In another installment in our off-season "Catching up with" series, we interviewed Sean Tufts, who played linebacker for the Buffaloes from 2000-03. He still lives in the Denver area with his wife and son.

Sean Tufts: "My dad put a lot of pressure on me right up until signing day and then he donned all the black and gold and totally converted."

"So the rest of my top five was Michigan, Notre Dame, USC, and Tennessee had an outside shot. You mentioned my ACL, the second game of my senior year I tore my knee and had a visit scheduled to Michigan the next day. I obviously learned a lot about the schools and their attitude towards both me and my injury, and how serious they were. Some tailed off after that. Some doubled down and re-committed, and those were the schools I really, really pursued.

"It came down to CU and Michigan. The investment at CU was just too great. I had a great position coach in Brian Cabral, and Jon Embree went to my high school, so there was just a family calling to Boulder. That is what I really responded to."

"Jon started it really heavily because of his ties to Cherry Creek but as soon as I found out the lay of the land and who my position coach would be, who I'd be working with for 30-50 hours a week, that is who I really wanted to talk to most."

"I don't think I would have made any different decisions because I got a lot of valuable experience at that time. My recommendation to kids going through that same decision making process now is, half a year as a 19-year old is much different than a full year as a 22-year old. So I try to always encourage people to get the most of their college career and invest in some of those later years more heavily. Now, you never know what will happen. CU needed me to play and I wanted to play, so it worked out pretty well."

"Yeah, undeniably the best football moment I had was coming off the field in the first quarter of the Nebraska game in 2001 and being up 21-3. I looked at Matt McChesney, shaking and saying, 'Don't jinx this!' For two local guys that had experienced the Colorado-Nebraska rivalry, having watched our team struggle so much with that rivalry, to come out and blow the doors off was truly unrepeatable."

"Nothing was said by Nebraska's players, and the cool part of that game was it was the perfect environment for football. It was a cold November day and you could see everyone's breath. The light was kind of muted, just perfect for a Saturday afternoon. The field had the right feeling, your cleats had the right feeling. It was what a cinematographer should base every football movie and every single shot on. They should base it off that day.

"Our senior class had really, really strong leadership and yeah, there was a confidence with that team. For me, I was still trying to improve myself and taking every snap for what it was worth and trying to make something of it, make a play and help impress some of those leaders. That is where I was mentally, which might be a little different place than you were expecting. But I was still trying to prove myself."

"Certainly our on the field performance showed it. I can't tell you if there was a letdown or not. I know we were all excited to go out to Tempe and play in that game. We were all excited to play Oregon. Now, would we have rather played Miami or Nebraska again? Sure, of course. I truly couldn't tell you if we could do anything different in preparation to change the outcome. I know our guys played hard. The end of the season did kind of trail off on us, and we ended on a sour note, but it was what it was and you can't go back."

"I was very confident that if the ball carrier is in front me, I am going to tackle him and put him down. I felt confident I had range from tackle-to-tackle and sideline-to-sideline. I was much better in the run game than the pass game. As the spread offenses in the Big 12 took hold, I started coming off the field more and more there. So I really loved games like Nebraska, Kansas State, UCLA was fun when they had Maurice Jones-Drew and some other good backs. So I loved those games. Putting a helmet on, strapping it up tight and blowing up a fullback and an offensive guard is why I played football."

"You mentioned 2002 was a rough year for me personally. But it was a good opportunity for me to take some more leadership responsibilities and push through adversity. I broke my wrist, I had that ankle sprain, I had a dinged up shoulder. It was an awful year for me personally. But those things happen and proving you can come back from injury is part of this game. If you are a carpenter, you expect to get splinters. If you are a football player, you better expect some injuries. That is just the nature of the game. Luckily I had a good supporting cast around me and some friends to pick me up and help me get through that time. I do remember some great wins on that team. We beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl. We beat Nebraska, we beat Oklahoma, we beat a couple ranked teams and played in the Big 12 Championship game and cemented that 2001 wasn't a fluke. We had a good core group of players."

"Yeah, as I got older, I definitely matured more as a player and became much more complete and more confident. Unfortunately our team, myself included, we didn't quite click. We didn't find that same success we had in '01 and '02. But again, it was a learning experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world."

"Yeah, I had some bad mechanics in that knee with all the injuries and surgeries. I have had four total surgeries now. The way it sat on the knee joint, it just kind of rubbed one area raw. The only time it would get hurt and I would feel pain in it when I was with the Panthers was when I turned left. When I turned left, the flap of cartilage would open up and go bone to bone in my knee and I would just crumble. For the last three games of the 2005 season, we played a wildcard playoff game, a divisional playoff game and in the NFC Championship game, and for those last three games, I couldn't go left. I would try to shuffle left or do anything to try and turn and pivot on that knee and keep myself upright. There were some funny stories of me wearing baggy pants just to hide that it was swollen. Looking back on it, if I would have gotten it taken care of right at the beginning when I started feeling that pain, maybe it would have turned out different. But as it was, it did end my career."

"I talked to Matt Russell, who is a former great Buff and now he is with the Denver Broncos. At the time he was a scout for the Patriots. I asked him to shoot me straight. He was my G.A. when I was a freshman at CU. I asked him, 'What am I looking at here?' He said, 'Dude, you have one year and once your tape is more than a year old, you are pretty much out, unless you are a special, irreplaceable athlete.' But even some of those guys are seeing that same pressure. JaMarcus Russell ran into the same problem. He was out of football for a year and he can't get a workout. So after my injury, I gave it a good solid year to come back. I was in great shape, my knee was feeling good, I had regained my speed and some other things. But no teams called. So at that point the writing is on the wall.

"Actually, I need to correct myself. The Dallas Cowboys did call. They called me on Christmas eve. They told me, 'Hey, pack a big bag because late Christmas day we are going to fly you out to Dallas, sign you to a contract. We have three games left, we're pushing for a playoff appearance, you are going to play.' So I go home and buy my mom a Christmas star for the tree, we start working with my girlfriend, my wife now, on moving down to Dallas. They never called. No plane ticket. No agenda. No bus ticket. We start calling them and four days later it turns out they signed another linebacker. They ended up calling three people on Christmas eve and their first choice obviously took the deal. That is just the business of football and how it does truly change from something you do with your buddies, a past time that you love, and evolves into a multi-billion dollar business."

"Actually I had bad experiences with both. My first time running behind Ralphie, my first game as a freshman, I had some steel tipped cleats on and I was following all the players to the Colorado ramp, the big concrete ramp in the end zone, and I ate it and wiped out like three or four other players. I'll never forget John Donahoe screaming at me to figure out what I was doing in not so kind terms. And then the Georgia game, I was running with Ralphie so I was holding the back rope, the loop rope, to try to slow her down. When we went from the turf to the grass, I did the splits and tried to hold it, and as I was holding Ralphie, she catapulted me about 20 yards into the coolers. I wiped out their whole bench. So I have had experiences with both but both were absolutely fun and irreplaceable memories. When else do you get an opportunity to put a rope on a buffalo and run around? It was a fun opportunity and it honestly paid some dividends with my career. Going back to Boulder and showing the community I was serious about academics and handling Ralphie was a good way to propel that. It was a good news story, got people interested in what I was doing again. It was a good choice for me."

"Chasing down a running back is definitely a bigger payoff because when you pop him and knock him three yards out of bounds, there is nothing like that. Running Ralphie and sealing her back up in her pen and getting that big buffalo safe and keeping a big crowd of 50,000 people safe is a big calming feeling actually, rather than an excitement. Two very different experiences."

"There are four practices a week, two workouts and two live practices with Ralphie out on the soccer fields where you'd do a couple loops. So I would be in the middle of an MBA class, in the middle of some type of corporate finance class, and I'd raise my hand and leave class and return two hours later smelling like buffalo chips and sweat. My classmates were always trying to figure out where I was going until finally one day I told them. They were like, 'Wait a minute, you can do that?'"

"Ralphie's location is kept secret. I can tell you it is close to Boulder. They had a couple vandalism problems in the '50s. Oklahoma State shaved their logo into her. I have to tell you, I have been around that buffalo a lot and I would not feel comfortable standing next to her with a pair of pruning scissors that is for sure. And somebody else spray painted her blue or something one time. So, yeah, we keep her under lock and key and have a secret location. It only gets revealed to you after you have run with her once. You have to go to a practice, successfully complete the loop and then they'll tell you the address and work with you to go pick her up and clean her pen and stuff like that."

"At the time I was doing wind farm development, so I was putting together all the land and working with XCel energy to put up and buy a utility scale wind farm. I had a good nitch there because I had put together my own company and obviously had a good story coming out of football and doing something positive for the community that I got hired by a bigger company. And then recently I went to work for General Electric so I am a Global Key Account Manager for two of our big General Electric customers."

"Yeah. Actually, most of the people I really keep in touch with are doing really great things in their life. I think the outside community really gives football a bad rap. I can tell you that student-athletes are motivated. They are motivated on the field and in the classroom and following that experience, they are great employees. Once you get them out and give them some tangible skills in the workplace, all that teamwork comes right back into play. All those leadership qualities come right back into play. A standard kid out of a fraternity might have some leadership skills, but it is nothing like the PhD you get while you are a student-athlete. It is a much different person that comes out, a much more mature person after balancing football and academics. Sam Wilder is working for a big company. He is working for Stryker Orthopaedics, doing some great sales work for them. Matt McChesney opened up his own gym and trains hundreds of young football players, and teaches them not only about football but also life skills. There are probably 50 or 60 guys that are doing great things. I just saw Vince Reed, one of our running backs, and he started a business and is doing great things. I think the prep that student-athletes get is irreplaceable."

"Yeah, my wife played soccer for the Buffs in 2003, my senior year, then she played a couple years at Harvard. And actually, we have had two pick up soccer games which almost ended our marriage because I beat her both times. She is just as competitive as me. She claims she is faster but I don't believe it."

"I am in Boulder about once a month and then every single game day."

"I like 'Mac.' I like him a lot. I think he comes from the right place in his heart to be a coach. He really truly loves it, and loves educating the kids and teaching them not just Xs and Os but other life skills. I think at this point in Boulder, the administration, the leadership on campus has matched goals with the athletic program. I think that is a critical component of being successful. Athletics is a good window and advertisement for your University, so if we can do great things together, it is obviously much more impactful. I know [President] Bruce Benson and [Chancellor Phil] DiStefano, and all the leadership, have really backed Coach MacIntyre. I think that is helping. You see it in the facilities. It is, for a lack of a better term, a spending game to some degree. You have to show recruits and everybody that you have a commitment to athletics. We have now done that. That Champions Center should be a good capstone to that commitment."

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