On Saturday, after Colorado wrapped practice #3 of fall camp, Mel Tucker sat down and addressed the media for about 30 minutes. Conversation topics varied, but he covered a lot of ground in previewing his team, going over the conditioning regimen that he implemented over the summer, and expectations for 2019. Thus, CUSportsNation here will run through the biggest takeaways from his press conference.

Jimmy Brumbaugh and Mustafa Johnson working to polish young core of d-linemen

Davion Taylor works to up his pass coverage skills

— Mel Tucker has put a clear emphasis on conditioning throughout the summer and players have bought in. He mentioned how at prior jobs and colleges, the first few days of fall camp can be sloppy, "but compared to what I’ve seen in past years, it was really clean."

— The relationship between coaches and players has evolved greatly under Tucker. He was asked about how to prevent another catastrophic 0-7 slide. He said that in wanting to do so, thee dynamic between he, his staff and the players has to be direct.

"Our coaches run a confront and demand operation. We build trust with our players, they know that we care about them. They know that we have their best interests at heart, however, when they don’t perform up to the standard and something’s not done properly, we confront them right away and we demand that they do it right. That’s cultural accountability on and off the field. When you’re disciplined, and you’re accountable and do things right, you can get comfortable with being uncomfortable, then you can handle adversity in games and seasons."

—Tucker knows how to handle in-state recruiting. He's excelled at pitching the future of the program to recruits, both in Colorado and across the country. Boulder practically sells itself in terms of the picturesque scenery and views it has to offer. But ultimately, as HCMT indicated, W's are what's going to make the biggest difference.

"You can’t assume that just because a kid is in your state that he’s going to want to come to your school. [For] a lot of these young men growing up, CU hasn’t had a very relevant program so we’re fighting for our in-state guys just how we’d be fighting for out-of-state guys...I really think we’re going to have to win in order to do what we need to do recruiting in our state."

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