New CU Coach Mike MacIntyre Has Long 'To Do' List
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Spring football practices opened up for the University of Colorado Buffaloes on Thursday and new head coach Mike MacIntyre has a litany of items on his "to do" list.
MacIntyre must solidify the defense, find a quarterback, change the offense, and basically oversee the largest rebuilding project in school history.
How does a new coach turnaround a program that's hit rock bottom? Where do you start?
"The main mantra we need to learn out there is the effort, the attitude, all of the intangibles, which I call the big things. They're not little things, they're big things," MacIntyre said. "If you don't have those, you're going to get any of the others. So we're starting from square one on that."
The other thing the Buffs will be working hard at is finding a quarterback. They haven't had an NFL-caliber quarterback since Koy Detmer in the mid-1990s.
"(The quarterback) is extremely important, but you've got to build to his strengths," MacIntyre said. "So whoever we figure out is that best player for that position, we need to build around his strengths."
When people think of the pistol, they think of Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers -- a true duel threat. But at San Jose State last year, MacIntrye's quarterback wasn't a runner. David Fales ran for negative 139 yards, but he threw for 4,200.
"If our quarterback is a better runner than a passer, then we'll do more emphasis on the run … If he's a better passer than he is a runner, then we'll find different ways to run it and more passing. It just depends on what that guy is."
Time will tell if that dynamic quarterback is on campus, but the coach doesn't sound like a guy who is willing to wait very long.
MacIntyre hopes he can have the Buffs competitive in his first season as coach.
"I hope the very first game. I would hope we would be competitive from the first game on," he said. "That's what our goal is, that's what we'd like to do, and we've got to find a way to be able to do that."
