CU Buffs: Rick George Roundtable Round-up

Colorado Athletic Director, Rick George fielded questions from the media after the 21st annual Casotti Classic, Colorado athletics and media golf tournament.

On the season-long suspension of Josh Tupou:

“I’ll just say this, I cant talk about his case in particular, but one of those things we are always going to do is, we are going to hold each other accountable. When you don’t follow the policies, whether it’s team, campus or city policies, there are consequences, and sometimes that includes not being back to play in a particular year.”

On if there needs to be something done to make these situations more transparent:

“I dont think so… if it was a normal student, there wouldn’t be much of a focus because you wouldn’t know about it, but he happens to be a starter on the football team, so that becomes this big issue. We have very few of our student athletes that do get in trouble, and I’m real proud of that, but when they do, we’re going to hold them accountable and there is consequences.”

On the feeling that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen at Alabama:

“That’s what people are saying out there, but I dont buy into that. There’s a lot of student athletes that get suspended whether it’s by the institution, the city or whatever, but I don’t think we’re different than anybody else. I dont buy into the notion that you don’t hear about that at Alabama, I think that’s what people like to say, but I don’t think there’s any credibility behind it.”

On the addition of Jim Leavitt:

Well he certainly adds enthusiasm, he’s just a terrific guy that has a lot of energy and has a lot of credibility with our football players, because he’s been there, he’s done it, he brought USF up to the second ranked team jun the country, he went to five bowl games, he started in a shed building a program at USF, and then he goes and coaches some of the best linebackers in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers.”

“Of all the coaches that I’ve been around, he is so excited to be here and he’s so excited to be in college athletics. I mean, I ran into him on Pearl Street two nights ago and he’s got his family and his kids, and they’re wearing their CU cheerleading outfits, he’s just all in, and that’s what I love about him.”

On the “Buff Walk” brick campaign:

“We just started a brick paver program that went really well, we’ve already raised over $100,000 dollars in our brick paver program, and it’s going to be really neat the way we’re going to set this up.”

“We’d like to fill it, and we’re off to a great start, we had one of this company’s best days in history [when we started it]… We still have a lot of bricks to sell, but it’s a great way to get involved.”

On what percentage of the bricks have been sold:

“Oh gosh, it’s a real low percentage right now, Ryan. We just started selling them a month ago… I don’t know the exact numbers, but let’s say we’ve got 4,000 bricks, we’ve still got well over 3,000 to sell, so we’re just getting started.”

On the Budget of the athletic department:

“Our budget, we finished the year with a very small surplus, I’m not sure exactly what that total is, but we’re in the black and I’m really proud of that. I’m proud of our staff… To be in the black was important to us.”

On “full cost of attendance” scholarships:

“As it relates to the cost of attendance, we are moving forward full throttle on that, we anticipate that that will add another $500,000 to $600,000 to our budget, but it’s important for us.”