CUI sports mailbag: Mike MacIntyre Edition

By Caryn Maconi and Scott Annis in Front Page, Sports on Dec 12, 2012 22:10 / comments

On Monday, the University of Colorado football program hired San Jose State University’s Mike MacIntyre to be its 25th head coach in school history. This week’s mailbag is all about the “Mac-Attack”.

1) How much coaching experience does MacIntyre have?

Mike MacIntyre is named the CU Buff’s new head football coach Monday. (Amy Leder/CU Independent File)

MacIntyre is coming to the Buffs from San Jose State University, where he held the head coaching position for three seasons. While SJSU was his first head coaching gig, he has been on the coaching staff of football teams at the collegiate and professional level since 1990. Colorado will be his 10th career coaching job. MacIntyre was a graduate assistant at the University of Georgia before holding defensive coordinator positions at Davidson University, Tennessee-Martin University and Temple University. He has also been the wide receiver/defensive back coach at the University of Mississippi and the defensive back coach for both the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets. During his time at Ole Miss, the team had the No. 5-ranked defense nationally. MacIntyre was also the defensive coordinator at Duke University before taking the head coaching job at SJSU.

2) I’ve heard that MacIntyre’s dad was also a coach. What’s his story?

When Mike MacIntyre was officially introduced as Colorado’s head coach at Monday’s news conference, he said, “All my life I’ve wanted to be a football coach. I’m a coach’s son, it’s in my blood.” Though Mike MacIntyre’s father, George MacIntyre,was not the most successful coach in football history, he did have a notable season or two, and he was clearly an inspiration to his son. George MacIntyre was a head coach for both Tennessee-Martin University, from 1975-1977, and Vanderbilt University, from 1979-1985. In 1982, MacIntyre turned a struggling Vanderbilt team around to go 8-4 on the season and earn a berth in the Hall of Fame Classic Bowl. That season, he was named the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year, the Sporting News Coach of the Year and the SEC Coach of the Year. It was MacIntyre’s only winning season at Vanderbilt. His overall coaching record at both universities combined was 43-66-1.

3) What have been the highlights of MacIntyre’s coaching career so far?

Mike MacIntyre has taken teams to three Independence Bowl victories, with Georgia in 1991 and Mississippi in 1999 and 2002. Notably, he also helped recruit Patrick Willis, an All-Pro linebacker in the NFL, to the University of Mississippi. In 2009, the American Football Coaches’ Association awarded MacIntyre, then on the coaching staff at Duke, Assistant Coach of the Year. Most applicable to CU, when MacIntyre took the job at San Jose State in 2010, the team had had only three winning seasons since 1993. MacIntyre went 1-12 in his first season with the Spartans, but in 2012 he has taken his team to a 10-2 season record, a No. 24 national ranking, and a berth in the Military Bowl. MacIntyre knows what it’s like to turn a team around, so hopefully he can make it happen with the Buffs.

Have a question to ask the CUI Sports staff? Email [email protected] or tweet @CUISports with your question, and we’ll address it in our next mailbag!

Contact CU Independent Sports Editors Caryn Maconi and Scott Annis at [email protected] and [email protected]

About Caryn Maconi

Caryn in a junior Journalism: News-Editorial major at CU with an emphasis in sociology. She is an avid Buffs fan and has been on the CUI sports staff for three semesters. Caryn is also the communications manager for the student-run sports broadcast CU SportsMag. Caryn is working towards a licensure in elementary education. She loves working with kids, writing and being outside, whether she's swimming, biking and running with the CU Triathlon Team or just enjoying a hike in the Flatirons. Her dream job would combine writing with her love for fitness and the outdoors!

About Scott Annis

Scott is a Junior at CU majoring in English. He grew up in Thornton, CO but spent time living in the Bay Area and North Carolina. Scott spends most of his time focused on sports. When he isn't writing about them or watching them he plays on the CU Rugby team. Scott also writes for throughthefencebaseball.com.

Tags: Coach, CU Football, George, head, history, macintyre, mike, new, record, SJSU