The biggest story in sports right now resides in Boulder, Colorado.
It’s not in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where Aaron Rodgers’ career possibly just ended.
It’s not in East Lansing where there’s about to be one of the most important coaching searches in program history.
And, sorry Lions fans, it’s not even in Detroit where, despite a week two loss, the Lions have expectations at an all-time high.
Instead, all eyes are on the Colorado Buffaloes, a team that went 1-11 last season.
But a lot can change in a year, and things certainly have for Colorado.
In December of 2022, the Buffaloes hired former NFL star Deion Sanders to lead their program out of a quarter-century-long abyss. Sanders, who was nicknamed “Prime Time” during his playing days, has taken on a new nickname in his coaching career:
Coach Prime.
Although he’s only been coaching for a short time, coach Prime has — about as quickly as humanly possible — polarized the college football world. Prime’s outgoing, confident and trendy personality is either loved or hated, but regardless of where people find themselves on the coach Prime spectrum, they’re still watching.
But no matter how millions of eyes are on Prime and the Buffaloes, Sanders still has a job to do — turn the program around.
Before Sanders’ arrival, Colorado was an afterthought, known more for being the alma mater of lead FOX television analyst Joel Klatt than for being a school whose football program was taken seriously.
Excluding the COVID-19-affected 2020 season, it’s been six seasons since Colorado has finished a season with a winning record.
Not only that but in the 23 seasons since the turn of the century, the Buffaloes have finished with a winning record only five times.
Simply put, times have been rough in Boulder.
However, when Colorado landed Sanders — who, like a recruit, listed three programs he was considering coaching at before ultimately settling with CU — the perspective changed almost immediately.
It was a shaky start for Sanders and Colorado, though, as players came in and out of the program via the transfer portal as if Boulder was a stop along the transcontinental railroad.
Not only did Prime welcome the exodus of nearly all Colorado players following his arrival, but he reportedly forced some players who wanted to stay out the door as he made way for his flock of players to arrive.
Of the 83 scholarship players who started the 2022-23 season with the Buffaloes, only 20 remain.
Additionally, Prime brought in 51 players via the transfer portal, a far-and-away record since the transfer portal’s new era began in 2018.
Two of those 51 players include quarterback Shedeur Sanders (Prime’s son) and do-it-all defensive back/wide receiver Travis Hunter.
The duo, both of whom were playing for coach Prime last season at Jackson State, have led Colorado to a start not even Buffaloes fans could have imagined.
CU opened the season with a road win over TCU, last year’s national runner-up, and it followed it up with a convincing beating of Nebraska.
An in-state battle with Colorado State awaited as the 18th-ranked Buffaloes looked to gain control of the state and start a season 3-0 for the first time since 2018.
Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell took a personal shot at Sanders before the game though, which made for an interesting storyline throughout the week.
Norvell’s shot was aimed at Sanders, who likes to wear a hat and sunglasses just about everywhere he goes.
“When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and glasses off,” Norvell said early last week.
Sanders immediately fired back, saying Norvell made the game “personal.”
Coach Prime proceeded to hand out pairs of his sunglasses to every player on his team, and he even gifted ESPN’s First Take crew — Molly Qerim, Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe — pairs to wear on television on Friday.
Colorado then went on to knock off CSU in a double-overtime thriller that ended after midnight local time.
It’s clear coach Prime has a unique approach to coaching, but as long as he’s winning, does it matter?
Love him or hate him, Deion Sanders has the entire sports world tuned into Boulder, Colorado.
