Earlier this week, Colorado’s Mike MacIntyre was recognized as the coach of the year in the Pac-12 Conference.
On Thursday, he was recognized as the best in the country.
MacIntyre was named the national coach of the year by the Walter Camp Foundation. The award is voted on by all the coaches and sports information directors in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
“It is an honor to receive the Walter Camp Coach of the Year award, but this all reflects on our assistant coaches and our players and how they’ve invested in our program for us to be able to be successful,” MacIntyre said in a press release by the school.
“This is special considering it is voted on by other head coaches. That truly means a lot to me coming from my peers.”
MacIntyre joins Bill McCartney (1989) as the only CU coaches to earn the Walter Camp coach of the year award. Former CU head coach Gary Barnett was honored in 1995 while still coaching at Northwestern.
MacIntyre is just the second Pac-12 coach in the last 20 years to earn the Walter Camp award, joining Chip Kelly of Oregon in 2010. MacIntyre’s close friend and mentor, David Cutcliffe of Duke, won the award in 2013.
Earlier this week, MacIntyre was named the Bobby Dodd national coach of the week. He is in the running for the Dodd Coach of the Year award.
A first for Ralphie V
While we don’t know which bowl game the Buffs will play in this postseason, we do know they’ll be going to a bowl for the first time since 2007.
It’ll be a first for CU’s current mascot, Ralphie V. Because of scheduling issues, Ralphie will not run at the Pac-12 championship game, but she will be on hand for a bowl game.
Coincidentally, CU’s bowl drought began right after Ralphie V took over full-time duties in the 2008 season. As of now, Ralphie V is the only one of the five buffalo that has not had a chance to run at a bowl game.
The tradition of having the team enter the stadium running behind a live buffalo began in 1967. Ralphie I attended seven bowl games in her 13 season; Ralphie II attended two bowl games; Ralphie III went to eight bowls; and Ralphie IV went to six bowls.
Since 1967, CU has had its mascot at 23 of 25 bowl games, missing only the trips to the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu after the 1993 and 1998 seasons.
Notable
· CU defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt is a finalist for the Broyles Award, which is awarded to the nation’s top assistant coach.
· The Buffs have back-to-back wins over Top 25 teams for the first time since 2002. They are now looking to beat Top 25 teams in three consecutive weeks for the first time since Weeks 2-4 in 1994.
· This season, the CU defense has forced 26 turnovers and allowed only 23 touchdowns. The Buffs are one of just eight FBS teams with more takeaways than touchdowns allowed. The others: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Alabama, Washington, Florida, BYU and Michigan.
· CU had a school-record 82 players earn letters this year, one more than the record set a year ago.
Contact staff writer Brian Howell at howellb@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/BrianHowell33.
