College Football’s Coach of the Year Leads by Example

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre took a perennial losing program and transformed the Buffaloes back into a national contender - when Mike was named College Football’s 2016 Coach of the Year! Fitting that his rebuild in Boulder, began from rubble!

Question: “Coach, give me that recruiting pitch you give to play here at the University of Colorado.”                           

Coach MacIntyre: “Number one, it’s just a special place. It’s been voted the most beautiful campus in America multiple times. You have an unbelievable outdoor setting. I call it the ultimate college experience, you have a small town with everything, but we’re only 23 miles from downtown Denver. And it’s a, you know, a nationally known university that has a lot of pride and a lot of prestige.”                        

Question: “College football faces that constant turnover of roster. You are a program builder; how do you perfect something that’s so fluid?”                                                   

Coach MacIntyre:  “It’s very hard. And I learned a little bit of that from being in the pros with Bill Parcells and how he managed a roster, cuz it turns over more than it used to. You have to always recruit, you have to look at who your juniors are, not just your seniors that are leaving, you’re replacing really your juniors. We have to manage our roster that way of recruiting.”

Question: “Every very head coach has to father. But, specific to you, Coach Mike, how do you father players?”  

Coach MacIntyre: “A great, great question. First of all, my belief in Jesus Christ is most important thing in my life. What I do to be able to father correctly is to spend time in the mornings by myself to get my heart, my soul, my mind - correct. To be able to handle the situations and handle the young men like I would my son. It’s loving them where they are, helping them to move and achieve. And when they’re 30, what are they doing then? Are they a husband that stays true? Are they a father that never leaves? Are they a businessman that can be counted on in whatever they do! I think that really guides me in a better principle.”          

Question: “What is adversity’s greatest gain?”    

Coach MacIntyre: “That’s when the true growth happens. Comfort is not where you grow. You grow in conflict, easy to say but hard to do.  Adversity’s greatest gain is I grow closer to Christ and still understand that God’s in control and He always knows my situation. It’s not too big for Him. And He has a plan for me. But sometimes the plan’s not exactly what I want. But the plan is hopefully, to influence other people for eternity as they watch me go through that situation.”       

Question: “You’re a recipient of multiple coach of the year awards. In the back of your mind, doing this as long as you have, does it validate my program can work here?”      

Coach MacIntyre: “You always have those moments when you’re sitting in there by yourself, is it going to happen? The individual awards were nice. There’s no doubt about that. But at the same time, that means our team did really well. And that means that those young men are buying in, becoming one. They’re understanding what it’s all about. It meant a lot to me because my dad won some of those same awards. And we’re the first father/son to ever win that. And with my dad dying in the same year I won all those, it kind of was a validation ‘hey dad, thanks for showing me Christ and showing me what the right way to try to do things.’”        

Question: “On game days, with cameras on you, they’ll cut to you on the sideline. We can feel the pressure and the stress. What anchors you in that moment?”   

Coach MacIntyre: “I haven’t always handled them all right. But it’s not wrong to show your emotions in the right way. I have a passion for our players, I have a passion for the game. I carry a coin in my pocket. It’s my father’s coin when he won the Bobby Dodd award and now I have one, which is pretty cool. I just kind of take it and rub it when I –it’s kind of my count to ten, kind of calm me down situation. It’s not a good luck charm; it’s for situations like that.”   

Question: “You are an ambassador for an academic institution. You’re also very outspoken with deep convictions. When do they conflict? When do they complement?”

Coach MacIntyre: “Wow, that’s a great question. There’s a lot of rules and laws that I follow that our country has set up in the universities. So I definitely follow those. But, I can still be who I am. Still say where my faith, my trust, my inspiration comes from. We still have this freedom of speech on that side of that! So there are some conflicting situations there. But at the same time, it still goes back to my faith and who I am in Jesus Christ and not who I am - Mike MacIntyre - but who I am in Jesus Christ.”

Question: “Where do you get your identity and approval from in the face of constant taunting and second guessing?”  

Coach MacIntyre: “I fight that often, I really do, because I want to be successful and I want our kids to be successful. And I want to do well and I want to make other people that believe in me proud and happy and I want people to walk out of the stadium with a smile. You want people to kind of appreciate you and that’s the human side of it.  But my true identity, when the rubber meets the road, comes from my relationship with Jesus Christ and to know that He loves me no matter what.”