The impact of Colorado hiring Deion Sanders as head football coach on Dec. 3 has been evident from the start, but Friday was yet another reminder.
An estimated 1,600 fans attended the 34th annual Boulder Chamber Kickoff Luncheon at the Buffaloes’ indoor practice facility. That’s more than double the estimated attendance at the 2022 event.
As expected, the event was loaded with energy, much of it generated by Coach Prime himself as the Buffs prepare for the Sept. 2 opener at TCU (10 a.m. MT, Fox).
“How about this?” athletic director Rick George said after Coach Prime’s entrance. “That energy, that’s what you get with Coach Prime. It’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be exciting. It is going to be a great ride for all of us. Strap it on and get ready to go.”
After the crowd spent time mingling and enjoying lunch, Coach Prime and the team entered the facility to his theme music for this season. And, before he took a seat at his table, Coach Prime walked up to 98-year-old super fan Peggy Coppom and danced with her to the tune of the theme song.
The man certainly knows how to energize a crowd, and Friday’s event typified the dramatic turnaround by the CU program since last season.
After a 0-5 start to the 2022 season – with none of the five close – George made the decision to fire head coach Karl Dorrell. By the time the 2022 season was over, the Buffs were 1-11, with 10 blowout losses, a hopeless fan base, and nowhere to go but up.
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One week after the season finale, Sanders was announced as the head coach, energizing Buff Nation. Since then, the Buffs have seen unprecedented ticket and merchandise sales. They’ve also seen a remarkable amount of publicity, with the nation’s eyes on Coach Prime’s program.
Oh, and the offseason included the Buffs making the announcement last month that they’ll leave the Pac-12 after the 2023-24 school year and rejoin the Big 12.
“So, quite the last nine months, huh? At least for me it has been,” George said to the crowd.
A program that has struggled for much of the past two decades is finally surging – at least off the field – and George said this has been a transformative offseason.
“I’m always looking forward, but I have to mention these last few months because this is now our time and it’s our time as a community, as an athletic department, as a university, to put all of our chips in the center and move this thing forward to a different level,” he said. “We have to build on this momentum to put CU in the best position possible for the long run. In my opinion, this is our moment in history that started nine months ago where we’re gonna solidify CU’s place as a powerhouse in college athletics.”
It starts, of course, with Coach Prime, who has given CU a jolt that no other coach could have possibly given the program. The Pro Football Hall of Famer became head coach at Jackson State in 2020 and turned that program around in a hurry.
George is hoping for a similar turnaround in Boulder and has been pleased with what he’s seen this offseason.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the future under Coach Prime’s leadership,” he said. “Coach Prime’s hiring, in my opinion, was that moment in time that we were either gonna be average or we were gonna be great. He’s going to take us to that level of greatness that we all want and that we all support, so I’m excited about that.”
Sanders expressed his appreciation for the community and fans who have supported him, his family and his team since they arrived. And, he reiterated what he said when he was hired: that he could feel the need for a winner by CU and its fans.
“There was something about (George’s) voice, there was something about his spirit, there was something about his desire and his want,” Sanders said.
“Not only do I appreciate you (as fans), not only do I love you, but darn it, I believe in you.”
He believes in his team, too, and said it’s a group that has come together to bring a winning product to CU.
“The commonality that they share is they want it all,” he said. “They don’t just want a little bit, they just don’t want a portion of it; they want it all. And, they don’t just want to win; they want to dominate. They don’t want to just go pro; they want to go in the first round. That’s who those young men are. They want it all.”
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