CU Buffs Joe Tumpkin: 'I was in the wrong, Coach was in the right'

One of the big talking points after Colorado’s 41-24 loss to Oregon, was the altercation that took place between Mike MacIntyre and safeties coach Joe Tumpkin after Tumpkin received a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. We caught up with Tumpkin to talk about that incident, his unit’s performance in the Oregon game, and the Buffs matchup with Arizona State this Saturday (8 PM MST, Pac-12 Networks).

On what led to the 15-yard penalty:

“It was and altercation that happened on the field with Ryan Moeller and I was in the wrong in how I handled it.”

On the altercation with MacIntyre:

“I was in the wrong, Coach [MacIntyre] was in the right. I was in the wrong and coach was just trying to make sure that I didn’t get into any more trouble. I was totally in the wrong.”

On if the Oregon quarterback change was a curveball:

“You’re always ready, you watch all of them, all of them have played in games so you have tape on all of them and you prepare for all of them.”

On how he felt the safeties played overall:

“At times I thought we played very well, you see out there they made some plays, and at times we made some critical errors in some situations. A couple times it hurt us, a couple times it didn’t. I thought they played hard, we took some bad angles at times, and had some missed tackles on some of those long runs and stuff like that, I wish we would have had better angles and things. As a general rule, I think the kids played extremely hard and extremely tough.”

On facing Arizona State this week:

“I’ve defended Todd Graham’s offenses in the past when he was at Rice and when he was at Tulsa, so I’m familiar with a lot of the stuff that he’s done in the past, his style and what he kind of wants to do. We’ll look at what he’s done against us, I’ll remember some things that I’ve done in the past and see how he’s adjusted to that. A lot of it, really, is we just have to be able to line up to all their formations, make sure that we have guys covered, be in the right spots and play with great fundamentals. When you’re playing teams that spread you out like that, you have to have great fundamentals, that’s one of the thing that we have to make sure we spend time on this week, getting back to some fundamentals.”

On how much facing Graham in the past can help:

“At least you know his style, there are a lot of things that are probably a lot different, different schools, different conferences, different athletes, that type of stuff. He’s a very good football coach, he’s been successful everywhere he’s been, all they way from his high school days in Texas, he’s been a successful football coach. It’s going to be a tough game, but I think our kids are going to be up for it and ready to go.”

Last two coaches off the field tonight: Mac and Tumpkin. Looked like regular ol' football talk. pic.twitter.com/AZ9fDz5Kau

— RK (@RyanKoenigsberg) October 5, 2015