Father’s Day with Coach Prime

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Father’s Day with Coach Prime

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Last spring, I was sitting in the back porch of a friend’s house in South Denver with some fellow Buff fans, and we were discussing the future of Colorado football under Coach Prime in Boulder.

Colorado was coming off of a 4-8 season, losing the last six games to close out the 2024 campaign. Having gone from 3-0 and nationally ranked to 4-8 isn’t normally a resume for a first-year FBS coach to be considered as a candidate for other, higher-profile positions, but such was the case with Coach Prime and his aura.

With Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders heading off to the NFL after the season, the speculation nationally was that Coach Prime might follow his “sons” into the NFL. There were also pundits who saw Sanders moving on to a more lucrative job in the SEC or Big Ten, with Billy Napier’s hot seat at Florida being seen as giving CU’s head coach a “better” potential destination.

When asked how I would rank the options of what would happen after the 2024 season, my reply was that, if Coach Prime would be anywhere else other than Boulder in 2025, it would be in Dallas.

Not with the Dallas Cowboys … but at home at his ranch.

I didn’t see Coach Prime leaving CU with a job unfinished, that being his oft-stated goal to bring championships to Boulder. Even with a successful 2024 season there was much for Coach Prime to prove, not the least of which being a demonstration that he could win in Boulder without Travis and Shedeur.

The ultimate competitor, I couldn’t see Coach Prime leaving Boulder with unfulfilled goals … unless he had no other options.

And Coach Prime retiring from coaching due to health issues has become a legitimate concern. Sanders has been at his estate in Texas dealing with an “unspecified health issue” as the school’s annual summer football camps began last week. Coach Prime also cancelled a speaking engagement in Florida, and had at least one blue chip recruit postpone his official visit to Boulder.

Sanders has dealt with health issues before. In 2022, he had two toes on his left foot amputated because of blood clots that developed from a previous surgery. In 2023, Sanders had a procedure to relieve clots in both of his legs and missed Pac-12 media day.

To try and alleviate the fears, Coach Prime posted the following tweet: I can assure you all that everything is OKAY and will continue to be so. God got me like no other. I have so much more work to do to Glorify God so please believe God got me! I’m excited to get back to Colorado to be at home with my staff, team & all associated to our program. When we arrive back to Boulder you will be updated on everything.

For now, the Buff Nation will be taking Coach Prime at his word, and not worry about his status for the summer, and for the fall campaign.

And, while Coach Prime rests at home, hopefully enjoying Father’s Day with his family (including a new grandchild), we can take a few moments to recognize some of the gifts he has given the Buff Nation this off-season.

Recruiting 

How quickly we become spoiled with success.

There was much hand-wringing among CU fans when it came to the Recruiting Class of 2025. Not only was it small (14), but there were no additions to the Class in the February signing window.

But were the concerns warranted?

As the great Alfred E. Neuman of Mad magazine fame would say: What, me worry?

The CU Recruiting Class of 2025, despite its small size, was ranked fourth in the Big 12. The three teams rated above CU’s Class had signing Classes with 31, 25 and 22 commits. The three teams rated just behind CU’s Class had 24, 24, and 24 members. Eight of CU’s 14 commits were four-star recruits.

Counting the transfer Class, which was the smallest of three Classes in the Coach Prime era, CU still had the No. 2 Class in the Big 12, behind only the Tran$fer Cla$$ signed by Texas Tech and its billionaire donor. Nationally, CU’s Recruiting Class came in at No. 24.

That’s after posting the No. 21 overall Class in the nation in 2024, and the No. 22 overall Class in the nation in 2023.

The three years before Coach Prime came to town?

• No. 58 in 2022
• No. 64 in 2021; and
• No. 36 in 2020 (including four-star running back Ashaad Clayton, who didn’t live up to his rating, and four-star cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who would go on to become a first-round NFL draft pick … for Oregon)

Even with the departures of Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, CU currently has more four-star recruits on its roster than at almost any time in the past two decades.

Thanks, Coach Prime.

NFL Draft

One of the main storylines of the 2025 NFL Draft – if not the storyline – was how far Shedeur Sanders fell, not hearing his name called until the 5th round.

Overlooked in all of the chatter about the hows and the whys of Shedeur’s draft wayward weekend was the fact that Colorado had four players taken overall.

Travis Hunter was taken second overall, just the second Buff in school history to be drafted that high, and the highest-ever drafted cornerback in NFL history. Then Shedeur, finally landing in Cleveland in the fifth round, became the first CU quarterback to be taken in the draft since Koy Detmer was taken in the seventh round by Philadelphia in 1997.

But the Buffs weren’t done yet. Two CU wide receivers, Jimmy Horn and LaJohntay Wester, also heard their names called, both taken in the sixth round.

Four Buffs drafted overall (with four more signing free agent contracts).

That’s not a number which is outstanding by Georgia and Ohio State standards, but down right impressive for CU compared to recent years. Excluding players like Mekhi Blackmon and Brenden Rice, who started their careers in Boulder but then were drafted out of other schools, no Buff had heard their name called on Draft day since Will Sherman was taken in the sixth round in the 2021 Draft.

In fact, in the last seven drafts before this April, Colorado had all of six players drafted.

Given CU’s recent track record in developing NFL-worthy personnel, four draft picks was a pretty good day.

Thanks, Coach.

Ticket sales

Two weeks ago, the CU athletic department announced that season tickets were sold out for the third season in a row under Coach Prime.

Last year, CU sold approximately 23,000 season tickets, and 98% of those have been renewed for this year. This is the third year in a row where the Buffs’ season ticket renewal rate finished above 98%, the three best marks in school history. CU was at 93% on renewals in 2016 and 96% in 2017, but was in the mid- to low-80s in 2021 and 2022.

CU will distribute approximately 26,000 season tickets this year, about 3,000 more than last year.

Before Coach Prime was hired, CU had not sold out of season tickets since 1996. In fact, the Buffs had sold out of season tickets just eight times in its history before Sanders’ arrival: In 1972, and then for seven consecutive years from 1990-96.

This is the third year in a row that CU’s season tickets were sold out before June. CU had never sold out of season tickets before August prior to Sanders’ tenure.

Pick any one of those numbers – third straight year of sold out tickets; 98% renewal rate; first sold out seasons since 1996; three straight years of sold out season tickets – after only eight such seasons in program history.

Even with no Travis and no Shedeur on the roster for 2025, Buff fans remain all-in on the Coach Prime era.

Thanks, Coach.

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In an era when survival of the fittest in college football is all about your program’s value to the power brokers (read: television networks), Colorado received a gift from heaven when Coach Prime came to Colorado. The program was not only the worst in the FBS at the end of the 2022 season, but arguably the worst in college football.

Had Coach Prime not come to Boulder, it’s hard to fathom just how CU would have any chance of surviving in the new era of college football.

Now, on Father’s Day, 2025, Buff fans live in a world where we can be disappointed in a Recruiting Class which was “only” the second-best in the Big 12, be non-plussed at having its highest-ever draft pick and first quarterback taken in 28 years, and be indifferent to having yet another season of sold out games at Folsom Field.

If Coach Prime needs a little extra time with his family in the quietest time of the year in college football to heal up from whatever it is that is currently keeping him on the sidelines, it has certainly been earned.

Happy Father’s Day, Coach!

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This post, about the Spring/Summer game, from the 2025 Season, is filed under Article.
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