Coach Prime, Colorado open Year 2 vs. North Dakota State on TSN
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Year 2 of the Coach Prime experiment gets underway Thursday in Boulder as Colorado hosts FCS giants North Dakota State.
In case you might have thought Deion Sanders would mellow over time, the past several days has disabused you of that notion. As he is apt to do, the Pro Football Hall of Famer is once again feuding with the media.
Last week, the Denver Post’s Sean Keeler was informed that Sanders would no longer take questions from him over Keeler’s predilection for what he perceived to be derogatory nicknames for the coach or, as Sanders put it, a "series of sustained, personal attacks.”
The decision was met with contempt by ESPN college football maven Paul Finebaum, who called it “disgraceful.” Speaking on a podcast with former Baylor star Robert Griffin III, Prime accused Finebaum of using his name to stay relevant, calling him “a dying breed.”
"I know what he's doing, and I'm proud of him that he's smart enough to understand that this generation and this thought process and the way we communicate on sports - it's different, and he's a dying breed,” Sanders said of Finebaum. “So, what does he have to do to stay and keep up with this change? 'Oh, I gotta go find that big bad wolf and talk about it, so now I keep my relevancy.' And I'm saying, 'Cool,' but I'm not gonna help you. I'm not going to add to you, I'm not even gonna respond. Because that's what you want. Yeah, you just want me to respond. I don't do that. I'm not gonna help you come up."
While the Sanders sideshow can be exhausting, there is a method to his madness. Sanders propagates his cult of personality not solely out of arrogance, but also out of necessity. By keeping the focus on himself, Prime shields a young team from criticism and it’s easy to see why he would choose that tact.
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In his first year in Boulder, the Buffaloes stormed out of the gate with a 3-0 start, opening up with a win over National Championship runners-up Texas Christian. There was talk of a College Football Playoff appearance. Celebrities on the Colorado sideline became commonplace, with the likes of Lil Wayne, Offset and C.C. Sabathia spotted in Boulder. There was the kind of buzz around the team there hadn’t been in more than 20 years.
But Prime’s star power papered over a lot of cracks on what really wasn’t a very good Buffaloes team. It would go 1-8 the rest of the way and 1-8 in Pac-12 play (RIP Pac-12) with dual threat defensive back/wide receiver Travis Hunter limited to nine games with injury.
Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Prime’s son, are legitimate stars, though, and if Colorado can improve on last season it will likely be largely due to the play of this first-round-graded duo of Heisman Trophy hopefuls.
Still, their first schedule in their return to the Big 12 is a daunting one including a grueling three-game stretch to end the season against Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma State. If 2024 starts looking like 2023, how will Prime respond?
On the other side of the field, the Bison are in the midst of sweeping change. After five years and two FCS titles, head coach Matt Entz joined Lincoln Riley’s staff at USC as the linebackers coach and assistant head coach. In his stead comes the returning Tim Polasek. Polasek previously spent seven seasons with the Bisons in various roles and now comes back for his first ever head coaching job after stints at Iowa and Wyoming.
A quarterback in his playing days, Polasek knows that Sanders will give his team everything they can handle.
"He's the best player NDSU has played yet,” Polasek said of the Colorado pivot. “I really believe that. This guy is process-oriented. He's progression-based. He's aware of footwork, timing and rhythm. He takes what the defence gives him. He goes to the right spots and on top of that, he can play off of different platforms.”
One of the Buffaloes’ goals in the off-season was to improve Sanders’ protection by beefing up the offensive line. Thursday night’s matchup should give a good indication of how successful they were.