MacIntyre Thankful For Buffs’ Health Before Opener
BOULDER – Football in August is frequently highlighted by devastating injuries that can hinder a team’s season even before it begins. Fortunately, after a month of grinding through lengthy and arduous practice sessions, first-year Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre can safely say he has no such apprehensions.
“I feel good about the health of our team,” MacIntyre said at the conclusion of Thursday morning’s practice. “Of course anybody you lose you don’t want to lose, but we didn’t have any knees or really bad hamstrings that are lingering or anything like that, so I feel good about the health of our team to this point.”
Probably the team’s most significant injury in camp was to senior kicker Justin Castor, who suffered an upper leg injury that will sideline him for the season and make junior Will Oliver pull double duty on kickoffs and placement kicks. Other than Castor, no other player suffered a season-ending camp injury.
Aside from the anxiety filled uncertainties about a team’s physical state, some coaches tend to agonize just as much about whether or not his players are mentally adept enough to handle their first taste of game action after a long off season. Such deliberation becomes even more concerning in relation to freshmen who may not know what to except at the college level. Although MacIntyre feels he has adequately prepared his team for those mental demands he knows there is real no way to know for sure how a player will respond until he actually finds himself in that moment.
“I feel great about (our poise right now),” he said. “You never know until the game starts and the thing that you hope is that you fight through is the anxiousness and the composure in the game. So hopefully we warm them up right and put them through everything so they’ll be able to handle that. But there’s always that in the first game or two so we just have to fight through that. Other teams will have it, too. It’s just the way it is.”
NOTABLE: MacIntyre said he is pleased with how smoothly D.D. Goodson’s transformation from running back to slot receiver has gone thus far. He acknowledged that Goodson has done some good things and made a lot of plays both in the spring and throughout fall camp . . . . The players will be weighed tomorrow in preparation for Sunday’s opener vs. Colorado State at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver (4 p.m., CBS Sports Network) . . . . A crowd of about 1,000 attended Thursday's Kickoff Luncheon sponsored by the Boulder Buffs Club in Balch Fieldhouse. Three of CU's six captains - outside linebacker Paul Vigo, receiver Paul Richardson and left tackle Jack Harris - participated in a Q&A with emcee Mark Johnson of KOA Radio. MacIntyre also addressed the crowd and reminded them of the importance of their attendance on Sunday and at next weekend's home opener against Central Arkansas. Also attending were President Bruce Benson and Chancellor Phil DiStefano.