Colorado will take their ranked football team on the road this weekend, surging up the polls, against unranked Southern California, looking for a big win in the Clay Helton era to give them some momentum. Just like we all thought would happen, right?
To be honest, this was never not going to happen, thanks to the decision to hire Mike MacIntyre.
When it happened, it barely batted an eye nationally. MacIntyre was from mostly overlooked San Jose State, because SJSU is always overlooked, even when they’re good.
It’s been four years to get to this point, but in the hyper-sensitive era of college football where patience isn’t a virtue … it’s a good way for an Athletic Director to get a lot of nasty e-mails … in Boulder, the old rules still apply.
Most folks outside of San Jose or Boulder don’t realize what an untenable situation Mike Mac inherited at SJSU for his first major job.
MacIntyre inherited a program being leveled by Academic Progress Rate sanctions. The Spartans had four fewer hours of practice per week allowed (16 to 20) and had 10 fewer scholarships allowed (75 to 85). This all from a program that had seen all of three winning seasons since 1993.
If there was a more difficult job in the country in 2009 at the FBS level, go ahead and name it for me.
MacIntyre did at SJSU what he is doing at Colorado, which is building trust without worrying about wins. SJSU wasn’t good his first year. They went 1-12. His second year, they skipped up to five wins as the program climbed closer to normalcy. His third year, they went 10-2.
When Colorado hired him, there wasn’t much fanfare. It was some guy from SJSU coming to a program that’d been dead in the water since the Gary Barnett era. It started out slow, because building trust is slow. Four wins. Two wins. Four wins. And then this year, where they already have four wins, have pushed top-5 Michigan, and now are looking up to snuff in the Pac-12 in spite of injuries to Sefo Liufau, their star quarterback.
This was always going to happen if Colorado let it get that far. This was a rebuilding effort that needed a few years to get back to where it was, and where it was is where it is now. MacIntyre has gotten guys to buy in over time, believe in their own success, and then see their results on the field.
He does it by being great on the field and off. After all, in 2010-11, SJSU’s APR was the highest it’d been since they started worrying about it in the early 2000’s.
All of that is culminating in where Colorado is, coming off of a blowout win over Oregon State and rolling on to play USC.
It’s one of the better stories in college football, and one that still proves that in a game of hyperbole and microwave reaction, sometimes, it’s patience and allowing the building of trust, brick by brick, that breeds success. Run, Ralphie, Run, just like the days of old.
