Analyst: Coach Prime’s arrival not the most dominant CU offseason story
Deion Sanders isn’t the most dominant offseason story involving the Colorado football program. Instead, according to Frogs O’ War’s Anthony North, it’s the Buffaloes’ impending jump to the Big 12, and the Pac-12 swan song the 2023 season has now become for CU.
“As one of the worst teams in all of college football, Colorado made the big offseason move to bring in Deion Sanders and a near 100% roster flip,” North prefaced before saying, “In most years, Coach Prime’s arrival would be the dominant offseason story for this dormant program, but now conference realignment has turned on its head as the once left-for-dead Big 12 has lured Colorado to return to its former home in 2024 and away from the fledgling Pac 12.”
What’s made Colorado’s conference realignment even more of a story was the reaction from the likes of Oregon’s Dan Lanning, who called out the Buffs’ tenure in the Pac-12 since 2011 and its lack of any championships on the gridiron.
TCU analyst bullish on Colorado football potential in 2023
North largely gave CU, a future Big 12 conference member alongside his school, TCU, credit for the potential under Coach Prime. Of course, there’s really no way to know how the Buffaloes will handle a tougher-than-usual schedule in 2023, but North didn’t just take the lazy route of assuming a group with limited experience playing together can’t come together and win football games.
“If Deion Sanders can prove a complete teardown is a viable rebuild method; if he has selected the correct players and can get them playing to maximum potential, the Buffaloes will have a chance for some fireworks and, at minimum, play spoiler to some unsuspecting opponents,” North wrote.
College football has seen countless Cinderella stories through the years, and as a former national champion with seemingly endless booster resources, Colorado football is a sleeping giant. Why not the Buffs? North didn’t shut down the chance for CU to at least win more games than anyone expects them to.