CU football coach Mike MacIntyre (Denver Post file)
BOULDER — In light of the mix up by a last weekend in the loss to UCLA, Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre was asked Monday how he preps his captains to avoid that kind of mistake.
Texas won the toss. But when asked for his choice, the Texas captain replied that the Longhorns wanted to kick off. That meant that Texas accepted the choice for the first half and elected to kick. Of course, UCLA had the choice for the second half and elected to receive. So Texas had to kick off to start both halves.
What the Texas captain should have done was elect to defer the choice to the second half. In that case, the Longhorns would have chosen to receive to begin the third quarter.
MacIntyre said his captains are coached to avoid any confusion during the coin toss.
“I tell our captains exactly what I want,” MacIntyre said. “I go to one of them and say, ‘You’re the one who is talking (during the coin toss), and you’re the only one that’s talking.
“I tell them if I want the ball. I ask our kicker which way we’d want to kick. I also tell the referee what we want to do. We prep all that. We go over it. There’s no doubt about it.”
MacIntyre said he experienced the same oddity as Texas, having to kick off to start both halves.
“I had a kid do that at Temple (while MacIntyre was an assistant coach there),” MacIntyre said. “He was one of our defensive captains. And he did it because he was so fired up to play defense.”
