Colorado Football: There's a storm brewing in Boulder
Colorado Buffaloes head coach Mike MacIntyre has done a marvelous job bringing big-time football back to Boulder. But scandals rock programs.
To this point, you don’t see the national media making that big of a stink out of the news that has come out regarding MacIntyre, his former defensive coordinator Joe Tumpkin, and an accuser.
According to these reports, MacIntyre became aware of abuse allegations against Tumpkin by his ex-girlfriend on December 9. However, Tumpkin was promoted to the spot of defensive coordinator for Colorado’s Alamo Bowl appearance against Oklahoma State after Jim Leavitt took the same job at Oregon.
That presents a very troubling timeline.
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In a response to an article that appeared on Sports Illustrated on Friday, the university defended its coach and athletic director Rick George.
“In mid-December, Joe Tumpkin’s ex-girlfriend notified Coach MacIntyre of an allegation of physical assault. MacIntyre immediately informed George. I learned of these allegations shortly thereafter,” chancellor Philip P. DiStefano said in the statement. “At that time, we believed that it was premature to take personnel action because there was no restraining order, criminal charges, civil action or other documentation of the allegation.
Tumpkin signed and acknowledged receipt for the temporary restraining order on Dec. 30, according to court records. But no athletic department officials nor university administrators saw a copy of it until the afternoon of Jan. 6, shortly after a Boulder Daily Camera reporter informed the athletic department of the filing and was seeking comment.”
Perhaps MacIntyre wasn’t sure how to handle things at first. Perhaps the statement above is true and the school was just letting the process play out. But no matter what, it’s a bad look.
If you want a detailed look into how ugly this story is, Michael McKnight of Sports Illustrated does a great job laying it out.
Certain scandals have put a permanent black mark on programs in over time, some recently. Those don’t need to be discussed here or compared to this situation. That said, Colorado is a program on the rise. Coach MacIntyre is seen as the leader of that and the school and the community clearly see him as an honorable man who can and should be trusted.
With that in mind, CU will need to do some damage control in the very near future and hopefully, we can all pray, that this situation doesn’t get any worse than it already is.