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Moving the Goalposts
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This just in … Coach Prime is a polarizing figure.
With natural talent and an unrivaled work ethic, Deion Sanders forged a playing career which landed him in the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
With a over-the-top personality and uncanny knack for successful self-promotion, Deion Sanders also put together a post-playing days career which netted him generational wealth.
Along the way, Coach Prime created a persona which generated millions of fans … and millions of detractors.
The past two years, the University of Colorado and the Buff Nation have been the beneficiaries of all that is Coach Prime, who has – to the consternation of some – continued to be successful.
You would think that, after taking the worst Power Five program in the nation from 1-11 to 9-4 in two years, that Coach Prime would be universally praised for the turnaround.
Instead, Buff fans need to be prepared for a long off-season of “I doubt he can win without his ‘sons’ Travis and Shedeur”.
Thing is, moving the goalposts further away every time Coach Prime meets a challenge is nothing new …
He is all flash, and no substance, and won’t be able to coach at the college level …
Deion Sanders had never even been so much as an assistant coach at the collegiate level when he took over the head coaching job at Jackson State. Coach Prime had coached high school teams in Texas, but had no coaching experience at any level above prep schools.
In 2020, Jackson State was a struggling Southwestern Athletic Conference program. The Tigers hadn’t had a winning season since 2013, and were coming off of a 4-8 season in 2019, with a season-ending 41-6 loss to rival Alcorn State.
All Coach Prime did was set up shop in Jackson … and win.
The Tigers went 4-3 in the COVID year of 2020, but then took off. Jackson State went 11-2 in 2021 and 12-1 in 2022 in seasons two and three under Coach Prime.
Coach Prime had proven he could coach at the collegiate level, enough so that CU athletic director Rick George came calling.
You would have thought that there would be some degree of confidence that Coach Prime could build a program at Colorado, just as he had at Jackson State. Instead, the naysayers were out in full force, and the goalposts were moved again …
Sure, Coach Prime can win at the SWAC level, but he won’t be successful with a Power Five program …
The overhaul of the CU roster before the 2023 season was unprecedented.
Almost all of the players left from the 2022 CU football team were given their walking papers. According to 247 Sports, the number of 2022 scholarship players to hit the Transfer Portal was 57. When taken with the number of seniors who graduated, and the number of players who just decided to end their playing careers, almost all of the 2022 Colorado roster was gone by May, 2023.
The 2023 CU team was made up of almost exclusively imports.
“You can’t build a program that way” was the cry. New Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule declared he would never go about building the Cornhuskers in a similar manner. “I hear other schools (say) they can’t wait for the transfer portal, they can’t wait to go out … I can’t wait to coach my guys, let me tell you that,” Rhule said. “I’m not thinking about anybody else but this team out here.”
Coach Rhule also spoke for those who didn’t like Coach Prime’s media presence. Rhule spoke of his team’s “blue-collar” identity, noting that videos posted on Nebraska’s social media channels were “always of us working. They’re never of us talking. This program is built on work. It’s not built on hype.”
After a 4-8 season in 2023, the pundits crowed that their predictions had all come true, and that Coach Prime’s method of growing a roster was a fraud. The same naysayers decried Coach Prime bringing in assistants with NFL coaching experience, citing the established method of hiring assistants who understood that the collegiate game was played differently, and that NFL methods wouldn’t translate to the Power Five level.
Then came the 2024 season, and the Buffs were not only able to get Peggy to a bowl game, but were in the hunt for a Big 12 title berth into the final weekend of the season. The Buffs won nine games for only the second time in 20 years, and were, again, a national story. All 12 of CU’s regular season games were on national television, with ten of those games generating audiences in excess of three million.
What were the television audiences like for all of the other regular season games played involving Big 12 teams? None had an audience of over three million … not the all-important clash between No. 14 BYU at No. 21 Arizona State late in the season. Not rivalry games like BYU v. Utah or Kansas v. Kansas State.
It was Coach Prime and the 9-4 Buffs driving the Big 12 bus … all season long.
And, without admitting it, other programs took notice of what was going on in Boulder.
They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. If that’s the case, then Coach Prime should be honored.
The naysayers said that you couldn’t build a program through the Transfer Portal. And yet (2024 Big 12 Coach of the Year) Kenny Dillingham said goodbye to 30 players from his 2023 Arizona State team, bringing in 31 new faces. And (Big Ten Coach of the Year) Curt Cignetti brought in 23 new transfers to Indiana, including many players from his tenure at James Madison, taking the Hoosiers to a school record 11 wins.
The naysayers also said you couldn’t build a program with NFL coaches. Then former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was hired by North Carolina, and told the assembled media that he was bringing the NFL model to Chapel Hill:
“When I say a pro program, I would say through my experience, what we did in terms of training, developing players, running pro systems, pro techniques. So when the players leave here, this isn’t going from the wishbone to a pro offense. It will be similar terminology, similar techniques and fundamentals, similar training, similar preparation techniques that have been very successful for me through the years, whether other college teams use them or not. I mean, some are, some aren’t, but I just know that these will prepare the players for that.”
You would think that Coach Prime would be receiving a lion’s share of the praise for being a leader in showing the way for programs like Arizona State, Indiana and North Carolina to be successful.
Instead, the talk has again turned to the negative …
The goalposts have been moved yet again.
Sure, Coach Prime could win with two Top Ten NFL Draft picks to work with, but he won’t be able to win without Travis and Shedeur …
Welcome to the 2025 CU narrative. The bar for Coach Prime has been raised yet again. It’s not enough for him to prove he can win at the collegiate level. It’s not enough for him to prove that his methods can turn a moribund program into a nationally relevant team in just two years.
He will have to now prove that he can win at Colorado without Travis and Shedeur (and Shilo). He will have to prove he can be successful without top level NFL talent baked into the mix.
Buff fans have a right to be miffed at the constant negativity which comes with Coach Prime’s success.
Instead, we should embrace it.
Coach Prime has made a career out of having people telling him what he can’t do … and then going and doing it anyway.
Naysayers want to say that Coach Prime can’t maintain CU’s level of success, giving the Buff head coach another mountain to climb.
I like our chances …
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4 Replies to “Moving the Goalposts”
With the new O-line transfers that are coming and the development of returning players, I expect next year’s O-line to be better than this year’s was and with better coaching too. Add a quality QB with winning experience coming in and I expect the offense to be capable and able to win games.
Yes, Travis was great playing on both sides of the ball, but the Buffs have attracted talented skilled players on both sides of the ball, so it’ll take two or more players to match his production. Winning teams attract winning players and the Buffs roster should be deeper than this season’s was. That just means your production may be spread out among a few players, but they should have more a larger percentage of producers on the roster.
Prime has made continuous improvement on the roster and the coaches, so expect more of that this year. Maybe the Buffs lose Shedeur & Travis, but they are attracting and bring in more talent & depth than before. BYU and others have proven a solid team of good players can beat a team with a few stars, but who also have a few gaps in talent too. Especially if those differences are trench players.
They may have moved the goalposts, but Prime is moving his too.
Fun fact… if Deion Sanders wins a national championship at Colorado, he actually wouldn’t be the first “Coach Prime” to do so (!)
That distinction belongs to legendary CU ski coach Bob Beattie (Robert Prime Beattie) who won NC in 1959 and 1960.
This is a good thing. Our standards have been too low for the last 20 years.
He probably can’t…. That’s why all these rumors of the NFL….. Now prove me wrong CP
Lol