BOULDER — The Coach Prime Era began in earnest Saturday with the team’s first spring game under new coach Deion Sanders. Here are five takeaways.
Pomp and pageantry. A long list of former CU Buffs were in attendance and honored prior to the game, including past greats such as Daniel Graham and Alfred Williams and current NFLers Chidobe Awuzie, David Bakhtiari and Laviska Shenault, who drew a huge roar while wearing a technicolor sweater. The crowd of 47,277 was more than the previous nine spring games combined, and there was a buzz around and inside Folsom Field despite freezing temps and a light snow at kick. Sanders, who can’t sprint anymore due to having two toes amputated on his left foot, led the Buffs out of the tunnel wearing a white cowboy hat and hoodie proclaiming “I AIN’T HARD TO FIND.” The pregame had everything but Ralphie, who didn’t run due to wet field conditions.
CEO Prime. If it wasn’t clear already, the spring game underscored the fact that Sanders is certainly running the program, but he’s not doing a whole lot of coaching. He’s there to recruit and be the Buffs’ CEO, one reason he surrounded himself with experienced coaches like offensive coordinator Sean Lewis, Kent State’s head coach from ’18-22. On Saturday, Sanders played politician and helped 98-year-old superfan Peggy Coppom do the honorary kickoff. He revved up the crowd, took a TV interview as his No. 1 offense was on the field and pretended to be the conductor as the band played the fight song. When the No. 1 offense was on the field, he usually didn’t have his headset on.
Travis Hunter’s two-way role. The five-star transfer is going to have a big role on both sides of the ball. As the only skill player wearing a gray jersey in the black-on-white scrimmage, Hunter had three catches on the No. 1 offense’s opening drive against the No. 2 defense, including a 14-yard touchdown reception from QB Shedeur Sanders on a quick post that saw Hunter leave the cornerback in the dust. Hunter also repped at cornerback with the No. 1 defense and was lockdown, giving up only one short catch. If the spring game is any indication, Hunter will be CU’s most important player this season outside of Sanders.
Offensive playmakers. As he showed over a couple of standout seasons at Jackson State, Shedeur Sanders has a cannon. And it appears the QB won’t have to rely on just Hunter for big plays. Freshman Kaleb Mathis and junior Montana Lemonious-Craig both had solid showings as junior wideout Jimmy Horn Jr. didn’t play. On the second drive for CU’s No. 1 offense, Mathis had three catches and set up a TD at the one-yard-line. On the next drive, Lemonious-Craig had a 98-yard TD catch, burning his defender and then stiff-arming another to the ground en route to the end zone. Lemonious-Craig also had a TD catch on a fade route in the second half.
Footnotes. Special teams will need to be an emphasis in fall camp, as the Buffs botched two extra points and also had a field goal blocked… In the opening period, sophomore linebacker Jeremiah Brown (another Jackson State transfer) blocked an extra point and ran it back for two points…. Jayce Feely, son of 14-year NFL veteran Jay Feely, hit a 43-yard field goal… The scrimmage used the Knox-Hendrix scoring system, and was broken up into four 17:30 periods with a running clock, except for the final two minutes of the halves… Backup QB Ryan Staub threw a 32-yard TD to Michael Harrison against the No. 1 defense… Shedeur Sanders scrambled for a seven-yard TD run in the second half, but Hunter dropped the quick out pass on the failed two-point conversion. The QB finished 16-of-19 for 219 yards with two TDs.
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