Rivals Q&A: Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre

Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre in his fourth season as the program’s head coach. After arriving in Boulder from San Jose State in 2013, he’s in the midst of rebuilding a bottomed-out program that went 4-21 from 2011-12. MacIntyre recently spoke to Rivals.com about various topics including his renewed recruiting focus in Florida and the next step for his Colorado program. The following is an excerpt from a larger conversation with MacIntyre. The full interview can be found here, as part of Rivals.com’s Commitment Issues podcast.

Rivals: You’re a Miami guy yourself, right?

MacIntyre: Yup. I was born there in Coral Gables at Doctor’s Hospital [on Miami’s campus] a long time ago.

Rivals: I live walking distance from there. …You’ve got ties to this area, and you’ve taken over at Colorado, which traditionally hasn’t recruited in Florida. Did you make doing that a priority when you got there or did that happen later?

MM: It happened a little later. I hired Joe Tumpkin, who went to Miami-Hialeah Lakes [High School]. He grew up down there and has always recruited down there. I then hired Jim Leavitt, who has recruited down in Florida. Our other secondary coach, Charles Clark, is from Jacksonville, so we have a lot of ties in the area. Of course, I went to Georgia Tech and got my masters at Georgia, so we have a lot of connections in the Georgia area, too. We obviously feel like that’s a hotbed of talent. There’s a lot of young men we talk to and say ‘hey, do you want to stay in the Southeast or do you want to come to the Pac-12 and see the mountains?’ There are a few kids down there that want to do that for sure.

Rivals: It seems to have worked for you. You’ve got a lot of guys from down here on the roster now. This is about year No. 3 of you guys really recruiting Florida. Have you seen much of a difference in the inroads you guys have been able to make?

MM: We’re making some inroads. We got two young men, Anthony Julmisse and Johnny Huntley, who are both from the same high school down there. We feel like we are really making inroads and we hope to get some more guys from that part of Florida this year.

Rivals: Is there really anything to that or is it overblown when it comes to the skill positions in Florida, with the Florida speed and all that? Is it just a reputation that people play into or do you really think there’s something to it?

MM: No, there really is something to that. There’s no doubt. There’s a lot of speed and athleticism. It seems like, to me, the closer you get to water, the more speed there is. The further away you get from water, the less speed there is.

Rivals: If there’s a scientific explanation to that, I’m not real sure what it is, but maybe it exists. The last time you and I spoke, you had just taken over at Colorado and I had just started working at Rivals. What’s the biggest difference there [at Colorado] now as opposed to the last time we spoke, when you first took over the job?

MM: We’re going in the right direction. You always want it to go faster than it does, but it always takes time to build a foundation. We have a lot of great things going ion here. I mean, No. 1, facility-wise, we have moved into our $156M football facility last August, so we’ve been in it one year now. It’s a tremendous facility, and that’s helping us a lot in recruiting. Our program is getting better and better. The Pac-12 is arguably ... well, there’s always an argument on which is better; SEC or Pac-12. It’s a big-time conference with a lot of appeal. Of course, Boulder has been voted the No. 1 college town in America many times. It’s beautiful and we’re only 20 miles from downtown Denver.

Rivals: When you went out and you hired Leavitt and those other guys, did you do it with recruiting Florida in mind or was that just a bonus?

MM: It was a combination. With Jim, I was hiring him just mainly because of our defensive coordinator spot. I knew he had a lot of contacts in Florida, though. When I hired Joe Tumpkin, he was for defense, but I obviously knew he had a tremendous amount of contacts in the Miami area and the South Florida area. I knew he would be able to do a great job recruiting there for us.

Rivals: I have to ask you about Leavitt. I know there are a lot of schools … well, there’s always buzz around him as a guy that is going to be a head coach again sometime. Have you fielded inquires about him on that front?

MM: No. I haven’t fielded any inquires on him, but I know he’d be a great head coach again. He’s very passionate and very good at what he does. He did a phenomenal job at South Florida. He went there and built that program from scratch. He would make a great head coach again. I hope that happens for him, but right now he’s doing a great job as a defensive coordinator for us.

Rivals: What have you seen so far out of those two Florida kids we discussed earlier, Huntley and Julmisse?

MM: Well, they’re playing as true freshmen. They can run. They’re big. They’re athletic. They’re really going to be good players. They’re doing really well. They are going to play key roles for us. We don’t have a lot of true freshmen playing, and they’re two of the freshmen that are playing.

Rivals: What’s the next step for Colorado? What constitutes a successful season for Colorado in 2016?

MM: We’re doing like everyone else. We want to win the Pac-12 championship. We want to win the Pac-12 South and go to the Pac-12 championship game and see what happens. That’s what our young men are shooting for and that’s what we believe. We have a good football team and we feel like we can beat anybody we play. We just have to go do it.

Rivals: You obviously can’t talk about specific players, but is there some kind of need or some kind of position group that you guys are focusing on with this current recruiting class?

MM: We have a lot of seniors in our class right now, so we’re going to sign a full allotment of players -– at least 25. We’re looking for something at every position to be honest. We have a lot of guys graduating, so we’re looking at every front. Last year, we had a smaller class and we were looking for certain things. This year, we’re signing a few guys at every position except for quarterback. We’re only going to sign one quarterback.