Below is a transcript of Mike MacIntyre's comments to the print media at Pac-12 Media Days on Thursday. Some questions directed to the Buffaloes' head coach were more intelligent and insightful than others:

Coach MacIntyre: "Yeah, it was. It

was interesting. When I came to CU,

everybody would come up and say I just want to

see a full football game. I want to see a

competition in the Pac-12, and we did that last

year. We left a lot of games on the table, so to

speak. Very frustrating. But our young men were

very young, and just an example of our

quarterback, he's played a lot of games now. He's

set 51 school records last year, and we only won

two games.

"So our whole team is maturing and doing

that. They are hungry about finishing. I think just

all the guys we have back have played a lot.

They've been in those situations. We had quite a

few injuries last year, so even our back-ups have

played a significant amount of plays. In our

conference with all the great teams and us playing

13 games straight, we're going to need all of them.

So we'll win a lot of those close games we lost last

year."

"We move into our

football facility tomorrow, our overall athletic

department, and new champions center into the

football area of it, a $156 million complex. So we

have commitment from our president, Chancellor,

AD, all the way down. I feel like you can feel the

surge of it. I really do. It's not just me saying that.

There are a lot of people around our program. So

I'm excited about this fall and getting out there and

getting it rolling."

"Well, our personal

challenge is for our young men to trust each other

in the fourth quarter. We were ahead of a lot of

games at halftime. The year before that wasn't the

case, and against very good football teams, highly

ranked football teams with excellent players and

excellent coaches. So our job is to finish the fourth

quarter and trust each other in that heat of battle,

and just execute your job. Those are the things

we've been talking about.

"When you've been there before you can

kind of relax and do that. The maturation process

of a team, especially where we were with all the

young guys playing, when you're a freshman,

you're kind of just glad to be there and be on the

team. As a sophomore, you kind of start playing,

but you're glad you're playing a lot. You're glad

you're starting. Now it's kind of like I'm tired of just

playing. I want to win, I want to be successful. I've

seen that in them. I've seen their attitude and work

ethic change. I've seen the overall maturity of our

football team. If you've seen these guys, I mean,

Stephane and Kenneth are a great example."

"Well, we're playing

13 games because we were playing Hawaii."

"The way the

calendar falls we have 13 in a row. We picked up

another game. We need to create some more

revenue, so we get another home game, so it puts

money in our budget and everything else as we're

building our program. So we're going to play 13

straight. There are a bunch of teams that play 12

straight. Either they had the last game off or third

game off. I don't like bye weeks anyway. So

hopefully we'll stay healthy and keep playing, so

we can kick our stride and keep the momentum

going. But it is 13 straight."

"I think we're better

prepared because we have more depth that's

played games. So if we have an injury that

happens, it won't devastate us as much because a

lot of those kids have already played. Ryan

Moeller, for example, has played in four or five

games as the main safety. Now he'll be competing

for starter or back-up, and the other guys have all

started. So we're deeper at all our different spots.

Even our offensive line is maturing and gelling with

more back-ups which will help us."

"Yeah, the good

thing about playing Hawaii the opening game, both

teams will be excited and all of that, but you're not

in the middle of your season and it wears you out

for the rest of the time. We're playing them on

Thursday night."

"Yes. So we'll fly

out Tuesday, play them on Thursday, and we

come back and land at noon on Friday. Well, we

have time to recover if before the next week. It's

not like you play Saturday night and land Sunday

at noon, and you're trying to get ready to go

Monday.

"So I think the way we have it scheduled

will be beneficial to us. But Hawaii has a new

quarterback in Wittek from USC who is really a

good player. They play really well what they call

the rock. They play well on the rock, so it's going

to be a tough game for us, but we expect to win

every game, so we need to start out doing that."

"They have a new

defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator.

So we'll look at tape where they've been before,

and put in our defense and offense, and it should

be able to handle anything. They're kind of the

same way too. We've kind of made a few

changes, so it will be a chess match probably early

a little bit."

"No, we're going to

look at him at both sides of the ball early in camp

and find out where he would fit the best to help us

this year. He's got so much speed and athleticism.

Hopefully he's ready to do that. So we're kind of

giving him an option. We talked about the it the

other day, myself and him. And he's all up for

doing that."

"I'm giving him the

best opportunity to try to play as a freshman with

his speed and athleticism. So if he could help us

quickly at receiver or at corner or that enables us

to do what he can do on special teams, that's what

we'll do. So I give all the freshmen a chance to

play. Hopefully we don't have to play a ton of

them.

"But the better I can give them opportunities

to what they feel most comfortable at coming out of

high school, we'll get them on the field quicker and

be able to help us quicker."

"The biggest

challenge in recruiting in this conference? Well,

great question. I think that the league is so good.

I think the positive recruiting in this conference is

there are so many people that want to play in the

Pac-12. There are a lot of kids in the south now

that want to play in the Pac-12, the brand of it, the

type of football, the type of energy and throwing

the ball all around, that type of thing. But the hard

thing is the conference is so good right now. Is

everybody's good; and we're at the bottom of it

right now. In our division, the Pac-12 south,

everybody's ranked in the top 25.

"So when we beat a couple of those, we'll

jump to the top 25. I just think the conference is

recruiting for itself in a way, but every team is

making gains the way I see it."

"Sefo's

development is going well. He got thrown into the

fire as a freshman. Last year he played well. We

had a few mistakes here and there, but a lot of that

wasn't really all Sefo's fault. We weren't very good

on defense. We had to keep putting pressure on

him offensively to keep moving the ball down the

field, keep trying to score to stay in the games.

This year will be better on defense. He's more

mature. Our lines are more mature. Our running

backs are more mature. So I feel like we

won't have to put as much pressure on him. I still

feel like he'll have all the great numbers he has,

and he's an excellent leader. He's 6'4 and a

quarter. He's 240 pounds. He has a good arm.

He's a good leader, and he's extremely tough. He

has the ability to escape in the pocket. He's not a

scrambler, but he has the ability to stay alive and

make plays. He started running the ball a lot last

year. He's in better shape and better running

capabilities this year right now than he was last

year. So I see him coming along good. I think

after this year's over, everybody will say he's one

of the best junior quarterbacks in America. I really

do."

"Yeah, for some

reason Nelson had Sefo move into his apartment,

so he could throw it to him more. No, they're really

close. They work hard all the time. They're

together. They're young men that you never, ever,

ever have to worry about, ever. Work ethics,

school, what they're doing, how they're studying.

And Sefo and Nelson have a good timing

relationship. Nelson's bright. We can move him all

over the place when they start trying to key on him,

because he's an excellent player. So I see a good

relationship with those two guys."

"I realized when

Nelson was a junior in high school, because I tried

to recruit him to San Jose State, but he didn't

come. So I've known about the family and all that.

His dad's a great inspiration to Nelson, and follows

him closely and a really good man. Really like his

dad."

A family of Vanderbilt people, we all

"Yeah, he's

hanging in there. The MS has taken a toll on my

dad's body. But he's living in Nashville still. He's

out at the Bellevue area at the Meadows."

"No, we recruit

Colorado hard, but we recruit California extremely

hard. We have a lot of connections there from the

past and from our coaching staff now and from our

players on our team. The biggest group of players

on our team is from California. Then in our student

body there are about 15 to 20% of the students at

CU are from California. So we are working that

pipeline. Playing in the Pac-12 has even

increased that more."

"Oh, yeah, there

are a lot of favorite aspects. I think the players'

favorite aspect will be the players lounge. It's

7,000 square feet. We have Gatorade machines in

there and a little eating area, and a barber shop,

and a 15-seat theater, and we have a pool table

and Ping-Pong table. I think there are six or seven

different televisions in there that they can play all

different games and watch all different things. It's

a place away from home that they'll relax and hang

out in. So I'm really excited about that. There are

tons of other features.

"One of the cool things for a football coach

is for preparing a team and keeping a team moving

in the right direction during the off-season and

during the season. Our weight room is about

12,000 square feet, but it connects right to our

indoor. In our indoor you can open up the glass. It

has a six-lane track around it. You have a full

indoor and an 85-foot ceiling, so that turns into the

whole weight room, and the whole ability to keep

evolving our program. So I'm excited about that

feature."

"I haven't said that

to them that much. All I tell them as we walked

up -- I walked to school back and forth in the snow

in a hundred degree weather every day

barefooted. That's what I tell them."

"I expect us to win

this year. I really do. I think we're right there, and

definitely could have won a few last year and didn't

do it. I feel like our team has matured to that spot.

Being a junior sophomore team, they've been

there. The next year they'll probably have the

biggest junior-senior class they've had, and one of

the biggest in the history of the school. That's how you develop a program. You

have to build it and develop it. We'll be able to

red-shirt more kids the next year, and we just keep

the cycle going to develop. So I see us being able

to win a lot of the close games this year, and do

better the next year."

"Well, the CSU

series, the way I understand it ends in '20. Then I

don't know when it's going to go back together,

because I know we scheduled Air Force which

everybody wanted in the state to do. With us

playing nine conference games, which is a great

thing because I think all the major conferences

should play nine and play a championship, period,

it limits the amount of teams we can play out of

conference. If you played eight, you could do that

more.

"So we're a little bit stuck in the scheduling

there on that. But I don't know when it will

kickback again, but I know it goes to '20. I'm

worried about our first game, our second game. I

think about the CSU game every day since we lost

last year, so that's going to be a fun game for all of

us."

"Yeah, the players

do like playing in Denver. I think both sets of fans

like it, but I think both sets of fans would rather

have it on their home field, I think. But our players

really love playing in the Broncos' Stadium, and I'm

pretty sure CSU's players do too."

"Both. We want to

do both. We want to keep improving our record,

and we want to beat everybody we play. There

are so many good football teams. I think it's a

great conference and we'll have opportunities to do

that, week-in and week-out, beat some really good

teams."

"Yeah, I think all

teams are confident this time of the year. You are.

Everybody's healthy. You're excited. But I think

with our team maturing, going from teenagers to

20-year-olds, going from can we compete with

these guys, knowing they can't compete with them,

now they want to. They've got the feeling, hey,

can they beat us?

"We can beat everybody now is the way

they feel. I've had a lot of conversations with

kids -- the kids coming up to me and talking about

it. Seeing their work ethic, and hearing the things

they're saying when they're running and working

out, and the way they're pushing themselves. It's a

whole different level of accountability. When you

have that rise in accountability, they feel the

standards are have risen, and I see that."

"Right. This south

division is no doubt about it has gotten better and

better. There are a lot of good players and a lot of

good coaches. So when you do accomplish some

things in that south division, you really have made

a hugely, not just a little leap, a huge leap. I think

that's a big measuring stick for us."

"On a short week

thank goodness we don't have to travel. It makes

it harder when you're traveling on a short week.

We'll look at our team when we get to that spot

because I'll cut practice back as the season goes

along. On a short week that might be a week you

don't go in pads much if you're beat up a little bit.

You just look at your team and evaluate it on

Monday, get with a trainer, get with the guys, see

where you fit, kind of watch their vibe and you'll

have to make that call. If you decided it right now,

you might have a situation that's not the same at

that time. But definitely you're a day shorter in

practice, so you'll have one less practice and one

less pad type situation."

"Yeah, Sonny's an

excellent coach. Gary's an excellent coach. They

did a great job in the WAC, and I think they're both

excellent coaches. We see each other Media

Days there. And Sonny and I, his dad was a

coach, my dad was a coach, so there are a lot of

connections there. Gary, I really respect Gary and

what he does. He's an excellent football coach."

"Yeah, I guess so.

It's kind of funny, it really is. It's good seeing them,

but we both definitely on every Saturday we play

each other, we want to beat each other. But I think

we all respect each other well."

"I think the biggest

difference is the Pac-12 each week on both sides

is really a battle. We play in the Pac-12 south,

everybody knows. Well, two of the teams that

cross over to play us are Stanford and Oregon.

So seven of the nine teams we play next year right

now going into the season are ranked in the top

25. I think four of them are in the top 12.

So it's that caliber you play week-in and

week-out. There is truly not even a breather. You

can hardly breathe. You've got to keep pushing.

But that's exciting to me. It's exciting to our

coaches and our players. We came here to play

against the best and beat the best, so that's what

we plan on doing."

"Yeah, we made up

that game with Charleston Southern, but you had

to pay -- it did hit a little bit. And then the Nichols

State game was a way to add more revenue too."

"Yes, Addison did

get sick last year. He got hurt last year. It was

kind of like a perfect storm for him. He's had a

really good summer, gained his weight back, got

the smile back on his face, stayed healthy. He'll

have a better year than he did as a freshman. He'll

be, I think, a Pac-12 performer. I really do think

he's that type of guy. So I'm excited about seeing

him back on the field, so I would say Addison is

back."

"Yeah, Stephane

learning the playbook and everything, he's an

amazing young man. All he's had to do and

overcome to excel in college, excel on the football

field. He's truly an example of improving and

working hard every day. Communication and

understanding the terminology in football, it's like a

whole new language. He knows 13, I would say

he knows 14 languages now. Just learning all of

that and watching him grow and how hard he's

worked. The first year he was there, he would say

I'm playing football to get my education.

The second year about the second game

he came to me and I could see a whole new look

in his eyes. He loved playing football. He said I

can excel at this. So he kept improving last year.

Then this year you're going to look out there and

see a beast. He'll play for a while in the NFL and

then he'll go there with his degree and go back and

help Cameroon and be a success. He's an

amazing story.

"I think one of the things that college

football is all about is how much he's improved and

what he's done with his life."

"Right. Losing

Josh is tough. He's a good football player. But

one good thing for us is we sign quite a few guys in

our signing class. Three of them are junior college

linemen that were coming in. Then we red-shirted

some linemen last year, and we have Justin Solis

and Eddy Lopez who played last year.

"So I feel good about all of those guys

being able to play and improve. If we wouldn't

have gotten the junior college guys and all that

type of stuff, we'd be in a little bit more of a hurt.

But Josh is a good player. We hate to have him

not out there. But I feel like those other guys will

be able to take up some slack."

"Right. I think that

is the key. I really do. I think the way we improve

on defense this year, I don't know if we can jump

from there to 37th. But if we can jump and stop

teams in the scoring defense, be able to, when we

get ahead, keep the lead and not just give up big

plays, that our improvement will be the difference

in our team this year. That to me, you're exactly

right. We need -- national statistics, we need to

improve our scoring defense. In the other area

that we can drastically help our team, and I believe

we can, and it comes on defense, we didn't cause

enough turnovers last year. And you've heard me

talk about that a lot. But now that we're bigger

and stronger, we'll knock more balls loose. Now

that we have more experience on the back end,

they'll make more plays on the ball. So we had

three interceptions last year. We had a few called

back that were picked off that they were called

back. We had a ton that we could have caught. If

we could just move that from three to eight and go

from 15 interceptions to 10, we've changed our

record dramatically. So we've got to do that."

"Yes, there will be

some changes. We've gotten together and worked

on it. He has a great expertise. Then bringing in

Joe Tumpkin in that was a defensive coordinator at

Central Michigan. We have two defensive

coordinator type guys. It's going to be good.

Studying our league and looking at our league and

how our league plays. It's a little different. I'm

excited about what we're doing and how we're

going to do it."

"Yeah, I am. I'm

comfortable with the way we're doing everything.

In all the games there are different situations that

happen, and you just hope certain situations don't

happen to you that cause the outcome of a game.

But I am pleased with how we're doing with

everything there within the Pac-12. Everybody's

working at it hard."

"I think they're just

trying to be more transparent on that. I think it's a

good thing. I think it's a good idea on that. I think

it's just being more transparent in what you see

and how it's done."

"Yes, he has."

"I think Stephane's

gained 15 to 18 pounds since the season was over

of really good weight. If he took his shirt off, he

doesn't have an ounce of fat. Kind of like Kyle [Ringo], not

an ounce of fat on him. So he's really improved

and done well. Our whole team is like that, really.

It's exciting to see all the numbers that we've

increased in the weight room and what we've

done. That is one of the reasons we practiced

spring practice early, so we have a lot of lifting

cycle. At that stage I thought that was extremely

important to do."

"We can't do the

exact same thing we were doing, so we've

changed it up. We'll be a little bit more multiple,

but you can't do too much either, because if you do

too much, the kids are just standing there and not

running to the football and reacting. So we've

adapted the playbook more to be able to stop a lot

of the Pac-12 offenses."

"Yeah, we based a

nickel most of our games because you can't

substitute. Most of the time there is ten personnel,

I call it four wide receivers, eleven personnel guys,

a tight end that plays wide receiver and might go

back in the back field.

So to be able to match up with that, you

really have to stay in a nickel-type principle. Now

there are some teams we play that they're not

playing as much four-wide or eleven, and you

won't see as much nickel."

"Exactly. Most of

them are wide open, but you have a few that

aren't."

"No, there won't.

One of the reasons I decided to do spring practice

that way, and two, the NCAA new rule change

where we could meet with the kids two hours a

week after spring practice is over and in the

summer.

"So we've been doing that and showing

them the tape of the spring and prospects of what

we're going to do and film from other teams that

we've added in. So therefore we meet, go over it,

talk. Then our kids went out and did their

player-led practices and able to do all that.

Without that rule, I would have done it different.

But with that rule, we were able to take advantage

of the strength side we needed. And being able to

meet on all that, we kept it fresh in their minds and

kept going over it, so it was like it was there."

"He has great

expertise, number one. Number two, he has great

passion and energy; and number three, he's a

grinder. He works at it hard. So he's been with

our defensive staff meeting a lot, with me, and then

he's had those -- we were able to meet two hours a

week with the kids and he's been able to do that. I

think his overall energy and expertise and effort,

the combination of the whole has been exciting for

us."

"Right."

"Yeah, I agree with

you. But the way the NCAA rules are, we can only

meet with them so much. So that doesn't affect

him. No, I'm just saying that he's not going to

leave any stone unturned. He's going to make

sure, if, for example, I learn a certain way and you

learn a certain way and we're not getting it, he's

going to find a way to make sure we're going to

figure it out. He's not just going to say well, he

doesn't get it.

Also, as a staff they're going everything

fine-tooth comb, really great attention to detail.

You can't do enough of that."

"It's good. Jim was

at Kansas State, and they helped turn that

program around. He started the program from

South Florida from scratch. So both of those he's

been kind of where we are right now. So when we

talk about different things, he can give examples.

So I listen intently to it. I like all of our stuff. I don't

want yes men on our staff. I want guys that bring

things up over and over and over, and they do,

then I have to decipher where we go from there.

So he brings another expertise that's been there

and done it."

You guys, I think your program has

"All of those guys

are going to play a ton, and all of them are really

good athletes. We have a recruiter up there,

Klayton Adams that's from Sacramento. Played at

ARC, played at Boise, and coached at Sacramento

State and coached for me at San Jose. We had

recruited that area for a long time, and we have a

lot of connections. So we know a lot of coaches.

We know a lot of people. All of those young men

are really good players.

So we'll keep recruiting the Sacramento

area hard. There are some really good football

players up there. So that is part of our connection."

"Yeah, we're

looking in there. But we're spending a little bit

more time in Arizona, California, Texas, and that

area because of proximity of the team for playing.

So it makes it a little bit easier to get them. But

there are definitely good players in Las Vegas.

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