For far too long, the “F” in football around here has stood for failure with a capital F.
The boring Broncos? A joke. The bumbling Buffaloes? A laughingstock.
For far too long, the football season in our corner of the mountain time zone has been rocky, to put it mildly.
But all that misery?
Clown time for the Broncos and Buffs is over.
Sean Payton and Deion Sanders will make football fun again in Colorado.
I don’t need to guarantee it, because the new coaches in charge of the operation in Denver and Boulder won’t accept losing.
Sanders stood up Friday and preached to more than 1,500 CU boosters at a kickoff luncheon. He vowed the Buffs “want it all. They don’t just want a little bit, they just don’t want a portion of it, they want it all. And they just don’t want to win, they want to dominate.”
After the Romper Room run by Nathaniel Hackett, Payton has once again given the Broncos an adult in the team meeting room.
Archie Manning passed through our dusty old cowtown last week to visit the grandkids and speak at the Boy Scouts’ annual fundraising breakfast.
“Dumb gets you beat,” Manning told the audience at the National Western Events Center.
Payton and Sanders? They’re smart, charismatic and prickly.
Although my heartfelt belief is players win on the football field and coaches shout attaboys from the sideline, the massive upgrades the Broncos and Buffs have made at head coach should have a dramatic and immediate positive influence on the scoreboard, not to mention the psyche of their beat down fan bases.
While Payton and Sanders have vastly different football resumes, what they have in common is a clear vision for success, no fear of failure, self-confidence that borders on arrogance and an unapologetic demanding nature.
I asked Manning if an old-school coach who pushes players can win and maintain the trust of a locker room in 2023, when everybody wants to be liked on social media.
A coach that stubbornly believes in his way or the highway?
“That’s football,” Manning said. “If you don’t like that, you just better move on. There will be somebody that will take your place.”
When Payton insists he will be ticked off if the Broncos fail to qualify for the playoffs, I believe it’s creative tension that can infuse this team with a sense of accountability. That’s been missing far too often during the franchise’s seven-season absence from the NFL playoffs.
Yes, the opening-month schedule of the Buffs’ season is brutal, including three foes ranked in the top 20 plus longtime rivals Nebraska and Colorado State. But if the offensive line can keep quarterback Shedeur Sanders in one piece through September, it would not shock me if Coach Prime has his team bowl eligible by the time CU faces defending Pac-12 champion Utah on Thanksgiving weekend.
Although all the hand-wringing about Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson being washed up is understandable, it’s overwrought. Payton won’t make the mistake of trying to morph Wilson into Aaron Rodgers, as that knucklehead Hackett did. What I expect Payton to do is pound the rock and control the clock, minimizing the weaknesses of the 30-something Wilson for three quarters, only to turn DangeRuss loose in the final period when the game’s on the line.
OK, I get it. Those wise guys in Las Vegas keep building shiny new casinos with profits made off of optimistic fools who part with their money at the sportsbook.
The oddsmakers have established the over/under line of demarcation for CU victories during Sanders’ debut season in Boulder at 3.5.
Those same oddsmakers have set the over/under on the number of Ws by the Broncos in 2023 at 8.5.
You don’t need me to tell you how to fritter away your hard-earned cash.
But I say this: Bet the over on both of our long-suffering local football teams.
Hey, they don’t call me Mr. Sunshine for nuthin’.
The Broncos and Buffs are going to be better than doubters and doomsayers think.
Saturday will again be a great day for good football in Colorado, and the sorrow from NFL Sundays is going to be swept away.
The belief instilled by Payton and Sanders will infuse the Buffs and Broncos with a stubborn refusal to lose.
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