BOULDER — It wasn’t easy for Colorado last week. It took a last-minute interception for the Buffs to finally subdue another winless Pac-12 team and snap a 14-game conference winless streak spanning almost two years.
In the moments after CU’s heart-stopping 17-13 win at Oregon State late Saturday night, the emotion that came across in coach Mike MacIntyre’s on-field TV interview was obvious. His voice caught, and maybe that was a tear in his eye.
MacIntyre was more composed Tuesday when the team returned to the practice field to prepare for this week’s game at UCLA, but there was still a lot of emotion in the memories of what transpired in Corvallis.
“Just think of your own personal family,” MacIntyre said. “If you spent hours and hours and invested in them, see them overcome different obstacles and see them reach different goals, and then they don’t get to reach certain goals — you see them hurting, and you see them trying, and you’re working every way you can — just take your own family. …
“All 112 of these young men are really my kids. Their parents entrust them to me. I have to love them, care for them, discipline them, handle them when they’re knuckleheads, keep maturing, keep hoping, keep praying, keep working with them, keep pushing them, keep finding ways to push the right buttons.”
MacIntyre says a coach’s job is to make a player do the things he doesn’t want to do to reach the goals he wants to reach. And when he sees them make big plays, he sees more than that play.
“When you see that joy in their eyes, you see them proud and excited, it’s just like a proud dad,” MacIntyre said. “It’s an emotional situation, and it should be. If it’s not, why do it? That’s the thrill of it. That’s also why a loss hurts, because you put a lot of time into it.
“I’m fully invested into these kids, and that’s why it’s emotional.”
Cynics might wonder whether MacIntyre was so emotional because ending the conference losing streak might have saved his job. But it’s apparent MacIntyre’s emotions are real and raw, whether he’s complaining about a referee’s call, chastising an assistant coach or grieving with his players after a close loss.
That’s not the Bill Belichick way, of course. MacIntyre and Belichick both coached under Bill Parcells, and Parcells gave MacIntyre some advice on the subject that he took to heart. MacIntyre also was heavily influenced by his father, George, who coached at Clemson, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.
“I think Bill Parcells gave me the best (advice),” MacIntyre said. “He told me: ‘Learn from me and do the things that we ask you to do, but be your own personality. Don’t try to be or emulate somebody else; you’ll be a phony.’ I grew up with a dad who really cared about me and really cared about people, and that’s what I saw. That’s the same thing I do. I can’t help it. I’m just who I am. I’m passionate about it, and care about them.”
The Buffs will go back to being heavy underdogs Saturday. The Bruins are 5-2 (2-2 in the conference) after beating California 40-24 last week.
“Coach MacIntyre and the rest of the coaching staff put in a lot of work,” quarterback Sefo Liufau said. “For it to finally pay off and to get a win means a lot to (MacIntyre). I’m really happy for Coach and the team. We’ve been working hard to get a win finally, but not satisfied. Oregon State is in the past, and we’re ready to move on to UCLA.” Footnote: The Stanford at Colorado game Nov. 7 will kick off at 11 a.m., the Pac-12 announced Tuesday. The game will be televised nationally by the Pac-12 networks.
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or @johnmeyer
