Contact CU Independent football beat writer Justin Guerriero at justin.guerriero@colorado.edu and follow him on Twitter @TheHungry_Hippo
Former head football coach Bill McCartney stopped by Folsom Field this Saturday to talk to media and watch the contest between the Colorado Buffaloes and the Stanford Cardinal.
He returns to Folsom Field in wake of the 30 for 30 ESPN special The Gospel According to Mac, which detailed his journey as a young assistant coach to his hiring as head coach of the Buffaloes and the ups and downs of his tenure at CU.
McCartney, who coached the Buffs from 1982 to 1994, and was in charge when Colorado won a national championship in 1990, answered questions regarding his tenure at CU and the current state of the program.
He also defended current head coach Mike MacIntyre, who has recently had to deal with some criticism regarding the Buffaloes’ seemingly endless troubles.
“Coach MacIntyre is going through what I went through,” McCartney said. “My first three years we won seven games. I think we got the right guy. Stick with him. Believe in him and watch. What I see in him is a really fine man who’s a man of his word.”
McCartney also preached the value of patience; in other words, expecting a football program to change overnight is unrealistic.
“When you keep turning over coaches, what people don’t realize is that you have to start over,” he said. “I’m ready to take our time and let this thing get built the right way and then think in the Pac-12 we can be competitive for the competitive future.”
The Buffaloes’ players made a last-minute decision to wear their black and Vegas gold uniforms for the matchup against Stanford, which bear the closest resemblance to the uniforms the Buffs wore under McCartney.
“It encourages me that they’re wearing a uniform that they weren’t going to wear today and that they have a resolve about this because this team that we’re playing today is really good,” McCartney said.
With all of the criticism lately of the 4-5 Buffaloes, and with hopes of a bowl game berth still lingering, Colorado finds itself in somewhat of a do-or-die situation.
“This team could still go to a bowl game,” McCartney said. “But they have to win this game today. This game is the biggest game of the season. They have not played a game of this importance yet.”
McCartney hinted that the pieces were in place for the Buffaloes to become relevant again.
“During the time I was here, we ended up having the best players,” McCartney said. “We were able to recruit the caliber athlete so that we could line up with anybody and look them in the eyes. But that didn’t happen right away.”
