Colorado Prime coach speaks to the media before the Nebraska game
BOULDER, Colorado – Two high-profile college football construction projects will meet in Week 2 of the youth college football season.
The Cornhuskers and Buffaloes — longtime rivals from their days in the Big Eight and Big 12 conferences — meet in Boulder, Colorado, on Saturday for an early measuring stick game that has suddenly shot to the top of the week’s must-watch lists.
Colorado, a one-game winner in 2022, became the talk of the country with a 45-42 win over nationally ranked TCU, the College Football League runner-up last season.
Last Saturday, CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders passed for 510 yards in the best FBS debut by a quarterback since at least 1996, perhaps all time, and two-way star Travis Hunter played over 120 catches.
Nebraska coach Matt Rule said he was impressed but not surprised when he watched Colorado beat TCU.
“Coach Sanders is a football guy,” he said. “He’s won everything he’s done in football. He’s won as a player, he’s won as a coach. Everyone on the outside, not me, probably thinks, ‘Well, that’s just a show’. He’s the most dangerous person about football. His poster has been on people’s walls for a reason.” When he was a player. He’s one of the most trained and hard-working people who’ve ever played the game. Why do we think his team will never be the same?
The Nebraska and Colorado openers demonstrated the different tact of the coaches.
Nebraska has started 54 players against Minnesota, and 45 of them were on the Cornhuskers roster in 2022. Of the 22 starters, only quarterback Jeff Sims and quarterback Ben Scott were at different schools last season.
Colorado has used 57 players against TCU, and only 11 of them were with the Buffaloes a year ago. Of the CU starters, only offensive linemen Van Wells, Gerrad Christian Lichtenhan, linebacker Marvin Hamm, and safety Trevor Woods retained control.
Credit: ap
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders on the sidelines against TCU Saturday, September 2, 2023 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Coach Prime used the old “us against the world” slogan to motivate his players to prove the naysayers wrong who expect failure from a team made up almost entirely of newcomers. He famously said that he “keeps receipts” to track every time his team accomplished something no one thought they could do.
“I’m here and I’m not going anywhere,” he said after the opener. “I’m about to feel good in a minute. Because guess what? Those guys out there now, they think so. And not every one of them believed before. But now, one by one, they come.” The other, two by one, said, “Coach, we believe.”
“Now they believe. Now Boulder believes. The people in the front office, the people in the building, the fans, the students—now everyone wants to believe. I’m good at it. We have space.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Colorado at TCU
