CU Boulder and Coach Prime are a Match Made in Heaven

[00:00:00] When I was a little girl one of my favorite things to do was to watch Ralfie run onto the field during home games at Folsom Field

[00:00:07] It was the coolest thing ever to a little kid and I loved everything about football season

[00:00:13] For more years than I can count, CU was always part of local and national football conversations

[00:00:20] More often than not as a competitive team that people respected

[00:00:24] I'm not sure when it happened but over time CU's star started to wane

[00:00:29] We heard less about the CU football program and more about one of the many professional teams in the state

[00:00:36] Then last spring seemingly almost out of the blue we learned that coach prime aka Dion Sanders had been recruited to coach CU's football team

[00:00:46] A team that was struggling and whose only noteworthy mention was that we kept losing

[00:00:52] It is a few minutes after CU's first regular season game in 2023 in the heart of Texas against Texas Christian University, TCU

[00:01:02] And CU inexplicably, incredibly won against a team that played badly last year for a national title

[00:01:13] Georgia won that game decisively

[00:01:16] It seems like the CU buffs in coach prime are a match made in heaven

[00:01:20] Will the team continue to win or is this a fluke? I have some thoughts

[00:01:25] This isn't just a conversation about sports

[00:01:29] Welcome to Square State Colorado, I'm your host Michelle Jackson

[00:01:32] Square State Colorado is a space to highlight, uplift and share Colorado's spaces, businesses and people and more

[00:01:58] For the past couple of years I have been fascinated by some of the big moves in the Colorado sports space

[00:02:05] The Denver Broncos recruited Russell Wilson to great fanfare and so far that partnership hasn't turned out as well as we would have liked

[00:02:14] The Denver Nuggets won the NBA championship in 2023

[00:02:18] Haters gonna hate and Dion Sanders was recruited to coach at CU Boulder

[00:02:23] His decision to move from an HBCU to a school that is the antithesis

[00:02:28] Of an HBCU angered and disappointed many

[00:02:32] I don't want to touch too deeply on that controversy even though I will make some comments towards the end of the show

[00:02:37] Because I don't know enough about the entire story instead

[00:02:42] I will share my view as a black coloradan who grew up in Boulder and Denver and some thoughts that I had as I watched this whole

[00:02:51] saga unfold coach prime had culture shock when he first arrived

[00:02:56] It was easy to tell that he was dealing with some culture shock

[00:03:00] I remember how he would keep tweeting about places to eat in Boulder. Where could he eat?

[00:03:05] Where could he find food which ideally had fat gluten salt and sugar? I remember how you would keep tweeting about

[00:03:15] The places that he found that were good typically not necessarily in Boulder

[00:03:20] And I kept thinking to myself feed this man. He sounds like he's starving to death

[00:03:26] I'm pretty sure that I even recommended via twitter that he hire a chef because he had chef money with this new contract

[00:03:34] Moving from the south at the southern part of the united states to Boulder, Colorado

[00:03:39] As a black man just seemed like a really challenging move

[00:03:43] Even with all that money

[00:03:45] But he was definitely up for it as he began recruiting student athletes into the program

[00:03:50] I also began to worry about how they would adjust to living in Boulder and some of the downsides of being black in that town

[00:03:58] There's a reason why I prefer living in Denver

[00:04:01] A town that many people also complain about in terms of diversity

[00:04:06] In fact, I've heard of at least one athlete

[00:04:10] CU athlete who regularly comes to Denver so that he can eat at a soul food restaurant and just experience

[00:04:18] community I also think about how this team how this program is ensuring CU student athlete success

[00:04:28] I'm a huge fan of the city cast Denver podcast

[00:04:31] I listened to it weekly in a recent episode they talked about some of the changes related to

[00:04:37] eligibility and loosening of academic standards as it relates to

[00:04:41] Being eligible and transferring to CU specific to

[00:04:45] athletes

[00:04:47] It frustrates me that the implication and in my view this was completely unintentional

[00:04:54] Would be that these students might not be up to the academic rigor of attending CU

[00:05:00] However, there's the very real behind-the-scenes conversation that I think about which is

[00:05:06] How are these student athletes being helped and supported for academic success?

[00:05:12] I'm 100 convinced that there is a plan for this

[00:05:15] I'm just wondering what this is because real talk

[00:05:19] Not everyone goes to the NFL and I want these guys to leave with their educations

[00:05:28] Here's why deon had to win

[00:05:31] The man uprooted his entire family and literally staked his reputation

[00:05:37] On being able to revive to some degree the CU Boulder football program

[00:05:43] I even remember thinking that he was pretty ballsy for putting his son in the head

[00:05:48] QB position. I just was like well, wow

[00:05:51] The school paid him a ton of money for results

[00:05:54] But I realized a couple of things after saturday's incredible 45 to 42 win over tcu

[00:06:02] In texas

[00:06:04] That was a home game for them

[00:06:07] CU wins are a way to highlight

[00:06:10] Shador Sanders on a national and I'm sorry if I'm saying his name wrong

[00:06:14] Shador Sanders on a national level. I saw fans talking about

[00:06:19] Him and the heisman trophy and given that he had a record breaking day

[00:06:25] During his first game

[00:06:27] They might be right to begin this type of speculation. It might not be crazy talk

[00:06:32] Did people forget that shiloh sanders is also on the field and had an incredible day as well

[00:06:38] He made apparently 10 freaking tackles during the game

[00:06:42] And then let's not forget how well travis hunter played coach prime risked a lot when he made this move and losing

[00:06:51] Too much was not an option

[00:06:53] I'm speculating that deon will coach the team for probably three years with the goal of getting to a bowl and hopefully

[00:07:01] A win at one of these bowls that universities play at the man will eventually be driven crazy by the cold and lack of deeply rooted

[00:07:10] african-american community

[00:07:12] And spaces that he's used to I think culturally it's just

[00:07:16] For a long term commitment. It's not going to happen. It's just a bad fit

[00:07:20] But for a short term it's going to work

[00:07:23] If I had negotiated a contract with him

[00:07:26] I would have also added a bonus for a bowl appearance

[00:07:29] Plus a bonus if they actually won a championship

[00:07:33] Then as most coaches would he'll likely transition to something better likely the nfl

[00:07:40] Potentially where one of his sons will be playing and I wouldn't be mad at him for it

[00:07:46] The importance of hbcu student athletes to see use future success needs to be talked about

[00:07:53] It's not lost on me that a number of the student athletes that deon recruited

[00:07:58] Previously played for an hbcu and for those of you who are like, what's that?

[00:08:03] It's a historically black college or university these students learn teamwork a deeper sense of self and had

[00:08:10] opportunities to shine unique to the hbcu

[00:08:14] educational community

[00:08:15] They are also incredible athletes who are more than capable of competing in any division as was seen during that first game

[00:08:24] The fact that they had the skills to kick tcu's ass didn't happen when they began working with coach prime

[00:08:30] In fact those skills were developed well before they ever ended up here

[00:08:35] Those skills were honed during high school and college at the hbcu's that they attended

[00:08:41] Many of them prior to transferring to cu

[00:08:44] Coach prime was then able to coach these students to even more success once they arrived here

[00:08:51] Stop discounting hbcu's and the quality of education

[00:08:55] You know athletics that these schools have but there is one thing I do want to mention

[00:09:00] We need to talk about how we do things

[00:09:04] While no one expected coach prime to stay at jackson state university forever because who wants to stay

[00:09:11] At our jobs forever anymore

[00:09:14] Perhaps he could have left that university with some more grace and sometimes he doesn't need to say

[00:09:20] Everything that's on his mind like sometimes you just need to keep your thoughts to yourself because

[00:09:26] That's a life skill that all of us need to learn. It's discernment

[00:09:31] That said cu football is so exciting again

[00:09:35] I was on twitter following the fan reactions to the game

[00:09:39] The fans are so freaking happy as am I but in all of this is the beginning of his coaching story

[00:09:46] Which is the opportunity that he was given to shine at jackson state university

[00:09:51] When he leaves cu and of course, he eventually will I hope he will take some lessons learned from how he departed jackson state university

[00:10:00] Regardless, I'm so excited about the next couple of years of cu football and if you're a fan of cu you should be too