Colorado never needed a coach who could recruit. They just needed one that could coach.
So while there is an obvious allure of a big signing day, college football recruits around the country sign their letters of intent to attend institutions Wednesday, Buffs new head coach Mike MacIntyre isn’t caught up in it. Boulder may appear to be a silhouette, a footnote amongst others in the Pac-12 Conference.
MacIntyre’s teams haven't ever been predicated on class rank, ambiguous recruitment star systems or otherwise.
San Jose State, where MacIntyre held the head coaching position prior, he recruited consistently, if not by experts standards, successfully. In 2010, his class ranked No. 100 (by Rivals.com), in ’11 and ‘12, they were the 99th best assembly of recruits in the country. Not one three-star recruit signed with MacIntyre in his tenure.
He won’t force or pressure a prospect to sign. MacIntyre says he won’t commit to a player until they commit with him.
“They have got to want to be at Colorado,” MacIntyre said in mid-December at his inaugural press conference. “I walk into a house and a kid might say, 'Well I don't want to be at Colorado,' then I would just go to the next house. You can't just keep beating your head against a brick wall, you're wasting time. There is another guy down the road that wants to be here that is good. So we will do that, then we will start talking football.”
But don’t let the nonchalant attack fool you, his recruiting techniques may not be his area of focus, but the players that do ascribe on with be ready. MacIntyre will find these players, even if not the ones touted with golden stars in their bios.
“We're going to dive in and go play,” MacIntyre said. Colorado currently has the No. 75 recruiting class in the nation. “If we do that, eventually we're going to win more than we lose. They better believe they can win. That's what I'm trying to tell them.”
His predecessors, Dan Hawkins and Jon Embree, were based on recruits. They could find pieces, but not make them into one. MacIntyre’s new philosophy also plans to bring new, more prosperous results to Folsom Field.
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