The landscape of college athletics is changing insanely fast with NIL, it's beginning to feel like the pros in a similar respect. There are positives and negatives but at the end of the day, these players will be reaping benefits for quite some time.
Deion Sanders' Colorado football program has demonstrated the great lengths they will go to to reel in any recruit. Schools like Alabama, Ohio State, Nebraska, and LSU are notorious for going the distance with recruits and on the field -- some more recently than others on that last one -- but Colorado can be added to that list again, too. A local restaurant called "The Sink" has named a burger after top quarterback target Julian Lewis.
One Denver writer sees that as a blue blood kind of move from Colorado.
“(Julian Lewis getting his own burger) is just the latest sign that program has been rejuvenated,” Denver Sports' James Merilatt prefaced before saying, “This is the type of thing that happens in college football Meccas like Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Lincoln and Baton Rouge, but typically doesn’t happen in Boulder. But it does now.”
To name a burger after a recruit is pretty crazy if think you about it (what if he doesn't commit?) but that's what it takes when competing against other big-name schools in the business. There are numerous different routes to go when trying to make a potential commit feel at home and whipping a burger was Colorado's way of doing just that.
It's crafty, no doubt.
Why is creating this burger so important for Coach Prime's Colorado football program?
Shedeur Sanders is positioned to leave after this coming season and enter the 2025 NFL Draft. Lewis' role as a quarterback sticks out because there can't be much dropoff if the Buffaloes want to keep stability within the program.
Besides Colorado, the USC Trojans and the Auburn Tigers are in the mix for this highly touted prospect. Lewis is a five-star phenom so it makes sense why flipping patties was worth the gesture. Everything has a purpose when trying to bring in the best of the best.
As the saying goes, "go big or go home," right?
The Buffaloes went big. It's worth a shot. The burger could have been so good that Lewis would want to come back for more.
Colorado has given it their best efforts and now it's time to play the waiting game. Or maybe, just maybe fire up the grill.