BOULDER, Colo. -- The current Coach Mac let Colorados original Coach Mac do the inspiring at practice.He sure did, too.Longtime Buffaloes coach Bill McCartney showed up Tuesday and delivered a motivational speech that had coach Mike MacIntyre almost wishing it were game day. Thats how fired up his 12th-ranked Buffaloes were after an appearance by the coach who led Colorado to its only national title following the 1990 season.Who better to stop by before the biggest game in years for Colorado (8-2, 6-1 Pac-12) -- a showdown with No. 20 Washington State (8-2, 7-0) on Saturday at Folsom Field.I just had him say something to the team, and of course he did an awesome job, MacIntyre said. Hes been in this situation before, so the players were all locked in on what he had to say.McCartney, who was recently diagnosed with late-onset dementia , tends to drop by practice about once a month. But this particular trip had even more meaning because his grandson, Colorado outside linebacker Derek McCartney, was honored Tuesday as a member of the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, which recognizes athletes for making a positive impact on the community. Derek McCartney is an advocate for the organ transplant community after losing someone close to him who was on the waiting list.Derek McCartney is out for the season after tearing his ACL on Sept. 17 at Michigan .Dereks a special kid, genuinely humble, extremely talented, Bill McCartney said. Hes everything youre looking for as a coach. Hell turn this (setback) into something good by getting stronger as hes waiting to come back.Over the summer, McCartneys family announced he had dementia and Alzheimers. They went public just to alert everyone in the area who runs into the outgoing coach that if he appeared disconnected or unknowing, not to take it personally.Asked Tuesday about his health, McCartney said hes feeling good and quickly pointed out that while hes 76, his mother lived to be 103.Youre supposed to play your best football in the fourth quarter, so I have to have my `A game, McCartney said, laughing.At 93-55-5 , McCartney is the winningest coach in Colorado history and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.And theres no bigger fan of the black and gold than McCartney, who has box seats for every home game. He firmly believes in the current Coach Mac, too.A really quality leader, McCartney said. This is a time we live in where kids dont believe everybody that talks to them. But they believe him. They trust him. They dont think hes deceiving them for his own benefit. They think hes in it for them. When you get kids like that, that believes in the coach like that, all bets are off.In McCartneys opinion, thats why the Buffaloes are in the midst of their best season in ages. Theyre already heading to their first bowl game since 2007.But plenty more awaits. They can earn a place in the Pac-12 championship game as the South Division representative by beating Washington State this weekend and Utah on Nov. 26.This squad reminds McCartney of his talented teams because of their willingness to be coached.Coach Mac is a guy I look up, a man that I admire and get advice from, MacIntyre said. I listen to every word he says. Its an honor and privilege to coach at the university he was at. Its an honor and a privilege to have his namesake -- Coach Mac and Coach Mac. 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Air Max Baratas Outlet .J. -- Josh Cribbs was in the Pro Bowl in February and out of a job six months later. Is leadership something youre born to do, or can you actually learn to do it? I think you need to learn to do it, and on a cricket field, a leader is as good as the team. I was quite blessed to have talented cricketers like Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, who were impact players. Therefore my task became much easier. But as a leader, the important thing is that you observe whats around you, who you have, the characters, understand who they are. I think those are the things a good leader should learn to adapt.Did you feel captaincy was something you would do when you were growing up and starting to get into the game seriously? When you want to play the game and be as competitive as I was, I think automatically those things came my way, whether I like it or not. Ive captained from Under-13 onward - all my school teams. When you are performing well and you are probably bit better than the rest of your colleagues, its a natural thing that a coach will give you the captaincy. I think I grew into it, in the sense that I took responsibility and I realised that I have to try and see how best I could be a leader as well as perform out there.Have there been influences over the course of your career that have shaped your style of leadership? As an eight-year-old my first coach was Mr Lionel Mendis, who was a very strict disciplinarian - army background, but a very good cricketer. A lot of focus was put into how we dressed, how we walk, how we hold a bat. He was just quite old-school. I think that upbringing probably helped me when I started playing for my school.I think I made mistakes as a young leader, as a young cricketer - not turning up for practice on time and a few other little things. But when our coaches pull you aside and give you a couple of warnings, you realise that this is a game with discipline and that you have to fall in line. I think those kind of things probably contributed towards my leadership later on.This calmness you have and the way you go about your life - is that a product of your upbringing? My parents were very simple people. I had a very simple lifestyle growing up. Ive travelled by bus to my practices and I had to come back after training by bus. Then I had to make sure I keep up with my studies. The deal my parents had with me was that they will allow me to play as much cricket as I want, as long as I dont miss my studies and have bad grades at school. That kind of upbringing allowed me to be normal even when I played international cricket.Did you feel like you were a natural captain as a 13- or 14-year-old? I wanted to win matches even if I played a game of football with my friends. I just naturally wanted to win. It wasnt a bad thing, because it got the best out of me. I think when you are captain you always look at ways to win a match. So that competitiveness brought ideas and things I could do against certain players and get others involved.Youve spoken in the past about the torment of losing your brother at a very young age. I think you were 19 at the time. Did that change your perspective towards life? I think that was a big episode in our life. We grew up together, we played in the same teams. He was my best friend. He died of cancer and the treatment for two and a half to three years was a huge struggle for my parents, for myself, for my brother and a lot of close relatives and friends. To go through that at a young age gives you a hard and fast look at life and gives you perspective of how lucky you are and how you could help others. It was a very good lesson for me. Nothing else matters after what we went through. For me to lose my brother and for my parents to lose a son - the press writing bad things about me, or whether I had gone through a bad period in form [was nothing].You mentioned in an article that you had to score his runs as well when you batted. Yeah, he was a very good cricketer. My grandfather used to watch us play together in the junior ranks. Whenever my brother gets a 50 or a 60, my grandfather would always say he was a better player than me. He was just teasing me, but that was embedded in me. When I started playing for my country I always used to carry a photograph of him, and every time you score runs and youve done well, you want to tell him that you did well.At around 17, you were emerging as a colossus. You were a terror in school cricket, got lots and lots of runs. Were there people you looked up to as a batsman as well as a leader? Growing up, I watched a lot of cricket. My father always encouraged us to watch cricket and I grew up watching videos of Bradman, Viv Richards, and as a young Sri Lankan, Aravinda [de Silva] was the player we all loved watching because he had something different about the way he batted. But at a young age I realised that I cannot be any of those players. I can take a lot of good things from them into my game, but I realised I had to be the best I could be. How much did Arjuna Ranatunga influence your captaincy? Arjuna was a very strong character, and I think Sri Lankan cricket needed someone like that to be honest at that time because we were underachieving. We had the talent but we did not have someone to show the direction and get everyone together and say, you are a good team, you dont have to bow down to others. He did it iin a very dictatorial manner, which Sri Lanka cricket needed.dddddddddddd He changed the dynamics of Sri Lankan cricket.Building up to that 1996 World Cup, I was lucky enough to play in the same club as him. I joined SSC when I was 19 or 20, in 1996. He was my first captain at SSC. Two days before a game he called me and said, youre playing, but the only place you could bat is as opener. Because we had Asanka Gurusinha at No. 3, Marvan Atapattu and then Arjuna. I said, I am happy to open the batting. We were playing Bloomfield - Sanath [Jayasuriya], Roshan [Mahanama] and all those guys. Its a huge rivalry.We put them in to bat. They were bowled out for 165 on a very lively wicket at SSC. I went in as opening batsman and we put on 120 runs on that same day. There were three overs to bat. I still remember, I cut Ruwan Kalpage, an offspinner, got a fine edge and was caught behind. I was 65 out. Im thinking, wow, they scored 165 and Im walking back into the pavilion all smiles. Arjuna was in a towel and a T-shirt. He comes out of the dressing-room door and gave me a proper rollicking that I shouldnt be happy that I gave my wicket away in the last three overs. Thats how he ran the ship, and it was a very good experience for me as a young cricketer. I dont endorse everything he did as captain, but I think he had a lot of good qualities. Were there things that Arjuna did as a tactician and as a leader that you imbibed in your job as captain? No. The direction that he took in showing the rest of the guys that Sri Lanka was good enough and that we should play the natural Sri Lankan brand of cricket was something we carried forward. As a tactician, to be fair, Arjuna had some other good heads in his team, guys like Aravinda, Hashan Tillakaratne, Mahanama. Those guys were very shrewd, experienced players who had a lot of good ideas, and he took all that on board as well. So I think that helped him. Those are the things that I learned as a youngster.All these guys were part of that wonderful run in 1996. There you are, at 18, watching your tiny island nation become world champions. What did that ignite in you as a young player, but also in seeing what a leader can achieve with a group of committed men? I remember playing my last big match on the day of the final. We finished and went home and watched the second half of our innings. The way they went about the entire tournament and even after the World Cup, for about a good six months, they dominated one-day cricket. That was something wonderful for us to watch as youngsters.Now that you look back on your time as an international captain, what are your big learnings? What does it take to be a successful international captain? For me, man-management is No. 1, because the team will trust you more than a coach or anyone else. You need to understand the characters in that team and allow them to showcase what they have got. You dont treat each individual differently because there should be a set of rules to guide all these people. But they should have that little bit of freedom to express themselves and to understand who they are. The only way you know all that is if you interact with them and if you be their friend and not as a captain at the top, giving orders.I have a different way of doing that. Thats why I said Im a bit different to Arjuna. He was more authoritarian, one who wanted things done in a certain way, and we needed that at that time. But I realised I could get the best out of the guys a different way, where Id be their friend and allow them to make decisions and back those decisions.Did your close friendship with Kumar Sangakkara create its own difficulties in the team environment? Not really. Thats why we probably still are friends, because we dont say yes to everything or what the other person does. When Kumar was captain, I would always question certain decisions he made, and when I was captain he would do the same. You need those kinds of friends and people in your team. I allowed the younger members of the team to ask questions because they might have a brilliant idea, and if you shut them down, you will never know that. My theory on teamwork is that everyone talks and everyone has to contribute and I will pick things from them. If nothing comes up then Ill take a decision, but whatever the decision I take out there its my decision, I take responsibility for that. It doesnt matter if it came from a different person, but its my decision once Ive made that call.When you became captain there were several senior players in that squad and sometimes you have to make tough decisions regarding those senior players. Did you, in the first few instances, find that hard to do? I was a bit worried but I realised I have to be honest to myself, the team and to my country. As a captain you have make those calls and I went ahead and did that. I know some people dont like me for that, but I feel that if they were in my shoes, and theyve been captains as well before, they would have done the same thing. Ive never shied away from making those decisions and I dont regret any of that.Watch ESPNcricinfo Talking Cricket at 9.30pm IST on Fridays and the repeat on 12 noon on Sundays on SONYESPN ' ' '