to do. That maturity factor is a big deal. As you keep building your team and you build that culture, the older guys teach the younger guys and they understand that's the way it is."

On Michigan As A Team
"Big and athletic. They are really big and very athletic. They've got a lot of depth, they're experienced all over the field and they've got freshmen that they are throwing in there that are very athletic too. They do a very good job defensively. They do a lot of stunting, they play a lot of good man coverage. Offensively, they are able to run the ball and great at play-action pass. The quarterback can really throw the deep ball well."

On Sefo Liufau's Mindset
"I've said it quite a few times. He came back off an injury that he thought he wasn't going to play again. In any walk of life or anything you do when you think you might not have a chance to do that again at the time you went, you don't take anything for granted. Everything is focused. You cherish every moment. You cherish coming in every morning having to get in the cold tub because you couldn't do it before. You cherish putting on your cleats and your feet are sore because you've been running so much. You enjoy those moments where before you complained about them. That's what you see."

On Team Being Ready For The Moment
"I don't think our kids will wilt at all. We're playing a really good football team, so now we need to see how we play. I think they do too playing against a better football team than they've played. I think you just go out there and stand toe-to-toe and you fight and see how we measure up. We'll see."

On 1994's 'Miracle At Michigan'
"I was coaching at UT-Martin in west Tennessee in the OVC (Ohio Valley Conference). I saw it on highlights that night on ESPN because there was only one ESPN channel. It was a miraculous play. The fun thing for me coming here this summer was that Kordell Stewart came back to school to finish up, which he didn't have to but he wanted to. It was really neat. I got to spend a month with him here. I saw him basically every day because he was in the weight room and he was around. I got to know him and he told me how after he made that throw, his confidence level went out the roof. It was just fun being around him and getting to know him as a person and seeing his passion and love for Colorado. I've met everybody involved in the play. It's fun getting to meet all those guys, but I hadn't really sat down and spent a lot of time with Kordell. I spent a lot of time with him and I really enjoyed that. Not only can he throw the ball 70-something yards in the air, he's a really good guy."

The Most Impressive Part Of That Play
"It's the fact that he threw it that far. Not many people can do that at all. Most teams you can't do it. You have to do a flea-flicker or throw the ball around. He can heave it 70-something yards. Talking with Rick Neuhesiel about the play, he thought he could throw it that far also. It was a unique situation."

Colorado Quarterback Sefo Liufau

On Losing Starting Job To Elmer Fudd On CU's Fake Depth Chart
"I'm pretty disappointed. I think it was a very comical thing for us to release a depth chart like that. I'm disappointed but I'll be behind him the whole way."

On The Confidence Of The Offense
"It's easy to not have as much focus when there's a big team like Michigan coming up on our schedule. For the first two weeks we've had great focus and I say it each week that the game that's upcoming is the championship game for me. We've had great confidence and focus for each week so far, and that doesn't change for this week. Michigan's a great team and we'll be ready to play especially on the offensive side of the ball."

On The Michigan Game Answering How Good This Team Really Is
"When you go out and play teams each week, you go out and prove to yourself and to your teammates that you're a good team. I think it's easy to be satisfied with two wins and then go out there and tell yourself that it's time to slack off. But we're so focused, especially since in the four years I've been here we haven't won a lot of games. We want to leave this program in a better state then we left it. So each game we treat with the upmost importance, and each week we want to go out and prove ourselves and prove that we can beat anyone."

On Keys To The Offense Dealing With The Large Michigan Crowd
"Focus, and locking in. We need to just be consistent. When you go into a big environment like that it's easy to lose focus and to be in awe of the spectacle and of how big the place is. I'm not worried about the offense. We've been practicing on it twice this week already and we'll be ready for whatever big scene they have for us."

On Keeping The Offense On Track When Facing Michigan's Defensive Speed
"We're kind of a fast-paced offense. I think after the first play we'll be ok and get into the game. We're a team of competitors we'll be jacked up for the game. We've been treating each game the same. Obviously, when you play a powerhouse team we're going to get excited. We just want to play the best and beat the best. After we get the first play out of the way we'll be fine and calmed down. It's always the same way, if you love the game and are a competitor you'll get butterflies. If you don't, in my mind you don't really care and it just becomes too normal for you. We'll be ready to play, and the heartbeat should be down after one play."

On Michigan's Defense
"I've seen cover one, nothing too crazy; it's not like they reinvented the wheel or anything. They're just a great defense. What they run, they run really well. It's what separates them from the first two teams that we've played this season. Being a competitor you want to play against the best. They're going to make some plays, which is the nature of the game. But we'll make some plays too and our goal is to be consistent and make more plays then they do this week."

On Comparing Jabrill Peppers To A CU Defender
"I'd say Chidobe Awuzie. He might be a little bigger, but I don't know I don't look at his height and weight. But just from looking at him on film he's a very athletic player, and he plays in a lot of different positions from what I've seen so far. They'll probably move him around. I've seen him play safety and linebacker, but we're not going to focus too much on him. He's a great player, you can't take that away from him, but we've got some great players as well on the perimeter that we'll have make some plays this week."

On Throwing A Hail Mary Pass
"I know that it's in reference to the other game (1994 Miracle at Michigan). Hopefully it doesn't come down to a Hail Mary, and if it does come down to a Hail Mary I'll get the ball in the end zone."

On The Miracle At Michigan
"It was a great play to win the game. We've heard about it a lot, being here, although not this week since we're focused on ourselves and focused on playing them play-for-play. Hopefully it doesn't come down to a Hail Mary."

On Practicing Hail Mary Plays
"We do practice them yes. We didn't practice them specifically for this game, but name a situation and we've probably practiced for it. We practice situational stuff every week and cover almost every situation you could possibly think of. If something happened in the game the previous week, we'll probably practice that situation just in case we get stuck in it again for whatever reason."

On The Team Creating Its Own Moment
"I don't really think we think about it to be honest. It was a great play 22 years ago, but we're mainly focused on ourselves and trying to turn a program around. Especially when you struggle so much, like we have the first three years that I've been here. We just want to be consistent and win games this year, and that's really our main goal. I don't think we're really looking to create a moment, but moments in the season because we try to treat every game like a championship game. I just want to win every game. I don't care who we play or lineup against, I just want to win that game. That's all we're focusing on as a team."

On Building Confidence Offensively Over The First Two Games
"The biggest thing is that in the first two weeks the plays that we had in, we repped them over and over again and we're doing the same thing this week. If anything, the first two weeks has shown us the potential that we have. We did make some mistakes during the first two weeks, but that's bound to happen and we've learned from those mistakes. It's just built our confidence and we've seen what we can do as an offense both in the running and passing games. We want to build off of that and continue to do that. Even if you play a great team, with a great defense like Michigan, the goal doesn't change. We have certain goals set each week that we want to accomplish, and we want to go out there and be the same each week and if we can do better than the week before. That's our goal going into this week. I don't really care who lines up against us and what defensive scheme they have. We want to go out there and execute and score points and touchdowns."

On When Sefo Realized He Was 100 Percent in the Offseason
"I'm on top of the world right now. It's just great to be back and playing. I think with the injury I had it was never a certain thing that I would be back and playing. So ultimately it's a blessing and I'm thankful for everyone that helped me to get back, all the doctors and trainers. I'm just thankful to be back."

Colorado Safety Tedric Thompson

On Mentality Leading Into This Week's Game Against Michigan
"We're not trying to overthink anything like that. We're just trying to approach it as another game. We're practicing just like we've practiced the past few weeks. We're really focusing on ourselves and how to approach the game and how to play Colorado football. That's our main focus right now."

On the Challenge That Michigan Will Pose
"Each week is a different challenge. Obviously going against a great team like this is a different challenge but we're ready for it. I think the entire team, as long as we keep focusing on ourselves and practicing for each other and playing for each other and loving each other, we'll be great. We're ready for every challenge. It doesn't matter who we're playing against. We always have the mindset that we're going to come out with the win. I feel like that's how the rest of the season is going to be. We're ready for every little moment. Since I've been here, we've been through a lot. I've played in double overtimes, I've been hurt. A lot of players who have been here with Coach MacIntyre for all four years, we've been through a lot with him so that's why I feel like we're ready for any challenge.""

On Playing In Ann Arbor
"The key is to block out all of the distractions. That's the main thing, especially going to a stadium like this. I've never been before but you hear about how big it is and how loud it is. As long as we can block out the distractions then we'll be fine."

On This Week's Preparation
"I think that it being a top-5 team, people try to think a lot about it. But when I say we're preparing the same, we really are. We're meeting with our coaches like we do every week. We're doing the same amount of film studies as we do every single week. The defensive backs and the linebackers and the defensive-line, we're all communicating just like that. You look to the offensive side of practice and you see Sefo doing the same thing with the offense. You see the receivers talking, the running backs talking, the offensive line talking. If you go back two weeks ago or a week ago, that's the same exact way we've been practicing. The intensity cranks up each and every week; I'd say that that's kind of the only thing that adds up."

On Michigan's Strengths
"They're a team. You can tell they play for each other. Their offense has a great o-line. They're big and physical. They have a great physical back and they have a freshman running back who's really elusive. They also have great receivers and a great quarterback. They obviously have a great head coach. They're just a great team overall: offense, defense, special teams. It's just another great team we have to face."

On 1994's 'Miracle at Michigan'
"I think it was just a crazy play overall. Even this past weekend though there were plays like that that happened. I think it was just a crazy football play. I've been seeing that play since I first got here so I'm used to seeing it. Just because we're playing Michigan it isn't very different. The coaches aren't bringing it up every second of the day. We've all seen the play before and it's a great play. But other than that, we don't think about it like that."

On This Week's Uniform Combination
"Our uniform combinations are always changing but for the fans and stuff, it is kind of crazy that we're doing the same thing that the old team did."

On What The Defense Needs To Focus On This Week
"The main thing we have to focus on is to keep creating turnovers and getting the ball back to Sefo and the offense. That's our main goal. We have so many great players on offense with a great offensive line and in my opinion, the best quarterback in the nation. If we keep creating turnovers and getting Sefo and the offense the ball, then we're going to be fine. We're not going to put up points and just have to hold up our side of the deal."

On the Maturity Of CU's Secondary
"On defensive side of the ball, everyone that's playing back there has been here for three years. We took some hard losses and even last year we took some hard losses but we've been working with each other since right after last season's Utah game. I've been facing Devin Ross, Shay Fields and Chido [Awuzie] has been facing Bryce Bobo and stuff like that. So we've been facing some great receivers. Our O-Line is great too. So, going against them all fall camp, that's why we're so confident. I feel like we are a great team. We go against that all day in practice so that's what's going to help us. We have each other's back no matter what so whether we're down in a game or up on a game, we're never going to get down on ourselves. We're always going to push each other and have each other's back, so that's our main goal."

On His Excitement For Game Days
"I'm excited for every game. I've been playing football for a long time. So, I get excited for every game. I try to not overlook any game, I try to approach every game like me and the team approach it every week. So, I'm excited for this game just like I was the last game."

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre

Colorado Quarterback Sefo Liufau

Colorado Safety Tedric Thompson

Players Mentioned

Chidobe Awuzie

Bryce Bobo

Shay Fields

Sefo Liufau

Devin Ross

Tedric Thompson

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