In another installment in our off-season "Catching up with" series, we interviewed former CU rush end B.J. Beatty, who played for the Buffaloes from 2007-10. He is currently playing professionally over in Japan.

Adam Munsterteiger: "We're doing this interview at 6:30 pm Mountain Time, what time is it over there in Japan?

B.J. Beatty: "It is 9:30 in the morning."

"Probably confused. At the time I didn't even know football existed in Japan. So if someone had told me that back then, I would have looked at them with the most confused face ever."

"After Colorado, I moved home [to Hawaii] and at the time I was trying to figure out what to do. A good family friend of mine, Coach David Stant, who lived three blocks down the road from me, came to my parents and asked, 'Would your son like to play in Japan?' They looked at him and said, 'To play football?' And he said, 'Yeah.' I loved the idea. Not many people knew this but Japan was always somewhere I wanted to visit so it was an exciting opportunity for me. I came out in 2012 for my team that I play for now, ran around a couple practices with them and they asked me if I could come back in August. I was in."

"It was hard to transition to the culture as far as football goes. Japanese people by nature are not aggressive. They are very kind, nice, friendly people. Off the field, I am a goofy, fun, carefree guy but on the field I play with a mean streak. So when I came over here to play, it caught a lot of people off guard. It caught my teammates off guard a little bit in my first game. So that was a little hard because people would judge me based off that. Other teams thought that is how I was all the time. My teammates always joke going into games, 'When is B.J. going to get a personal foul?' That was the hardest thing to adjust to. I tell my teammates I am not going to play any other way and a lot of them are okay with it now because they understand.

"The language barrier was also obviously a hard thing. I am still not fluent but I can speak a good amount so I can survive."

"The difference is that it is not as popular of a sport here. Very rarely do you hear about players playing at the high school level. In the whole country there may be less than 100 high school teams. But at the college level is where it is big. I want to say there are almost 200 different colleges that have a football program, all throughout the country. That is when a lot of these kids play for the first time. I would say they are kind of behind as far as the game goes because a lot of these kids don't get into football until they are 18-19 years old. So development as far as an overall athlete, they are trying to catch up. The level I play at, the top level, is called X1. At the X1 level there are 18 teams."

"Oh yeah. We're only allowed four Americans, and only two can be on the field at the same time."

"No, we actually play on a normal field and we play by NCAA rules. Anything that changes within the NCAA as far as rules go, that is what we'll do."

"Yeah, I play for the Obic Seagulls. I came into a very good situation. At the time of me joining, they were back-to-back champions. That helped motivate me because I knew I had to come in and perform because they had been successful. My first two years with the team, we won, so we actually set a record as a team for the most consecutive championships. Last year we fell a little short. All good things come to an end, but hopefully we can get it back this year. We're planning to."

"Right now they have me playing weakside defensive end, and then when we move to our 3-4, I stand up and move around a little bit. We have all kinds of different wrinkles for me now."

"I have had a good amount of success here. Like I was telling you earlier, there are a lot of things where they are behind in the game, teams are just starting to use Hudl, which I used back at Colorado. Guys are starting to watch film, but I was always kind of ahead of the curve as far as being smart. I am probably most famous for a play that happened in 2013 in the league championship game. I came in on a blitz, the running back tried to cut my legs out and jumped up over him and landed three-and-a-half yards behind him and sacked the quarterback. Guys were kind of going into that game a little unsure, which happens a lot with our Japanese players. Like I said, the cultural differences are sometimes funny. That play was during the opening drive and I remember I could just feel my team respond to that. As far as individual awards, I have been named to the all-league team in my first three seasons out here. Other than that, I just enjoy playing and winning, that has been the biggest thing."

"Yeah, usually there is a short spring tournament that lasts about four games but this year there is a World Tournament for football so it is cut down to just two small games. Japan has a national team and a lot of the players are getting ready for that and a lot of the coaches from around the league are involved with that."

"It is just like back home. We start in either late August or early September."

"After we go through the whole season in January, I usually get a month or two off to run home or run somewhere else around Asia, which is close by."

"Yeah. I went from playing in Folsom Field where you have 50,000 people and you go play in all the packed Big 12 stadiums to the first game I played in out here, there were maybe 600 people. I might be even adding on there. It was just a field with little bleachers. Since then, the new stadium we play most games in now, is a huge structure that maybe fits about 10,000 people. Our last game we had about 4,000 people. So within the three years, it has grown a lot in popularity."

"The thing I love most about Japanese culture is it is almost like Hawaii where everyone is very welcoming and friendly. My first day, guys knew I couldn't speak Japanese so they made an extra effort to try to speak to me in English even though they weren't very good at speaking English. They made me feel welcome. Even in daily life here, you'll go to a little store and they thank you. You feel like you are doing them a great honor by just buying a drink. Even when you walk in the store, they welcome you. It is a custom, that is just what they do.

"I do miss a lot of things, though. My refrigerator is not much bigger than a mini fridge so you can't shop like you do back home in the states where you might buy for a week. Here, I have to go to the grocery store almost every day."

"I just turned 27 and that is actually something I have been thinking about. Do I play until the wheels fall off or is there a certain point where I stop? Right now as long as my body is healthy, no major injuries, I'll keep playing. One thing I am trying to do here is get my foot in the door coaching, which I have this year. I am a player and I am also our defensive line coach. It is a weird dynamic for me because I do play and at the same time I have to coach and correct my teammates. But eventually I would like to get into the coaching world full-time, whether that is here in Japan or back home."

"Yeah, he started me in football and as I got into high school, people started telling me about him and all his success and how good he was. It was almost like a challenge, at least that is the way I took it. Okay, this is how good your dad was, what can you do? He motivated me that way and then he was also there to shape me as a player. I don't think I would have been into this sport and loved it as much without him."

"My uncle Chris was with the Jacksonville Jaguars at the time and he called me before I took any of my trips. He told me, 'Enjoy it, have fun.' He said, 'I am not going to tell you to go to Colorado. But when you go to Boulder, the moment you see the campus, you are going to know why I went there.' And he was right. I remember coming up and over the hill and looking down into the valley and I was like, 'Yep, this is why he came here.'"

"Maturing, and then also my grandfather passing away from cancer. That kind of turned the light on for me. There were times I felt down, that I didn't feel I could play at this level and there were other days I felt like I could. My grandfather was a big influence on me and he was battling throat cancer. He could barely speak but he would still yell at me, telling me to step up and play with more confidence. I watched him battle throat cancer for two years and I thought, 'if my grandfather can fight this for two years, I am pretty sure I can do what he is asking me to do.' I just figured it out from there."

"No, but the one nickname that did catch on was 'Ginger Fury.' During the 2009 season, we had that game on Halloween weekend and there was a couple in the crowd that dressed as me. I thought it was hilarious. I saw the nickname they were going by during the game. Normally I don't like to be called Ginger but I have to give it to them, I thought it was funny as hell. My teammates saw it too and they all started laughing."

"No, actually, not too long after I left Boulder, I cut it. But right now I am in the process of growing it back out."

"Yeah, easily the Georgia game, not only because of the play I made at the end but just the whole atmosphere with the 1990 National Championship team being there. They came in and talked to us and were around us all week. Then we go out there and we play Georgia and they have A.J. Green and he smokes us for a long pass and he makes that unreal one-handed catch falling back. I still don't know how he got his foot in. It was a battle. Then we make that play in the end where I force the fumble and Jon Major recovered it and we won right there. That was almost like a movie to me when I look back on it."

"Toughest player in practice was definitely 'Speedy,' Rodney Stewart. I liked the way that guy played. He wasn't the biggest but he would try to run you over. Even in practice, his own teammates, he would try to plow you. If he couldn't juke you, he'd just try to knock you out. That is what I loved about him. The toughest player on the field was definitely Russell Okung from Oklahoma State. That guy was athletic, which says why he is still with the Seattle Seahawks. I just remember one play, I slapped him one way thinking that I am going to beat this guy, and he came out of no where and blocked me. I watched it on film and couldn't believe it. He is just a freak athlete."

"That really wasn't that big of an issue on the team. Watching the two of them, it was almost like they tried to avoid being around each other on the field. I don't think that played much of a role in anything, honestly. I am sure it was tough for Cody. I played for my father in high school but I can't imagine dealing with that as a college student. That is all I have to say about that."

"I try to keep up with it as much as I can. It is hard to, though. Their games, if they play early, will kickoff here Sunday morning at three or four. But I will catch games if I have the opportunity. I will try to find a way to stream it on the internet before I go to my games. I am very proud of the school I came from. They've had some tough seasons but I think we are just right there. Watching games last season, it was like one or two more plays and we would have won. Games were so close and it was heart breaking. I was heart broken for the kids on the team because I was in that situation. We were always right there, we just couldn't get it done. I am excited for the new facilities. I think that will help us compete in the Pac-12."

"Yes, and man, I would have loved to play in those. I remember when I was there, we were begging the whole time for black helmets. I think it was the season after I left they had black helmets. I just have to laugh about it. I think that is awesome. Nowadays, the way teams are with new uniforms, it is a good way to recruit. It is good to have all those uniform options for the players and it is a great recruiting tool we can have in our arsenal now."

"I would say they could check out our team website but it is all in Japanese (laughing). They can search on YouTube, 'Obic Seagulls,' and our team posts highlights of the games as we play them."

"No problem, thank you. Go Buffs!"

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