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Tune Out the Noise
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… See also … The Colorado Daily story, “CU Buffs AD Rick George: ‘I believe (Coach Prime) wants to be here for the long haul’ ” has CU athletic director saying, “Everybody talks about all these rumors and all these other things, and I kind of tune out that noise” …
This has been perhaps the busiest week in recent college football history.
The 12-team College Football Playoff participants will be decided this weekend, with plenty of controversy and storylines for fans to follow: Will the Playoff committee choose Alabama over a more deserving ACC team – again? Will Clemson crash the Playoff party, booting another “deserving” team? Would it be better for Oregon to lose the Big Ten title game, with the No. 5 seed presumably having an easier path to the title game than the No. 1 seed?
On top of that, Signing Day came on Wednesday, the earliest date ever for the big event, and there were any number of storylines early Wednesday morning: Which team will come up with the biggest surprise flip? Will CU actually sign Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, one of the highest-rated prospects in school history? Is Coach Prime being proven correct, that it is better to sign a smaller Class with highly-rated recruits, rather than a full Class with a half the Class being players who may never see the field … or who may transfer before ever contributing to your team?
On top of that, the Coaching Carousel got into full swing this week, with plenty of eyebrow-raising possibilities: Is Bill Belicheck considering coaching at North Carolina? Jimbo Fisher to West Virginia? Would USC’s Lincoln Riley really consider a move to UCF – potentially walking away from a $90 million buyout? Would UCF bring back Scott Frost, who led the Knights to the 2017 “national championship” (before flaming out as the prodigal son returning to Nebraska)?
And on top of all that, there are the bowl announcements to be made on Sunday, and the official opening of the Transfer Portal on Monday, with plenty of speculation on both fronts as to where teams and players will land next week.
As a result, anyone clicking on the front page of the ESPN website on Thursday morning, the day after Signing Day, and the day before the start of the conference championship weekend, could have expected any number of storylines to read about.
So … What was the headline story at ESPN Thursday?
Deion Sanders’ coaching future: Can Colorado keep him?
Seriously?
And it wasn’t just a small blurb about the latest ramblings from a talking head about how much fun it would be to see Coach Prime coach his son for the Dallas Cowboys or Las Vegas Raiders, it was a full blown expose on the status of Coach Prime at CU, and the different – and apparently, better – options for Coach Prime to coach elsewhere.
How detailed was the story? It was so long it was divided up into sections …
Is there a college job that could appeal to Sanders?
Could Florida State be an option, now or later?
Do NFL teams have an interest in Sanders?
Is there a specific franchise that could entice him?
What does Shedeur’s status mean in all of this?
What’s the outlook for Colorado in 2025?
Honestly, I thought we had put the issue of Coach Prime leaving this to bed – at least for this off-season – when five-star quarterback recruit Julian Lewis committed to CU on November 21st. While it didn’t commit Coach Prime to staying in Boulder for the 2025 season, it seemed to be a pretty fair indicator that he wasn’t going anywhere.
Not that it wasn’t that Coach Prime had told everyone who asked him that he was happy in Boulder, and that he wasn’t going anywhere. The Buffs’ run at a Big 12 championship game berth, though, not only brought CU back into the national rankings, but it also sparked renewed national attention. Talking heads ramped up their speculation as to whether Coach Prime would be a good fit at Florida, or Florida State, or Dallas, or Las Vegas … with the implication that CU and Boulder wasn’t a bright enough spotlight for Prime Time.
The commitment by Lewis, however, a franchise quarterback if there ever was one, put the “Coach Prime to … ” crowd back on simmer. If Buff fans were wondering if Coach Prime had an interest in staying after his sons graduated, that interest would pale in contrast to star players being asked to commit to coming to Boulder. The “Are you staying?” question would have been asked repeatedly by the families (and yes, agents) for not only Lewis, but the likes of four-star defensive lineman London Merritt (who decommitted from Ohio State) and four-star offensive lineman Carde Smith (who decommitted from USC). These are not the types of players who would leave the main stages of college football to play at Colorado unless they felt pretty confident that Prime Time would be there to coach them.
So why the renewed speculation?
Why the long, detailed story about the potential for Coach Prime leaving, with Signing Day, the College Football Playoff, and the Transfer Portal all major storylines to write about?
Why the hate for Colorado?
With the signing of Lewis, and a Recruiting Class ranked in the top four of the Big 12 despite being only 14 players strong (the three teams ranked above CU signed 21, 25, and 30 players, respectively), and with CU tying for first in the Big 12 standings in Coach Prime’s second season in Boulder, the headline at ESPN Thursday could have just as easily have been:
“CU signs star-studded Class, Buffs ‘Primed’ To Take Over Big 12“.
The ESPN article noted in its opening … The Buffs have invested in the football program since Sanders was hired in December 2022, but they don’t have the same resources as college football’s blue-blood programs. But he has recruited well recently, including signing five-star quarterback Julian Lewis, ESPN’s second-ranked recruit in the 2025 class, on Wednesday.
But instead of noting that the Big 12 was wide open, and, with the Big 12 lacking in a “blue blood” program to consistently dominate the conference, that Colorado was in good position to assume the mantle of top dog in the Big 12, the next sentence in the article was …
Could Sanders’ next step be to leave Colorado for another job — elsewhere in college football or in the NFL?
I guess that, for anyone under the age of 35, it’s hard to imagine the University of Colorado as being a player on the national stage. The Heisman trophy presentation next weekend will undoubtedly include footage of Rashaan Salaam’s run to the Heisman in 1994, but that is ancient history to many college football fans, and, apparently, many football writers.
For many of us, though, who remember well CU’s run of 143 consecutive weeks in the AP poll between 1989-97 (still the ninth-longest streak in college football history), and the 10-win seasons in 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, and 1996, the idea of CU competing for conference championships and being relevant on the national stage is not that far-fetched.
We can see what (hopefully) Coach Prime can see … that CU is in a Power Four conference devoid of big spending bullies, and that Colorado is well positioned to be a dominant force in the Big 12. And not just a dominant force in the murky future … but now.
An announcement that CU Athletic Director Rick George and Coach Prime have entered into a contract extension (one with a huge buyout clause, we hope) would do wonders to allay fears that Coach Prime will leave anytime soon.
In the meantime, though, the Buff Nation would be well advised to disregard the “Coach Prime to … ” speculation.
Tune out the noise, and just enjoy the ride.
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2 Replies to “Tune Out the Noise”
Something all of these stories fail to discuss is why. Why would Coach Prime leave the one Power Four school that said, “If you come here, you can do it your way and we will give you everything you want?” Coach Prime is king of Colorado. He can do whatever he wants, and the Buff faithful will follow without question. Here he can become the first black coach to win a National Championship and no one would be able to question whether it was him, or the program. Taking the worst team in College Football to a National Championship would cement his place in history. Why would he leave that? I don’t believe he will leave. I think he is on a mission and I think he will achieve it. Go Prime!
I will never forget the great CU teams of yore but I wont carry it around like some kind of compensation for recent failure like the cobbs or the deep south still fighting the civil war. I wont bet a dime against Alabama getting the most favorable playoff spot. The deep south is getting a little revenge for the civil war through the overhyped SEC.
I dont think Sanders will jump ship soon. He has already resurrected this program and he may not be ready to go thru that again. I also think he would rather coach young college aged men for the time being rather than deal with a lot of narcissistic and jaded pro players. Unfortunately there will be some more of those in college thanks to the NIL.
On the bright side it doesn’t seem the NIL has decreased the parity. The portal probably had something to do with that. I’m always hearing about portal guys playing well for their new teams.
Just as I am being football saturated here come the expanded playoffs. I will be hoping the underdogs like Indiana, Boise, SMU and of course the B12 CC team do well against the tired old (for me anyway) traditional powers that will always be on top of the recruiting wars.