All I Want for Christmas …

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All I Want for Christmas …

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The goofy Spike Jones song, “All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth”, dates back to 1956, and is just as annoying today as I’m sure it was back then.

On the other hand, “All I Want for Christmas is You” is now a Christmas standard, with Mariah Caray living well off of the royalties, thanks in no small part to the song being featured in the holiday favorite, “Love Actually”.

For the Buff Nation, all we want for Christmas is … hope that the 2026 season won’t be a repeat of the 2025 season, or a repeat of a multitude of other forgettable seasons we have had to endure over the past 20 years.

How does CU get back on the positive side of the W/L ledger? What will it take for Coach Prime and his staff to cobble together a roster which can win in 2026 and beyond?

Right now, it’s difficult to project that kind of success going forward, what with there being daily announcements of defections from the roster. Other programs are basking in the glow of the college football post-season, while all Buff fans are getting in their stockings right now is coal.

Before this week, the list of players who had indicated that they were leaving CU was relatively small, with only a handful of players with meaningful stats on CU’s departure list.

Then came the news in the past few days that three starters – wide receiver Omarion Miller; defensive back Tawfiq Byard and defensive lineman Brandon Davis-Swain – were all leaving. Miller led the team in receptions this fall, Byard led the team in tackles, and Davis-Swain logged considerable minutes playing as a freshman.

Then Black Friday hit … and six more Buffs added their names to the Transfer Portal list.

For those of us already penciling in names for the 2026 depth chart … it was a bad week.

Coach Prime was already looking at a rebuild to the roster, with over three dozen players using up their eligibility in 2025. Now, with over a dozen players indicating that they are going to leave (with more to come. The Transfer Portal doesn’t actually open until January 2nd, and players can still enter the Portal until January 16th), the CU coaching staff is – again – looking to start pretty much from scratch in their efforts to put together a winning team.

Many Buff fans – myself included – had hoped that Coach Prime would be able to keep a core of returning starters.

As hard as it is to believe today, that still may happen … at least to a degree. Quarterback Julian Lewis is seemingly on board with being CU’s QB1 in 2026, with a recent tweet: “What some call chaos, I call home. I love this game!” being viewed as a fair indication of his intent to remain in Boulder.

So, lets make that the first item on our Christmas wish list …

All I Want for Christmas … is no more major defections from the roster

It’s a tall ask, I know, but if we’re going to ask Santa for nice presents, this would definitely be on the list.

Now, while some on the CU message boards have gone into full meltdown mode this week, it is important to look at CU’s roster defections with a wide angle lens. A number of programs, including TCU (Josh Hoover), Cincinnati (Brendan Sorsby), Arizona State (Sam Leavitt), Iowa State Rocco Becht) and Nebraska (Dylan Raiola) have all had their starting quarterbacks defect.

Meanwhile, other programs are seeing Transfer Portal lists just as significantly as CU’s … Oklahoma State’s departure list is up to 36 players; West Virginia is up to 19; Kansas State is at 15 … and that’s just from the Big 12.

(On a side note, what Rich Rodriguez is doing at West Virginia will certainly be worth watching. The Mountaineers signed a freshman Class with 49 commits … 49! (and only three of the 49, BTW, are four-star recruits. West Virginia signed more freshman this December than did Colorado, Iowa State, Baylor and UCF … combined).

For CU’s chances at success next fall, keeping a cadre of quality returning starters, including Lewis, Jordan Seaton, and London Merritt is vital, but it’s not all Buff fans want in their stockings …

All I want for Christmas … is news about quality assistant coaching hires

Buff fans are excited – and, I believe, rightly so – about the hire of Brennan Marion as the new offensive coordinator. Marion’s GoGo offense sounds great, as Marion has been successful in implementing his offense at several different levels of coaching.

But Marion is not going to be able to turnaround CU’s lethargic offense all on his own. We know that running backs coach Marshall Faulk has left the program to become the head coach at Southern University. Tight ends coach Brett Bartolone, who called the offensive plays for the CU offense the final month of the season, is leaving to become the offensive coordinator at Nevada.

Colorado fans need … make that deserve … positive news about the 2026 coaching staff. Moving promoting Johnnie Mack from analyst to running backs coach doesn’t really move the needle, but hiring former Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Chris Marve may prove to be a good move (hopefully, he is an excellent recruiter and judge of talent, as the linebacker room he is inheriting currently has no players).

Robert Livingston is going to get another year at defensive coordinator, with the opportunity to show that the 2025 results were the fluke, not the positive results from the 2024 season.

But who will Marion and Livingston be working with? The Champions Center has been quiet of late, and we deserve some good news on the assistant coaching front … with the optimism about the future which comes along with such announcements.

Speaking of a news blackout from the Champions Center …

All I Want for Christmas … is for Coach Prime to be Coach Prime once again

Coach Prime in 2023/2024 hit Colorado and college football like a tsunami. The Buffs, coming off of a 1-11 season, were the talk of college football in early 2023, with an absurd amount of national coverage for a team which would wind up with a 4-8 record.

Then Travis and Shedeur took center stage in 2024, bringing nationally television to Boulder every weekend to watch the Shedeur show, as well as to watch Travis run, catch, and defend his way to the Heisman Trophy.

In 2025, though, ringmaster Prime receded into the woodwork. His health issues last spring and summer kept him away from the national spotlight … and his team. Press conferences for a 3-9 team were no longer national news. Two years ago, Coach Prime was a guest of the talking heads at the College Football national championship game and at the Super Bowl.

Think he will be there this January? Probably not.

There are enough AFLAC commercials being shown to give us reminders of Coach Prime, but, over the course of the last year, he has largely left the front page of college football.

I’m not saying that Coach Prime should be making eyebrow raising comments in order to attract attention, but his aura, his presence, his celebrity, is what put Colorado back on the national map. The draw of Coach Prime is what made CU a potential destination for high profile recruits – a draw which needs to be maintained if CU is to rebuild its roster successfully this offseason. All of CU’s 2024 games were broadcast on national television. In 2025, the first eight games were broadcast on national channels. The final four games? Not so much.

Buff fans can certainly respect Coach Prime’s need to take care of his health, and be there for his family and friends. But he is also the face of Colorado athletics. If CU is to attract quality coaches, quality players, and quality money … it will be due to Coach Prime’s efforts.

Which leads me to the final – and, if it comes true, most important – wish for the season …

All I Want for Christmas … is a CU billionaire

College football today is all about the money.

It’s always been that way, but in college football today, money is more important than ever.

Indiana and Texas Tech have byes in the college football playoffs. Both won their conference championships, and the two teams have a combined record of 25-1.

Indiana, which has been playing football since 1887, just won its second-ever conference title (the other coming in 1940). The Hoosiers, even with their recent success, are 125th nationally in all-time winning percentage, almost 200 games under .500 in their less-than-illustrious history.

Texas Tech, meanwhile, hadn’t won a conference title since 1955. Back then, the Red Raiders were crowned champions of something called the Border Conference, which featured collegiate heavyweights including the New Mexico schools, Northern Arizona and Hardin-Simmons.

Curt Cignetti and Joey McGuire are excellent coaches. They have recruited well, and developed the talent on their rosters. They accolades they are receiving are well deserved.

But let’s be honest here. Without the infusion of new funds, these teams wouldn’t be winning conference championships. They certainly wouldn’t be competing for a national championship.

Texas Tech billionaire Cody Campbell is enjoying the fruits of his labors (and check-writing skills), while Indiana is happy that Mark Cuban and John Mellencamp are boosters.

There are billionaires out there with ties to the University of Colorado. I’m sure that many of them have been approached by CU athletic director Rick George, and I’m sure many of them will be approached by the new athletic director.

What CU needs, though, is to land one of the big fish.

Coach Prime has made no secret of his distain for players chasing “the bag”:

“You got to perfect your talent to go to the next level. Chase the game. The game got the bag. I’ve never chased money in my life. I’ve chased greatness. Guess what came with greatness?”

While it’s true that CU needs “dawgs” who are in Boulder to perfect their craft, it’s also true that, in college football, money can buy happiness … just ask fans of Texas Tech and Indiana (and Oregon, the original “show me the money” program).

I’m doing my part. The current PowerBall lottery is up to $1.5 billon. I’m not a lottery person, so I was a bit embarrassed when I went up to the customer service counter at Albertsons Saturday and had to ask how to buy a ticket … but I did it.

I let you know when I win, and when I am able to get back to Boulder for a meeting with Rick George and Coach Prime to figure out how to invest my first $100 million donation.

Dare to dream …

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All CU fans want for Christmas is a winning football program.

That’s not too much to ask … is it?

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This post, about the Postseason game, from the 2025 Season, is filed under Article.
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