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Buff Nation Playing with House Money in 2025
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At CU’s Fall Media Day on August 8th, Coach Prime was asked about his health.
His response: “I’m healthy. I’m vibrant. I’m my old self. We walk every day after practice around campus at least a mile. I’m living life right now. I’m trying my best to live it to the fullest considering what transpired.”
The health of CU’s head coach took on increased significance this summer, as Coach Prime stayed back in Texas for almost three months, giving rise to renewed speculation about his future in Boulder. As a result, his reassurances of his commitment to CU at the Big 12 Media Days, and then his press conference with his health care providers, was welcome relief to the Buff Nation.
Not that Coach Prime’s future in Boulder hadn’t already been fodder for pundits from the first day he set foot on the CU campus.
How many stories were written from Coach Prime’s first day in Boulder, speculating that he would leave CU with his “sons” to coach in the NFL?
How many stories were written predicting Coach Prime would leave CU, either for a “better” coaching job in another conference, the NFL, or just abandon Boulder altogether, win or lose?
The haters have spent the past three years gleefully anticipating the day when Coach Prime would fail, and then leave CU. Or, almost as juicy … That Coach Prime would actually succeed in Boulder … and then leave CU.
Buff fans, after wandering the desert of college football for the past two decades, know all too well how much having Coach Prime in Boulder has meant to the program … and what his departure could mean for CU’s future.
Fact is, Coach Prime never needed to be a coach to begin with. A College and Pro Football Hall of Famer, he could have done Geico commercials, been funny as a network commentator, and lived a prosperous, easy life. He didn’t have to jump into college coaching, especially in the present climate, when acquiring and maintaining a roster is as dysfunctional as it’s ever been in the sport’s history.
It’s cool being a college coach, but it’s not easy.
And, with his diagnosis of bladder cancer, Coach Prime had the easiest of outs this offseason. No one – no one – could have questioned his commitment to CU and the game if he had simply gone on national television and said that, after 14 surgeries since he started coaching at Jackson State, he was, at the urging of his physicians, going to stay home and enjoy life watching his sons play professional football.
Instead, Coach Prime has returned to Boulder and CU.
No Shedeur. No Travis. No. Shilo.
Just a porta-potty on the sidelines.
Yet even as Coach Prime has seemingly once and for all signaled to his players, his coaches, CU’s fans, and all of college football that he is committed to building a winner at Colorado, the bar continues to be raised.
It’s not enough that Coach Prime is back in Boulder. It’s not enough that he is enduring great physical difficulties just to be on the sidelines and coach his team.
He damned well better win.
Pat Rooney of the Daily Camera opined in a column last weekend:
Unlike two years ago, when even a modest level of success would have been cause for celebration after the program bottomed out at 1-11, there are expectations. And unlike last year, there isn’t first-round NFL talent capable of bailing out the Buffs on a weekly basis.
In some ways, year three will be an opportunity for Sanders to prove his coaching mettle. For the first time in his coaching career — from youth football in Texas to Jackson State to CU — Shedeur won’t be his quarterback. Without Hunter, the Buffs don’t have a bona fide All-American lining up on both sides of the ball. No doubt, he has proven to be a master recruiter and superb motivator. For the 2025 Buffs to excel, though, it will require more than waiting for game-changing plays from premier talent.
Glad you’re back coach. Glad you’ve been declared cancer free.
… But you’re still a failure if you don’t prove you can win without Shedeur and Travis.
Oh, and we’re giving you zero credit for turning the worst college football program in the country into a Big 12 contender in just two years – Travis and Shedeur get the credit for that.
Hard as it is for the haters to believe, Colorado is coming off of a 9-4 season in 2024, with a 7-2 record in the Buffs’ first season back in the Big 12.
Yet no one seems to give CU a chance at being anywhere close to achieving that record this fall.
In most of the preseason magazines, Colorado is predicted to finish no better than 10th in the Big 12 conference. Las Vegas (DraftKings) has the over/under for CU wins at 5.5.
That’s the same over/under projections as Vegas has this season for schools like Boston College, UCF, West Virginia, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Wyoming … teams which were nowhere close to posting a winning conference record in 2024, much less a 7-2 record like CU posted.
CU’s win projection is also a lower win total than what is predicted for schools like Kansas (5-7 in 2024), Virginia (5-7), Cincinnati (5-7), Auburn (5-7), NC State (6-7), Houston (4-8) … and, of course, Florida State (2-10).
(And there’s this … The over/under for Nebraska is 7.5 wins. While Coach Prime and his Buffs have surpassed the over/under win projections in each of CU’s last two seasons, the Cornhuskers have failed to hit the Vegas over projection – for ten straight seasons).
Oh, and there’s more …
Colorado finished the 2024 season as the No. 25 team in the nation, being ranked in the final eight polls of the season.
When the 2025 Associated Press poll was released, however, the Buffs received one lone vote as the nation’s No. 25 team.
[The vote came, in case you were wondering, not from Brian Howell at the Boulder Daily Camera, but from WJXT-TV (Jacksonville, Florida) reporter Jamal St. Cyr]
This, while seven teams who weren’t ranked at the end of the 2024 – including Texas Tech, which hasn’t been ranked in the AP preseason poll since 2008 – are now in the nation’s preseason Top 25.
For the Buffs and Coach Prime, getting all of one vote is nothing new. In the 2024 AP preseason poll, CU received all of one vote, with that No. 25 nod coming from Mike Hill of Fox Sports … and things worked out fine for that team.
It hasn’t been an easy offseason for the Buff Nation. First, there was the tough end to the 2024 campaign, with the Buffs being routed by BYU in the Alamo Bowl, leaving a bad taste in our mouths. Then, there was the constant speculation about Coach Prime’s future (SEC? Dallas Cowboys?). Then came the NFL Draft, with the fall of Shedeur to the fifth round overshadowing Travis being taken with the No. 2 pick overall.
And then there was the speculation about Coach Prime’s health, and what it meant to his future in Boulder.
Usually, the fan base of a team coming off of a 9-4 season has it pretty easy in the nine month wait for more football. There is basking in the glow of last season’s big victories (remember the Baylor game?), and a justifiable (or at least defensible) confidence about the upcoming season.
Buff fans were not afforded that luxury this offseason.
And that’s okay.
We still have Coach Prime, and he has assembled a solid (if unique) coaching staff, along with a lineup with as many blue chip players as CU fans have seen in a long time.
We may be on borrowed time with Coach Prime. Who knows how long he will stay in Boulder. Perhaps, with another winning season (“Yes, I can win without Travis and Shedeur”), Coach Prime may call it quits.
But that’s a discussion for another day.
In the meantime, Buff fans can relish living in a world where they can look at their team, and look at CU’s schedule, and not find a single game in which the Buffs will not have every reason to believe that they can win.
When was the last time we could say that with a straight face?
I am looking forward to this season. Yes, there will be losses and disappointments, but Colorado football is relevant, the Buffs are competitive, and Folsom Field is sold out on a regular basis.
Just sit back and enjoy the ride …
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5 Replies to “Buff Nation Playing with House Money in 2025”
Less than two weeks before CU’s first game and it’s going to be a good one; against a really good team. I’m looking forward to seeing the team Prime & his staff puts on the field. A few people/pundits have noticed the new players and coaches Prime has brought in and only a few are giving Prime any credit for what he has built.
I truly think the on field product will be good and the Buffs will win more than the 5.5 over/under. GT is a good team and will be well coached for the opening game against the Buffs, but they have no knowledge of what they are going to see from the Buffs offense.
Will the Buff’s O-line be better? Hell yes, the players have been upgraded.
The returning players such as Seaton and the new players brought in to upgrade the line are going to give the Buffs a run game. Add in Salter’s ability to run and throw and GT will have their hands full. GT has to look at Salter’s tape from two years ago when he had a team around him that allowed him to lead his team to a 13-0 record to get any ideal what the Buffs are going to throw/run at them.
Passing: Salter completed 177 of 290 attempts for 2,876 yards, with 32 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.
Rushing: He ran for 1,089 yards on 163 attempts, averaging 6.7 yards per carry, and scored 12 rushing touchdowns.
Overall: He accounted for 264 points, contributing to Liberty’s success and earning recognition as a Maxwell Award semifinalist.
Efficiency: Salter’s passing efficiency rating was 176.6.
Protect the ball and get any where near those kind of numbers and the Buffs win games; it’s all on the backs of the O-line. I am concerned that the O-line won’t be as good against P4 teams as Liberty was against lessor opponents, but get close and with the WR room the Buffs have, he’ll do just fine.
The defense will be really good with Livingston and staff putting a good product on the field.
It’s going to be a fun game to watch. Play up to their potential and the Buffs will be just fine.
So glad to have Prime back, and so glad he is cured of cancer. CU does not use the word “Cure” lightly. I still wonder if moving to CU has saved his life. The doctors at Anshutz are some of the absolute best. And where you get treated for the type of stuff he has had matters.
On to football.
A big part of college football is recruiting and of course he has the benefit of being his son, but Prime should be getting credit for recruiting Travis, the d line, NHG, McKinney, Seaton, the recievers, etc that drove us last year. This year will be a new batch with a couple of hold overs. At the start of last year we knew Travis and Sheduer were good. They made us great. We thought NHG, Wester, McKinney, Horn, Seaton, Shepperd, Woods, Shilo, Silmon-Craig, the whole d line and outside linebacker room might be good. Most of them proved they were good. This year we know McKinney, Seaton, Hodge, the whole d line and linebacker room are good, we think the o line might be good for the first time in a decade, Stoutmire, Salter/Lewis,and both receiving Millers might be good. I bet we hit more often than not. A good qb drives the engine of football. But a good offensive line is the engine. Last year we had a NASCAR driver with a 4 cylinder (it had a turbo charge though because of the receivers). If this o line lived up to its size, well then…..
Kinda rambled there, my point being. Prime should get points for last year for recruiting those kids and trust he can continue to do so.Prime and all of the coaches are saying this is a better team. I tend to believe them, I am an eternal optimist though…..
Georgia Tech in less than 2 weeks will tell us a lot.
The text below is from the column above. Seems like not even Stuart can resist the Prime will gone speculation! Why not believe Prime when he says he will be here for a long time? He signed a 5 year contract just a few months ago. The entire column is essentially a critique of all the unsubstantiated Prime and Buff bashing but ends with the same tired speculation. Sorry Stuart but I’m not on board with that.
We may be on borrowed time with Coach Prime. Who knows how long he will stay in Boulder. Perhaps, with another winning season (“Yes, I can win without Travis and Shedeur”), Coach Prime may call it quits.
It is pretty amazing, especially after this summer, that some people are still waiting, even hoping, for Deion to fail. He won’t. I still think he will probably retire from coaching after his time in Boulder.
Go Buffs
In an effort to find a tiny gleam of a silver lining from all this ranking frenzy……..from people who would be stocking grocery shelves without it……if it was Howell that gave us the one vote I would consider it a double whammy.