Do we fire Mac?

[Hugegroove]

IMO - Since RG didn't hire Mac, and knows what the legal terms and conditions are of Mac's contract extension, that he has already looked at what potential options he has now, and what options he'll have before Mac's contract runs it's course. I would like to be a fly on the wall in RG's office if for no other reason to get a handle on what his current relationship is with Mac.

 

[DBT]

IMO - Since RG didn't hire Mac, and knows what the legal terms and conditions are of Mac's contract extension, that he has already looked at what potential options he has now, and what options he'll have before Mac's contract runs it's course. I would like to be a fly on the wall in RG's office if for no other reason to get a handle on what his current relationship is with Mac.

I’m sure RG and Mac have had “productive” discussions. Pretty sure anyway. RG strikes me as a man with a plan and his plan is to build a highly successful football program.

 

[onealcd]

I said the same thing last season when there was rumored friction between Mac and Leavitt, it is not always a bad thing. I would hope RG pushed his coach to improve and better the program. If they were all buddy buddy 24/7 that would be a bad thing IMO.

 

[MiamiBuffs]

IMO - Since RG didn't hire Mac, and knows what the legal terms and conditions are of Mac's contract extension, that he has already looked at what potential options he has now, and what options he'll have before Mac's contract runs it's course. I would like to be a fly on the wall in RG's office if for no other reason to get a handle on what his current relationship is with Mac.

Lets not forget who made the decision to, and negotiated the terms of, Mike's extension.

I dont think there is anything much for them to discuss or think about at all other than staff changes. Those amounts of money make us stuck for certainly another year. The idea is that Mike has protection from early termination when he has a bad season and he theoretically has time to correct issues and right the ship versus a rash decision. Get it done Mike!

 

[Bread]

I certainly hope he does something to show he’s fully committed to making CU a success again. Even if he has to go as far as firing Mac’s coordinators and handpicking the replacement coordinators for him, because I really am at the precipice of just walking away for good. If they keep status quo or just make token changes during this offseason, I’m out.

Almost the entire history of my CU fandom has been nothing but pain. I became a fan in 2004, when I enrolled as a freshman and got to experience just two relatively successful seasons (at the time, I thought 70-3 was about as far as we could fall, but even with that, there was reason for optimism afterwards, as we put in a decent showing against Clemson and I’m almost certain we would have won if Klatt had been healthy enough to play [although I did think to myself at the time, “how did we lose to a program like Clemson?”] before enduring the dark ages that have plagued us, ever since, and I just can’t take it anymore.

Oh no Panda please don't leave. You are such an upstanding fan and positive light among the rest of us. Your pride and true fandom for the Buffs will really be missed.

 

[jizzrag85]

Aren't we all over Tennessee's case about this??

I think letting the AD know you’re unhappy with the way the team is performing (if you contribute to the school) and that you expect more on the field is vastly different from rioting all over Twitter and campus over a coaching hire.

 

[leftybuff]

I think letting the AD know you’re unhappy with the way the team is performing (if you contribute to the school) and that you expect more on the field is vastly different from rioting all over Twitter and campus over a coaching hire.

If only CU had a rock we could paint on......

 

[dio]

Weird to me that people are questioning the extension. Mac had just won NCOTY and had a good recruiting class coming in, as well as a Top 20 finish after this team had gone a decade long bowl drought. Big wins throughout the season...

 

[ahoelsken]

Weird to me that people are questioning the extension. Mac had just won NCOTY and had a good recruiting class coming in, as well as a Top 20 finish after this team had gone a decade long bowl drought. Big wins throughout the season...

Several reasons to question the extension-One, MM's CU teams have finished last in the South all but one year he's been here-last year. Two, nobody even reached out to him about another job, so we weren't in any sort of jeopardy of losing him. Three, big wins? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only games we won we weren't favored in were Oregon (before anybody had any idea how hard they'd fall) and Stanford. Wazzu was an underdog when they rolled in here, and so was Utah.

 

[Duff Man]

Weird to me that people are questioning the extension. Mac had just won NCOTY and had a good recruiting class coming in, as well as a Top 20 finish after this team had gone a decade long bowl drought. Big wins throughout the season...

I would love to hear how those using 20/20 hindsight would have approached the situation.

 

[dio]

WSU, UU were ranked wins. And he was getting rewarded for the rebuild. Do we not remember that Embree left this program as the worst in the entire nation?

Blasted CSU
Had a great showing against Michigan
Big win at Oregon
Blasted Oregon State
Blasted ASU
Barely lost to USC (ended year ranked #3)
Big road win against Stanford (ended year ranked #12)
Beat a ranked WSU
Beat a ranked UU (ranked #23 at end of year)
Blasted Arizona

That was a good team last season and I don't know why we're now trying to have some revisionist history about that turn-around that Mac performed here.

 

[J.R. Ewing]

WSU, UU were ranked wins. And he was getting rewarded for the rebuild. Do we not remember that Embree left this program as the worst in the entire nation?

Blasted CSU
Had a great showing against Michigan
Big win at Oregon
Blasted Oregon State
Blasted ASU
Barely lost to USC (ended year ranked #3)
Big road win against Stanford (ended year ranked #12)
Beat a ranked WSU
Beat a ranked UU (ranked #23 at end of year)
Blasted Arizona

That was a good team last season and I don't know why we're now trying to have some revisionist history about that turn-around that Mac performed here.

That was an amazing season. Which makes this past turd of a season all that much harder to stomach.

 

[Sykobuff]

I would love to hear how those using 20/20 hindsight would have approached the situation.

I would have waited 1 year to see if he could sustain it two years in a row. Pretty simple, but I was all for him getting an extension so ...you know.

 

[leftybuff]

I would love to hear how those using 20/20 hindsight would have approached the situation.

I don't know how you fail to substantially reward the success MikMac had last year. I also don't know how anyone would have foreseen the ****show this season was. I also do not know how you deal with that scenario. As Mr. Howell pointed out, MikMac is the first COY winner out of 18 to fail to go bowling and win 8 games in the next year. It was unprecedented.

That being said, my upsetness remains the same.

 

[dio]

That was an amazing season. Which makes this past turd of a season all that much harder to stomach.

I agree! This year was unacceptable... but there isn't an AD in the nation who wouldn't have done what we did.

 

[KingPants]

WSU, UU were ranked wins. And he was getting rewarded for the rebuild. Do we not remember that Embree left this program as the worst in the entire nation?

Blasted CSU
Had a great showing against Michigan
Big win at Oregon
Blasted Oregon State
Blasted ASU
Barely lost to USC (ended year ranked #3)
Big road win against Stanford (ended year ranked #12)
Beat a ranked WSU
Beat a ranked UU (ranked #23 at end of year)
Blasted Arizona

That was a good team last season and I don't know why we're now trying to have some revisionist history about that turn-around that Mac performed here.

Man that is some beautiful reading. Seems like so long ago...

 

[J.R. Ewing]

I agree! This year was unacceptable... but there isn't an AD in the nation who wouldn't have done what we did.

I agree. If we hadn't raised and extended him, we'd be viewed the same way people are viewing Tennessee. "Who do those guys think they are?"

 

[Duff Man]

WSU, UU were ranked wins. And he was getting rewarded for the rebuild. Do we not remember that Embree left this program as the worst in the entire nation?

Blasted CSU
Had a great showing against Michigan
Big win at Oregon
Blasted Oregon State
Blasted ASU
Barely lost to USC (ended year ranked #3)
Big road win against Stanford (ended year ranked #12)
Beat a ranked WSU
Beat a ranked UU (ranked #23 at end of year)
Blasted Arizona

That was a good team last season and I don't know why we're now trying to have some revisionist history about that turn-around that Mac performed here.

When you have the hottest team in the country chasing you for the South title, winning six straight games to close out the regular season is impressive in any context. There was no margin for error, yet those wins were not "big" enough.

 

[BuffaloB]

WSU, UU were ranked wins. And he was getting rewarded for the rebuild. Do we not remember that Embree left this program as the worst in the entire nation?

Blasted CSU
Had a great showing against Michigan
Big win at Oregon
Blasted Oregon State
Blasted ASU
Barely lost to USC (ended year ranked #3)
Big road win against Stanford (ended year ranked #12)
Beat a ranked WSU
Beat a ranked UU (ranked #23 at end of year)
Blasted Arizona

That was a good team last season and I don't know why we're now trying to have some revisionist history about that turn-around that Mac performed here.

That was greatand fun. Then they get completely blasted by Washington and Oklahoma St. That, along with the off the field issues that came up would have both given me enough to wait.

Granted I'm bias as I think he is a bad recruiter and below average coach.

 

[J-R-K]

Weird to me that people are questioning the extension. Mac had just won NCOTY and had a good recruiting class coming in, as well as a Top 20 finish after this team had gone a decade long bowl drought. Big wins throughout the season...

Last year was great, and yes there was reason for optimism. Despite that success however Macintyre was still hardly a proven commodity and yet we gave him a contract worthy of a coach who is. He did have have 2-25 conference record prior to last season. Just seems like a stretch to me for a guy to go from arguably on the verge of being fired to being the coach of the future simply based on one season.

My biggest issue isn't so much the fact that he got a new contract but rather the specifics of the deal. At the very least the contract's terms should have been such that it would be easier for us to get out of in the (very possible) event that it turned out he wasn't right for the job, as certainly appears to be the case.

 

[dio]

Last year was great, and yes there was reason for optimism. Despite that success however Macintyre was still hardly a proven commodity and yet we gave him a contract worthy of a coach who is. He did have have 2-25 conference record prior to last season. Just seems like a stretch to me for a guy to go from arguably on the verge of being fired to being the coach of the future simply based on one season.

My biggest issue isn't so much the fact that he got a new contract but rather the specifics of the deal. At the very least the contract's terms should have been such that it would be easier for us to get out of in the (very possible) event that it turned out he wasn't right for the job, as certainly appears to be the case.

So, you hire a coach to a job that you know is a project. Really, a dumbster fire. You expect him to build your team. Over the first 3 seasons you see steady improvement, without getting over the hump. In season 4 you get over the hump and win 10 games with the best recruiting class in 10 years coming in the door. You're going to go back to that coach and tell him he has to prove it even more? Not a good look, and not a good message you send to other coaching candidates.

I think Mac IS a good coach, and he has proven to be a good coach. But he doesn't value recruiting and he isn't heartless enough to manage a staff at the P5 level. A coach like that will flash every 4 or 5 years, when he has a veteran team.

 

[leftybuff]

So, you hire a coach to a job that you know is a project. Really, a dumbster fire. You expect him to build your team. Over the first 3 seasons you see steady improvement, without getting over the hump. In season 4 you get over the hump and win 10 games with the best recruiting class in 10 years coming in the door. You're going to go back to that coach and tell him he has to prove it even more? Not a good look, and not a good message you send to other coaching candidates.

I think Mac IS a good coach, and he has proven to be a good coach. But he doesn't value recruiting and he isn't heartless enough to manage a staff at the P5 level. A coach like that will flash every 4 or 5 years, when he has a veteran team.

Solid assessment.

 

[The Alabaster Yak]

So, you hire a coach to a job that you know is a project. Really, a dumbster fire. You expect him to build your team. Over the first 3 seasons you see steady improvement, without getting over the hump. In season 4 you get over the hump and win 10 games with the best recruiting class in 10 years coming in the door. You're going to go back to that coach and tell him he has to prove it even more? Not a good look, and not a good message you send to other coaching candidates.

I think Mac IS a good coach, and he has proven to be a good coach. But he doesn't value recruiting and he isn't heartless enough to manage a staff at the P5 level. A coach like that will flash every 4 or 5 years, when he has a veteran team.

Shouldn't Rick George be looking at the big picture, though? The steady improvement, 10 wins and solid recruiting class (should be the recruiting class floor going forward, not the ceiling) are great, but the drubbing by UW and OSU, the obvious head butting between he and Leavitt, and the idea that he doesn't value recruiting and can't effectively manage a P5 staff, should have given RG some pause, or at least made it so it wasn't financially impossible to fire prior to 2020, no?

I can look back with revisionist history because I'm a fan and don't get paid $750k+ per year to make these decisions like RG does. The worst thing in sports is paying somebody for past production, rather than the value they bring to an organization going forward.

 

[dio]

The drubbing by UW and OSU aren't a good look - but can be explained a couple of ways when you're evaluating it at the time. 1) Injuries 2) Team not ready for the spotlight 3) Leavitt/Tumpkin situation

As for the head-butting between he and Leavitt.... that **** happens, and Mac hired Leavitt in the first place. And who knows what Mac is saying in regards to recruiting - but the class last year looked like a huge step forward, so maybe RG figured recruiting was shaping up as well.

The P5 staff stuff is true and would have given me pause... but you let Mac do it his way and he got you to the P12 championship game... how much of that are you going to question?

 

[DBT]

Just landed. Been off the internet for 4 whole hours and Mac is still our coach. Dammit.

 

[Townie]

The one idea that's intrigued me is the flat buyout that Florida apparently has for Mullen ($12m no matter when he's fired, I believe). Might cost you some if you would fire at the end of the deal, but there seems like nothing worse for a program than hanging on a couple extra years just to get the buyout down.

I doubt CU would drop him anyway right now, but if it were, say, a flat $9m, maybe the decisions are easier to make.

 

[The Alabaster Yak]

The drubbing by UW and OSU aren't a good look - but can be explained a couple of ways when you're evaluating it at the time. 1) Injuries 2) Team not ready for the spotlight 3) Leavitt/Tumpkin situation

As for the head-butting between he and Leavitt.... that **** happens, and Mac hired Leavitt in the first place. And who knows what Mac is saying in regards to recruiting - but the class last year looked like a huge step forward, so maybe RG figured recruiting was shaping up as well.

The P5 staff stuff is true and would have given me pause... but you let Mac do it his way and he got you to the P12 championship game... how much of that are you going to question?

Yeah, I get it, it's a tough spot. It just feels like CU is in a ****ty situation. It feels like both parties would like to part ways, but CU can't afford to fire him, but he can't get a better job right now. So they'll work for 2018 to be the year that they win 7-8 games and he gets hired away by someone else, allowing Rick George to make his hire and get this program to the next level. If they fail and only win 5 games again next year, CU is stuck with an average to below average P5 coach, who is only the HC because he had everything come together for one season out of six total.

 

[leftybuff]

Just landed. Been off the internet for 4 whole hours and Mac is still our coach. Dammit.

Well clear back off the 'net so we have a chance, will ya?

 

[buffaholic]

What is the evidence that MM wants to leave?
What is the evidence that states that he was all in pursuing the Ole Miss job?
What is the evidence that there's head butting going on?

Is this speculation?

 

[J-R-K]

I would love to hear how those using 20/20 hindsight would have approached the situation.

"Coach Macintyre, my man big Mac. You had a great season and we truly appreciate the job you've done helping to turn this program around. However you did kind of suck prior to this season and we're still not 100% certain that you're the right person for the job long term. We're not one of the wealthier athletic programs in the country and I'd prefer what money we do have go towards the well being of our fans and our fine student athletes rather then a millionaire's buyout. As such, I don't feel comfortable throwing around $16.25 million fully guaranteed unless I'm sure the money is going to the right place. As a coach with a propensity for playing it conservative and often making questionable decisions to punt I hope you can understand my attitude being risk-averse.

Now we don't wan't you in lame-duck contract status and you certainly deserve some reward for the job you've done so we're going to extend your contract by one year and bump up your salary by a few hundred thousand for this year and next. Should you have another good season next year you have my word that you'll get a bigger and better contract extension in the offseason. I would also be willing to do a long-term deal right now if you'd like, but only if a fraction of the money is guaranteed. What's that? You're not happy about this? Ok well have fun at Baylor in that case, I hear Waco is lovely and the players on the team are all upstanding citizens. Oh they didn't actually offer you their job and no one else has either? That's too bad. What's that? You're just going to leave next year instead? Well you'll have to have a good season in order for that to be a possibility. Plus if that does happen I think you'd probably leave anyways even if I gave you a long term deal right now, so why should I take the risk?

But anyways go out and prove that last season wasn't a fluke. And while I have you here also please learn how to recruit, stop having convulsing temper tantrums on national tv, learn to get along with your assistants especially the ones to whom much of your success can be attributed, stop hiring sucky coaches (Toby Neinas, really?) or even if you can't help it at least learn how to fire them, again learn how to recruit, learn that domestic violence is a serious issue and should be treated as such, try to deal with fans and the media in a manner which is less terse and narcissistic, and finally get a haircut or at the very least find something better then those dorky bucket hats to cover it up. Now get the f*ck out of my office and go buffs!"