Colorado Buffaloes College Football National Signing Day Quote, 12/15/2021

We had a good Signing Day. We feel good about it. So far in our class, we will get 19 guys signed in this first part of the signing process. We got another month to ago in terms of January being another impactful month to continue to fill out this class. We feel like we’re off to a great start. I felt our coaches have done a really good job identifying and evaluating and cross checking over the herd of guys that we’ve signed up for today. We still feel there’s a lot of opportunity and good players that are out there both from a portal standpoint and guys that could be impactful for us in this ‚Äò22 class. We felt it was a good day and we feel good about it. We know that we’re going to get into phase two after Christmas break, but we feel that our first part of this class is exactly what we’re looking for.

ON PLAYERS NEEDED:

I mean it is based off need every year. When you have guys leaving your program you want to replace those guys in an efficient way you know whether that’s from graduation or whether that’s when guys decide to leave the portal. You know some of those things you can forecast like when a senior is graduating, but you really can’t forecast when a guy leaves after the season, so we felt like we’ve addressed most of those things from a portal standpoint. There’s a good number of guys like five or six guys that went into the portal on our team. Three of them were receivers so we were able to replace them just as an example. So, it is kind of what leaves that you have to replace in the process. So, there’s still some positions that need to be addressed. We still would love to get another defensive lineman and an inside linebacker. Corner positions are in great shape. We still need safeties. I still think there’s still some targets for us to try to find both from the portal standpoint or ‚Äò22 class freshmen standpoint. Offensively we probably have enough running backs, but we’re hoping maybe to gain one and that’s going to be important as we go through this January period. Offensive line I think is probably the biggest position maybe two more is important so there’s still some areas that we need to address the most in the second phase.

ON GRANT PAGE (Boulder Fairview) COMMITTING:

We have stayed in contact with Grant through the summer process prior to the fall. When he got hurt during the season, we still had remained having some contact with him. And rightfully so, we work with his mom in terms of University Relations, she does stuff for the athletic department so, we’ve had that connection for quite some time. I just think he probably felt that, they’ve been through the process and what’s been happening there in Nebraska and you know, we’ve always been that familiar face in the process. When he decided he was thinking about staying home, we got a chance to discuss that and talk about it. We obviously were very excited about that opportunity to keep him home. So, it just worked out so we’re happy for him. I think the thing that is going to be very helpful for him to be a factor potentially more than this season is that he’s a mid-year graduate, so he’ll be here next month in January. We get to be kind of on top of his rehab as he goes through the process of getting himself back healthy and he gets the chance because he’s already here to be learning our system.

ON CU’S VACANT OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR POSITION:

I know that everybody probably has a level of stress about who is the OC and all that. We’re really close on that decision. I feel very good about where we’re at, you know, in that process right now. I feel that the people that know me, and the offensive football that usually has been generated for me, whether I’m the coordinator or being part of offenses that I’ve worked in before, is going to be prolific. So he’s got to have the ability to be really good in the pass game and also the foundation set by being bounced and running the football as well so you know, both of those facets are really important. That’s important in the process when I’m interviewing these candidates. I don’t want to be a pass type of team. ‚ÄúI do not want that to be the only thing that we do: pass 60 times a game, you know, I would like it be 30-35 times a game throwing the football. I’d like to run it you know, 20 to 25 or 30 times a game on average, so I want balance. And I think we’ve got some really good guys out there that have been very productive in the current offenses that are up for this job. And, and they’re very intriguing and I am excited as we continue through this process.

ON QB J.T. SHROUT:

We do expect JT we just had a long meeting about our medical guys right now in terms of where we think he will be back healthy. JT will be able to participate in spring. I don’t know how much physical work, but he’ll be able to do some things from his positional standpoint in the spring so we’re going to like I said Oakie, he just wants to play somewhere. You know, he’s been a great quarterback, that’s what he knows right now. So we’re going to probably let him do a few things this spring to see where things are.

ON OAKIE SALAVE’A SIGNING:

He’s an exciting young man. I tell you that it is interesting because they’re literally on an island. There is literally one flight a month that flies from their island to Hawaii. And so that’s kind of the junction point if you want to go somewhere, so it is a very remote place. But you know, we did establish a lot of communication between his father who was a former athlete, a former player in our program and he is a dynamic football player. He’s just one of those guys that you can tell that he plays. He plays a quarterback position well. You put him at safety he intercepts and makes things happens, you put him as an edge, you know, if you put him to block a punt, he’ll block a punt. He is a multi-faceted kid. He likes playing quarterback so we give him a shot there, but he also says coach if I can help the team in any way, I want to do it. So those are the types of kids you want in your program that want to get on the field and impact and he’s definitely one of those. He is another arm because he’s a mid-year graduate to so he is another arm. But we’ll see how that goes.

ON RECRUITING CALENDAR:

I’m probably not qualified to answer that because this is my first time being back in college, and having the two signing days. I’ve been traditionally February most of my college career. I believe in the two signing days for particular reasons. When you have your earlier commitment guys, guys that have committed let’s say springtime summer to get those guys kind of solidified. You know, I like that process of kind of having this period versus having another period after that. So for the long term guys I like where the current system is. We were able to find 19 guys and we still have 7 more to go in. We still have another month of recruiting to find those extra seven, whether that’s from the portal or the ‚Äò22 class freshmen. So I actually liked the way this goes, I’ve kind of adapted to that. I think there was also talk about eliminating the official visits from five to three. Well look at it from a student athlete perspective.

ON NCAA POSSIBLY REDUCING OFFICIAL VISITS FROM 5 TO 3:

Let’s say it was down to three, I took all three in the summer. And then the guy of the team of the program or school that he committed to that coach went to another program. Now, he doesn’t know if they’re going to honor his commitment at the current school or does he have the ability to see someone else in the process because he’d have two more visits to figure out where to find a landing spot. So I think there’s definitely some discussion that needs to take place with that. I know from a cost saving standpoint, it probably makes sense. I don’t think universities waste money and just give guys trips that they don’t have a shot for, and I think it’s good for the ones that are solidified and rock solid. That kid that wanted to go to Colorado since he was a freshman decides to come. Why not get him sealed, and signed away early. I see the pluses to the current system, but I am fairly new back into the college way. I think the more challenging issues are portal issues. Trying to get guys evaluated. NIL’s are big factors in that. It is like free agents. I told you guys a year ago, it’s going to be like creating our forecast of this. And it is challenging because NIL’s a big deal. It has become in a short period of time a big deal and it’s a factor of decisions. There are some challenging times ahead in college athletics.

ON FACE-TO-FACE TIME WITH RECRUITS:

It was extremely valuable. Because I felt that in a lot of ways this was my first recruiting class. I was able to get out off campus and to get in homes and be with families that visited us on campus, and it was so much more of a familiar way.

ON COVID’S IMPACT ON RECRUITING:

It was interesting when I got hired and you know, it was provided to me everything with what happened to Covid here, that was an interesting year, but that ‚Äò21 class, most of those guys that were in that class never stepped foot on campus until they arrived in the summer. It’s crazy. I didn’t get a chance to really meet them in person, so I did a bunch of zoom stuff but I didn’t meet the families in person until they dropped them off here in the summer. Isn’t that crazy? But this to me felt like the first recruiting class. At least what I got a chance to do, and it’s an impactful class because they understand and saw what we did this year. They saw the bare bone roots of the process that we’re building, the effort, the competitiveness that we tried to get established this year was important. So they see it and then as being able to talk about that in their bedrooms, I think helped. It helped them understand why we’re recruiting them, why we expect them to be great players, why they can impact us and they can do that in a short period of time. So I think it’s very beneficial for us.

ON THE NEW CLASS OVERALL:

It’s a great question because I think they do have a common thread about being winners, and about being impactful that way. The confusing part is their persona in the program. You know a lot of these guys have had a lot of success. Most guys do that are going to recruit in fashion. They are successful. But what I see with this group is that they know we’re not far away from where we can be a really good team, and they feel that they can be a difference-maker and help us get there faster. So I think that’s the common thread throughout, being able to compete, being able to help this team win and they see an avenue for themselves to be better. That’s what I think this team really sees.

ON STATUS OF MAX WRAY AND CARSON LEE:

Max Wray is leaving the program. He’s done, you know he was dealing with a lot of neck issues, you know, when he was playing. He didn’t feel he was worthy to continue to play. Carson is still under investigation so I have nothing to report.

ON THE CHALLENGE OF THE TRANSFER PORTAL AND CHANGES IN THE RECRUITING PROCESS:

I think the challenge is that and it’s huge. You know, you guys see committed players from one school have their coach leave to go to another school and then de-commit from that school, and then they follow. They have the ability to do that. You know from a portal perspective, those guys want opportunities and certain programs have the ability to do more than others. So it’s challenging. We’re going to be proactive though. You know we’re going to do what we can and what our resources here can, but we can’t sit and ignore that and think that’s just wrong and say we’re not going to get involved in that. We’ll be what we are now for a very long period of time if we thank that. We need to be proactive. We’re going to need to stay in the game and put some skin in the game and understand this new process of college athletics and Rick [George, CU athletic director] is on board with that. He understands those whole dynamics and we’re going to think proactively and creatively to try to create some opportunities for us.

ON NAME, IMAGE & LIKENESS FOR STUDENT-ATHLETES:

It is new but it’s exploded in a short period of time, and that’s why it’s so critical. The high school parents and the students quickly adapt to the landscape. They are asking those questions, you know what are his opportunities for my son or daughter? What can you provide from your institution in terms of helping the process? Even though it didn’t affect them directly when this whole thing started. Now six months later, they’re all in it. It’s always and everything. So it’s challenging. It is and we have to be proactive in creating some evidence for it because the NCAA, you know, not that you guys want to get me in trouble but they kind of put it on the state laws. They said I don’t want to govern this, you guys handle it, and all the laws are different with what you can do and can’t do. The regulation part was always going to be a challenge. How much can they be allowed to get? Right, and they can level the playing field. How much is that? I’m going to stop after this because I don’t want to get in trouble. There’s definitely some things that need to be rethought in this process and ultimately focus and get direction on that shortly.

ON FINDING NEW CREATIVE WAYS TO RECRUIT AND DEALING WITH SEC AND OTHERS:

We have to understand that better, but it’s kind of working towards the level of hey, this is a business. There are some that are lacking, and some that have more resources. We have to try and maximize what we can do. You know, that’s working within the guidelines of this university and I think our student-athletes that are here, the efforts been shown in the right way and they’re doing some things progressively. I think we’re in a good shape. But if we don’t do something progressively and we kind of you know don’t put a lot of effort into staying with the current trends then we’ll be behind us.

ON WHAT HE IS LOOKING FOR IN A NEW OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR:

I would say more college-based because let me tell you this, you know, these are good friends of mine. Okay. When I was at UCLA, I hired a great staff. I really did. I do hire good coaches, and so you know I’m not saying that to be arrogant about it, but I put a lot of research into it. So when you have guys like Tom Cable and Brian Snyder and Jay Marvell and Dino Babers, you know, so on and so forth. These guys are all head coaches but anyway, we had a great year at UCLA in my third season and six of them left for the NFL. It was hard to replace that talent when you have a group of nine. Does that make sense? So I’ve learned through that process, so if there are guys with NFL aspirations, that’s not the way to go. So, someone that’s a young coach that is probably an NFL assistant, assistant O line or something like wide receivers or something like that, and we have a good year and he gets plugged back to the league that doesn’t help. So I am staying in the college realm and guys that have been in college for the bulk of their careers and that are still in college just because of that experience.

ON ANY INTERESTING RECRUITING STORIES FROM THE ROAD:

The day after the Utah game, we had our meeting. It was Friday we played Utah so I left Sunday that weekend. We flew to Atlanta and went to see the Buford kids and the next morning, got on one of those two prop planes to Jackson, Mississippi. Drove to Hattiesburg to visit Carter then drove back from Hattiesburg to Jackson. Spent the night and then had a 5 a.m. flight to Dallas. The same kind of plane over there to go see Jordan Tyson in Allen, Texas. Then that afternoon to Houston to see Joshua. So I was almost in a different city or two a day. But the one interesting part was I was on one of those flights again, from Dallas Fort Worth to Phoenix which I thought to be just a two-hour flight right? And it was a two-prop plane again and it was apparently like today. It was a windy day outside. We had a bunch of headwinds and it took us four and a half hours to fly from Fort Worth to Phoenix, Arizona. Here I thought I was flying and doing things efficiently but obviously, that wasn’t. I asked I said are we going to Hawaii? But it took that long so I mean thank goodness I was safe in every one of those aspects you kind of have to have a little bit of humor and not take things so seriously when you’re on the road because really those are things that are not in my control. I’m in somebody else’s hands here. I just tried to go with the flow. But it did change some of the scheduling. I had to go see the kid instead of being there for three hours because we got there so late, it was like a 45-minute visit that I had to get back on the plane and go back home. So it was just some tight window things. But I enjoyed every minute of it, you know why? Because I hadn’t been out in two years. You know, just being out and seeing kids, seeing their families, to be on the campuses, I think that was huge.