Colorado Buffaloes Director of Player Personnel Mike Murphy Focused on Bringing Top Talent to Boulder

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

The love for football across the country continues to rise with respective fan bases itching to be a part of the new College Football Playoffs. One of the many Power Five Conference programs seeking a return to former glory is the Colorado Buffaloes. With a new top-down focus, Colorado is quietly building a program on the rise.

Current high school students are far too young to remember some of the glory years achieved in Boulder in years past. Reaching back into the Big 8 days of the early 1960’s, both Everett Grandelius and Eddie Crowder brought home winners with Crowder delivering a 10-win season in 1972. Bill Mallory continued to win, but the wheels dropped off during a three-year Chuck Fairbanks tenure from 1979-81.

When most Colorado fans harken back to “the glory days”, Bill McCartney is quickly brought up. McCartney suffered through three losing seasons (1982-84) flipping a 1-10 team to a 7-5 squad from 1984 to 1985. McCartney went on to build a powerhouse winning eight or more games for seven consecutive seasons three times bringing home an 11-win season with three consecutive Big 8 titles (1989-91) and a national championship in 1990. Once McCartney righted the ship, he posted a record of 86-30-5 in Boulder – and there is reason to believe that kind of success can be had again.

Since McCartney left Boulder, Rick Neuheisel and Gary Barnett had some memorable years but the program dropped off dramatically under Dan Hawkins (2006-10) and Jon Embree (2011-12). A new era has begun in Boulder under Mike MacIntyre. MacIntyre brings a wealth of experience from the SEC (Georgia and Ole Miss), the ACC (Duke), and the NFL (Cowboys and Jets). Before coming to Colorado, MacIntyre helped turn around a struggling San Jose State squad and is now in process of doing the same with the Buffaloes.

Colorado posted a 4-9, 1-8, record during the 2015 season but do not let MacIntyre’s third year with the Buffaloes fool you. Showing signs of things to come, Colorado was competitive in their Pac-12 schedule losing close games to Arizona 38-31, UCLA 35-31, USC 27-24, and Utah 20-14.

MacIntyre has loaded his staff with talented coaches hiring Brian Lindgren and Darrin Chiaverini as co-offensive coordinators and Jim Leavitt as the Buffaloes defensive coordinator. Pulling back to the glory days, former Buffaloes great Darian Hagan works as the running backs coach. Among Chiaverini’s many tasks includes being the recruiting coordinator. Helping Chiaverini scout talent across the country identifying the players to help Colorado return to a contender is Director of Player Personnel Mike Murphy.

Murphy has a world of football experience working as a long time scout in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs, Seattle Seahawks, and Dallas Cowboys and has college and pro coaching experience working with the Ottawa Rough Riders as linebackers coach (1995-96), Bethel College as offensive coordinator (1993-94), along with Arizona Western and Iowa State as a graduate assistant (1990-91) starting off his coaching career.

MacIntyre hired Murphy to help with recruiting on March 1, 2015. The difference in recruited talent is already noticeable with the Buffaloes 2017 class shaping up to be perhaps one of the best in some 20 years.

In a Recruiting News Guru exclusive interview, I sat down with Murphy for an in-depth discussion on Colorado football and what it means to be a Director of Player Personnel at the collegiate level.

*Mike Murphy took a position with the New York Giants starting at the beginning of July.

Interview

Mike, first, thanks for taking time to speak with me today.

“No worries, Ryan.”

What is the primary job of a director of player personnel?

“My primary job is to watch the high school players and evaluate them. From there, we have different categories we put the players in from there. If the player is a no-brainer, he goes into one category for a visual offer. If there is a question about a player, say an offensive lineman or defensive lineman with the frame to be a 300 pounder, we have to find out if the recruit is a self-made 300 pounder. Linemen get injured more often. With more weight placed on a frame that is not used to it, that could lead to injury.

“A good defensive back or wide receiver that is say 5’9” but they want someone taller, you have to make the call – will he get bigger? Our coaches go see the player and then say yes or no. A “yes” moves to an offer category. A “no” moves them off the board. Our third category is a camp recruit, meaning we want to see them in person. We might have seen a player that was 5’9” as sophomore or junior but we want to see if they have grown any. We want to see that player in person.

“My other job is evaluating our team from a talent and performance basis. I give the head coach what we did in the NFL, a write-up. I let him know where I think we are in talent and production. We do it as an unbiased opinion. I don’t have a daily interaction with the players on the field, in the classroom, or in the weight room. I don’t have that personal attachment as the coaches do so I can give an unbiased opinion. I grade them and do a write-up on them for Coach MacIntyre.”

Under Coach MacIntyre, what is the mission statement, theme, or rallying cry he is pulling everyone together under?

“Coach MacIntyre uses the phrase “Be Uncommon” on and off the field. That’s the biggest thing for him.”

What base offense does Colorado recruit to fill?

“Our offense will be similar to what we had last year. We will run a Spread Offense with some high-tempo stuff this season.”

I understand each position has different needs but as an overall for the program recruiting needs, what type of athletes or players is Colorado looking to recruit?

“We would like physically ready to compete players. Football is a big man’s game. Size, speed, and athletic ability are big factors. From the high school level, looking at kids, we look at athletic ability, size, instincts, and speed. We do not look so much at reads and reactions. You don’t know how they are coached. We are looking for big kids on the line with size and speed. At wide receiver, we want more size on the outside. On the inside, we want smaller quicker guys for match-up problems.”

What base defense will Colorado run in 2016?

“We will run a 3-4, same as last year. A lot of people are going to that in this conference. We switch it up some. We have to be crafty when brining in guys from different areas and spots. We have to find different ways to bring pressure and stop the run.”

What type of players are you trying to recruit to fill in the 2017 class on defense?

“Again, size and speed. Size of the receivers and the rules of the game in the Pac-12, you want bigger guys. In the secondary, a jump ball becomes an issue. You have to have guys that can run. Linebackers have to run and step up in the run game. Size and speed and the more length you have the better you will cover space. The ideal is long, athletic, and speedy. We want to match-up man-to-man on receivers, so you want someone at end that can rush the passer. If you don’t have that you are in trouble. Defensive backs can only cover for so long.”

You touched on this briefly a minute a go, what is the in-house process taking a recruit through the process before an offer is exteded?

“We set it up similar to NFL scouting department. We have people that work with us in an area. We try to prospect an area, get names from different sources. We prospect those kids. The evaluations goes from one coach to the next. If a player gets two no’s it is a pass. If a player gets a no and a yes. I get the final say.

“We try to get transcripts. We do a transcript evaluation. Colorado is a high academic school, there are a lot of kids that can get into other schools that cannot get in here. We try to find out how close they are to being able to get into Colorado. We start that after their sophomore year looking at four semesters of transcripts. We look at NCAA and academic core to see how it fits with Colorado.

“The coaches, they will go out and bring back names for us to evaluate. We give the coaches names and what we think of the players. Any questions they can, they try to answer those questions. The head coach wants to see everyone we offer first. Coach MacIntyre will get on the phone with the player to make sure the player knows he has been offered.”

How much tape is watched on each player as part of the evaluation process?

“We have guys that come from the NFL, we all watch three game tapes on the kid. You go through a game and have a feel for a guy by the end of Game 1. If you go onto the second game and he has a bad game? Once you get a feel, I move on to see if it is the same in Game 3. I watch the highlight then get into three games. I like to see how he plays against different competition.

“For us, we use a lot of what the NFL does as a scouting staff. My big thing is watching game tape to evaluate so you are not making mistakes. Watching highlight tapes will get you in trouble. We have coaches that have played and coached in the NFL, they do the same thing – three games. One game he was at this level as a defensive end but maybe we project him as a linebacker in the next game. Where do they project? A cornerback that does not run well enough but can cover, maybe we can move him to safety?”

What are some of the selling points for recruits thinking about Colorado?

“One is the academics. Colorado one of the better schools in the country – a Top 5 program. We are selling Colorado to California, Florida, and Texas kids. When they get out here and find out the temps are in the high 70’s and it is not always cold and snowy, they like it. Tradition here from the past with Heisman Trophy Award candidates here and Butkus Award winners – we are trying to get back to that here. Another selling feature, do you want to be a number on the sideline or have a chance to play right now, turn it around back to what it used to be.

“The other thing, they have put a lot of effort into our new $160 million facility. It is state of the art. We have our own medical facility here with CAT scans and MRI machines. We have a state of the art training room. We have treadmill pools and all the above. The academics are really good here and we have the Flat Iron Mountains. We are close to Denver so we are close to the Rockies, Avalanche, Broncos, and Nuggets. If a recruit wants to ski, they can go to the mountains to go skiing. There is a lot of outdoor stuff here to do.”

Do you have any words of wisdom to recruits? The Do’s and the Don’ts?

“Look at it from the NFL. They are taking care of the little things on and off the field. It does not matter if you are a 5- or 4-star, college football is getting the best at that level. Now you have to be the best of best in college. If a player is taking care of the stuff in classroom, weight room, and on the field, that is half the battle. That will help you tremendously moving onto the next level.”

“Another thing – social media. Everyone is following what you do from college and the NFL. When you start giving yourself a bad image that can hurt you. It will raise red flags and cause further digging into the induvial. My advice, if you don’t want your mom to see it don’t put it out there.”

Mike, thanks for your time today and good luck out on the recruiting trail.

Photo credit: cubuffs.com; Mike Murphy with Colorado.

Photo credit: asudailydevil.com; Colorado takes the field.