Colorado Buffaloes: Was 2016 a Fluke?

San Jose State is not a destination football coaching job. I am not trying to slam the Spartans of San Jose State. Spartans is a great name and the San Jose area is not bad. But, it’s just not a school that a young coach sets as his dream job. Dream destinations are schools like USC, Alabama, Texas, Michigan, Ohio State and schools along those lines that get the publicity and they pay the big bucks. It could be any school in any of the power 5 conferences. But, you probably won’t hear anyone say that they have always wanted to be the head coach at San Jose State.

Dick Tomey is one of my favorite all time coaches. Tomey was the head coach at Arizona for 14 years and his 1993 Wildcats were one of my all time favorite teams to watch. The Desert Swarm defense was so dominating and they lived up to their name by swarming all over opponents. I’ll never forget that Fiesta Bowl game after the 1993 season when they tore the Miami Hurricanes a new one, whatever that means. The dreaded Desert Swarm will always live on in my memory and I thank Dick Tomey for that.

He led the Wildcats to 12-1 and 10-2 seasons which is hard to accomplish in Tucson.

At San Jose State, later on in his career, he stumbled to a 25-35 record in 5 seasons. But, the Spartans finished 9-4 in 2006, yet Dick Tomey could not led them to any better.

Mike MacIntyre succeeded Tomey at San Jose State and it was his first head coaching gig. An assistant coach for several years, MacIntyre was hired by the Dallas Cowboys to coach the secondary. The Big Tuna, Bill Parcells, was hired as the head coach of the Cowboys and he hired MacIntyre. When Parcells resigned as the Cowboys coach, MacIntyre moved on to the New York Jets and after one year was hired as the Defensive Coordinator for Duke.

MacIntyre’s Spartans went 1-12 during his first season there in 2010. They improved to 5-7 the following season, but then the 2012 season was the best in San Jose State football history.

Floundering Colorado needed new direction. They needed somebody that could turn a program around. Since Nick Saban and Urban Meyer weren’t available, they were interested in Mike MacIntyre.

MacIntyre took over a team that had been steadily in decline. The Buffaloes were 1-11 when he took over.

MacIntyre took over the Colorado program knowing fully well what he was walking into and his first season was 4-8 which was somewhat promising. But, the wheels came off in 2014 with a miserable 2-10 record. In 2015, the Buffaloes improved to 4-9.

But, nobody expected what we saw in 2016. Personally, I expected them to be improved, but not 10-4 type improved. Faith    Great start

Even though the 2016 version of the Colorado Buffaloes was much improved, the ending of the season left a bad taste in the mouth of the Colorado coaches and players. They ended with a big loss to Washington in the Pac 12 Championship game and another beating in the Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma State. 10-4 is good, but there is much work remaining, including replacing a 4 year starter at Quarterback and their best player on defense.

Sefo Liufau is gone at Quarterback and Steven Montez will replace him. The 6-5, 225 redshirt

freshman from El Paso played well when replacing Liufau last season except against Washington. Montez threw for 1,078 yards and ran for 231 yards mostly in two games when replacing the injured Liufau.

Can Montez be consistent in 2017 and can he show the leadership skills necessary to lead the offense? That, we will find out in a few short months. Well, they are long months for hungry football fans.

Montez supposedly has an unmatched work ethic which should pay off in 2017.
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Working for the young Quarterback’s advantage is the return of some excellent talent.

The Buffs have been working hard on their Offensive Line for the past few years and they return solid starters Jeromy Irwin, Gerrad Kough, Tim Lynott and Aaron Haigler. Lynott and Haigler were redshirt freshmen last season.

Running Back Phillip Lindsay ran for 1,252 yards last season and he returns for his senior season.

But, the greatest and most exciting element of the Buffaloes’ offense that is returning is the Wide Receivers.

They call Shay Fields ‘Big Play Shay’ for a reason, but their big play guy didn’t catch as many passes as Devin Ross who came down with 69. Fields himself caught 54 and took 9 of those into the End Zone. Bryce Bobo is really good, as well. Don’t count out the coach’s son just because he is family, the kid can play. Jay MacIntyre has a lot of heart and can make the tough catch.

Watch out for Johnny Huntley III from Plantation, Florida who only caught 1 pass last season as a freshman. He is 6-3, 210 and he looks like he could be big time in the future, maybe even this season. But, the most exciting one of all maybe last year’s Junior College transfer Kabion Ento. He came in last season and didn’t have a good grasp of what was going on and he only caught 8 passes, but they went for a 21.75 average per catch and 2 Touchdowns. Ento can hit 40 inches in his vertical, so it is said and he can run the 40 in leass than 4.4 seconds, also supposedly. He is also 6-3, 180.

The Defense, on the other hand, could be trouble. Not only did they lose their top player, but they

also lost their Defensive Coordinator to Oregon and new coach Willie Taggart.

MacIntrye hired Kentucky Defensive Coordinator D.J. Eliot to take his place. Eliot will have to replace 8 starters including Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, who could be a fairly early pick in the NFL Draft.

I have a lot of faith in Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre. His Buffaloes had the first Spring Game of any team in the country and he had clever reasons for doing so.

They have great indoor facilities at Colorado now and the weather was not a factor. He also didn’t want to break up the practices around Spring Break like everyone else does. All across the nation, the complaints were the practice right after Spring Break was almost a waste. MacIntyre wished to avoid that. He didn’t want to interfere with finals, plus the injured players would have another 6 weeks to heal before the season.

If you have the Pac 12 Network, you also probably saw the interview. But, thinking of things that nobody else did is what makes a coach rise above.

Mike MacIntyre may never win a national championship at Colorado, but I believe the team will be competitive as long as he remains their head coach.

Unfortunately, we still have about 5 months to go till college football is upon us.

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