Coach Prime’s mother Connie was brought by the Buffs head coach into the Colorado football locker room following CU’s thrilling 43-35 Rocky Mountain Showdown victory over a game Colorado State on September 16 at Folsom Field; this in addition to Hollywood action movie legend and all-time pro wrestling great Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The reason why Sanders felt his mother would be a ceremonial symbol of the Buffs’ double-overtime triumph in a game his team was favored as three-score favorites was simple: CSU head coach Jay Norvell took aim at Connie and her new husband Willie Knight for not raising Coach Prime in a way Norvell approves of.
That made her appearance as electric, if not more so, as the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, Johnson, in a Buffaloes locker room that was on fire for the head coach’s mother’s battle cry: “if you have to kick a**, kick a**!”
— Kris Johnson (@PointForwardPro) September 17, 2023
Colorado football winning the Rocky Mountain Showdown silenced a bully
Norvell getting the upper hand in the 2023 Rocky Mountain Showdown would’ve made for a distorted narrative where the bully got the win — and yes, it’s understood that many would laugh at assessing the bully role to anyone but Coach Prime.
But Norvell made it personal by attacking Sanders’ style along with the allusion to and questioning of the Buffs HC having been “raised right.”
Though more pesky than mighty, the Colorado State dragon was slayed by a CU squad that knew it could not allow Norvell to successfully get into Coach Prime’s head and pull off the upset of the week.
Especially not after the dirty hit on Travis Hunter from Henry Blackburn that is going to keep the two-way WR/DB star out of pivotal Pac-12 matchups against Oregon (in Eugene) and with USC and reigning Heisman winner Caleb Williams, and perhaps several weeks beyond that.