This week Steven Montez got his first big lesson in dealing with the media. The takeaway? Be like Tom Brady.
Colorado Buffaloes Head Coach Mike MacIntyre joined The Big Show on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 to explain.
But first, some background.
On Tuesday, Montez met with the media ahead of Friday’s Rocky Mountain Showdown and raised some eyebrows when he suggested that the Buffs were more or less going to run wild on their in-state rivals, Colorado State.
Montez has plenty of reason to be positive – the Buffs won in a dominant 44-7 performance last season – but the response was perceived by some fans and media to be a bit brazen. This was no typical “respect the opponent” cliche-filled response. Montez was honest – perhaps a bit more than people were prepared for.
MacIntyre could only laugh, though, when his quarterback approached him about the exchange.
“He’s so funny,” MacIntyre laughed. “After practice, he came over and said, ‘Coach, people are giving me a hard time; I didn’t know quite what to say.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about it; you’ll learn from it. Move on.’ And he had those big kid-looking eyes like, ‘I wasn’t trying to act like that! I didn’t want to say we’re terrible!'”
The coach decided to use it as a teaching moment.
“I said, ‘We’ll learn from it. We’ll move on,'” the coach continued. “So, honestly, it was a real innocent him being Steven. It wasn’t him trying to provoke anything. So I said, ‘Well, now you’ve learned.'”
Montez, already showing his maturity and leadership skills, had already made the connection.
“He goes, ‘Yeah, I watched a Tom Brady interview the other day. They asked him, “How good is the Jets’ defense?” and Tom goes “You know, I’ve got really good receivers, really good offense – he never answered the question.’ And I said, ‘Well, you’re learning! Learn from Tom Brady,'” the coach laughed.
Montez, a sophomore, did get some experience last year as a redshirt freshman when he stepped in on several occasions for an injured Sefo Liufau, including a start and a win at Oregon. He passed for 957 yards and nine touchdowns in eight regular-season games and went 2-1 as a starter. He also appeared as a backup in losses in the Pac-12 Championship and the Alamo Bowl.
The El Paso, Texas native showed off his athleticism and playmaking ability in 2016, but MacIntyre saw it well before that time. In fact, the coach was wowed with Montez’s skills on the football field as well as the basketball court.
“I did see him play basketball – that is correct – but I had seen him before play football. Not in a game, but at our camp. He came into our camp and threw, and he could throw so well. When I saw him play basketball, [I was] just blown away by his athleticism; he was a really good player.”
Listen to the full interview with Coach MacIntyre, including why Montez’s home state is proving to be a solid recruiting ground for the Buffs, in the podcast below…
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Catch The Big Show featuring Irv and Joe every weekday from 12p-2p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.
