When the results came back from the BSN Buffs Fans Choice Interviews poll, atop the list was Colorado’s own Phillip Lindsay.
“It’s an honor, and it’s exciting, I play for the fans,” Lindsay said, of the CU faithful wanting to hear from him before anyone else. “I just want to make my parents proud, make the fans proud, and I just want to have a good year.”
So what makes him a fan favorite?
“My passion, my fire, my toughness, being mean on the field,” he explained. “All while not being the biggest dude on the field, being probably one of the smallest backs in the Pac-12, but running hard. I think it’s all just my personality.”
His love for the state probably doesn’t hurt either, in the trailer for the latest CU Video production,”Forward,” Lindsay had this to say.
“I’m from Colorado and I rep Colorado, 303 all day. It’s important to me- it’s my family. My family is from here and Colorado is in me and is a part of me. Everybody says, ‘Oh, you’re going to Colorado?’ and they downplay us and think we suck, and that really makes me mad. It makes me angry every time I see it.”
If he wasn’t one of your favorite players before, he probably is now.
Really what it boils down to with Lindsay, is that passion he talked about. The 5-foot-8 running back, often referred to as “The Tasmanian Devil” by his head coach, always looks hungry on the field, like he has something to prove on each and every play.
He defines that passion pretty simply.
“I love football, there is no better sport than football,” he claimed. “To play at the collegiate level is probably one of the best feelings in the world. That’s just how I feel, I love football.”
But that hunger may have cost him on a few occasions last season, as more than once, he was stripped of the ball as he fought for extra yardage, losing three total fumbles on the year, including two in a close game against Washington.
He says not that, or anything else can change the way he plays.
“I just play the game, and I’m just me,” and I just have to hold on to the football while I’m being me,” he told. “That’s not hard to do, I just have to do it. I made a couple mistakes, that was in the past, and this is forward, we’re moving forward, and that’s how it’s going to go.”
Throughout camp, one of the main storylines will be the race at running back. Will it be the same three-headed-monster we saw last season? Will a newcomer like Patrick Carr or Dino Gordon get in the mix? How about Aaron Baltazar when/if he makes his way to Boulder? Or will things go the other way and will one guy solidify himself as the feature back?
Lindsay is taking a macro-approach to the whole thing.
“I do want to go into the Hawaii game being the number one running back,” he admitted. “But it’s 13 straight games, we’re going to need each other, we’re going to need everybody. That’s how we roll, each one of us can go off every game, that’s the best part about it. But I definitely want to get that starting role.”
“Right now it’s hard to say,” he added about the chance of one guy becoming a feature back. “We don’t always know what the coaches are thinking. I feel like they liked it last year when we were able to get different running backs on the field, every back brings something different to the table. Also, it kept us fresh, and we could keep rolling… We’ll see, like I said, it’s a long season, and a long camp in front of us, so we just have to keep on rolling.”
One thing Lindsay does know is that he has improved himself this offseason.
“My body has gotten stronger, I’ve gotten bigger. I gained about 10 pounds, and the game is slowing down for me,” told the Denver South High School product. “Last year I was a sophomore in school and a redshirt freshman on the football field, my first year ever playing college football, and I was coming off of a knee injury, so it was pretty exciting. Now I can just calm down, the holes are opening up faster, and I’m able to see it, the game is slowing down for me.”
Finally, Lindsay shed some light on his coach, and current holder of the number one spot in the CU coaches twitter-power-rankings, Klayton Adams.
“Off the field, he’s funny, he’s a goofball, you have fun, you can talk to him, he’s easy to talk to and you know, he’s funny,” said Lindsay. “On the field, he always makes a point, don’t take his kindness for an excuse to be disrespectful to him, when it’s time to play, time to be in sessions, or meetings, turn it off, it’s time to be grown men and handle our business. I feel like everybody has that connection with him.”
“After practice, he’ll probably be up there messing with us here in a little while,” he added. “Just trying to ease the tension, it’s everybody’s first day, guys might be a little tensed up and stuff, he wants to ease that. Then we’ll go back in meetings, see how we did today, and improve from there.”
Despite being slapped with Adams’ ping-pong dueling glove on Saturday, Phil says the matchup has yet to take place.
I am officially challenging @I_CU_boy to a spirited game of ping pong. pic.twitter.com/PKZDztW7A3
— Klayton Adams (@K_Adams_FB) August 1, 2015
“Nah, when we finally solidify and move into our new facility, we’ll have that matchup,” he said with a laugh. “But we’re more worried about winning games out here.”
He did offer a prediction, though.
“I’m going to win, I’ll let him probably score about two,” he said, frankly. “But I’d rather win on this football field, and then I can worry about going in there and beating him up on the ping pong table.”
Not even with a light-hearted ping pong discussion, can Phillip Lindsay take his mind off of winning football games. It’s no wonder Colorado fans selected him first overall in the interview draft.
