BOULDER — Kordell Stewart’s CU Buffs were a last-place football team this fall. He’ll give you that. But they were America’s last-place football team.
“Prime and I spoke every single week,” Stewart, one of the greatest QBs in CU history, said of Deion Sanders, the Buffs’ ubiquitous coach and his good friend/confidant.
“But it’s a learning curve, right? You’ve got to give him a chance to learn. If you give him a chance to learn what he has on the football field, then he has a chance to know how to go about his business next year.”
I’d give him a B-minus overall. We got three weeks of rock-star scores, rock-star shootouts, rock-star sellouts and rock-star guests. I mean, Lil Wayne led the team out at Folsom Field for the Rocky Mountain Showdown, for pity’s sake.
Then Oregon punched new money straight in the kisser. And that was that.
Quarterback Shedeur Sanders literally broke his back trying to carry this offense uphill the rest of the way. Once the Buffs notched the two games — Nebraska and CSU — Sanders absolutely “had” to win, everything after that was found money.
But getting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Will Ferrell on campus doesn’t negate that six-game losing skid at the end. Or Stanford. Or that chilly Friday night in Pullman when a 5-7 team boat-raced you by 42 points.
“But I told Coach Flea (assistant Gary Harrell), I said, ‘I (expect) you to be 3-1 in our first four games,’” Stewart recalled.
“‘Now after 3-1, when we get to the fifth game, they’re going to figure us out. We’ve got to make some adjustments.’”
Swapping out Sean Lewis for Pat Shurmur calling plays was like swapping out a 2019 Corvette for a ’78 Gremlin.
“We weren’t able to (make those adjustments) offensively,” Stewart conceded. “We tried defensively with our approach, (where) we were going to create some quick turnovers. Me being an analyst, (having been) on ESPN, I could see everything from afar.”
He sees better things in 2024. He sees a new-look offensive line with a new offensive line coach — big Phil Loadholt, reportedly — gelling immediately, giving the Buffs something Shedeur rarely saw unless he did the first part himself: second-and-short.
“With the philosophy we’re working from, (if) we’re going to get linemen, what you think that means we’re going to start doing? Running the football,” Stewart stressed.
“So now, when you create that mindset and that approach, what are you doing in practice? You become physical in the 9-on-7 drills … you’re not playing on your arches to your heels, you’re now playing on your arches to your toes, and you’re going that way — which is forward.
“Whenever you do that, you make (defenders respect) the play-action pass, come up. What happens behind those linebackers? You’ve got tight ends (open) down the (field). You’ve got guys (open) down the seam, because they’re looking in the backfield. That’s all you need, is half a second or half a count (of hesitation), for guys to be looking in the wrong place, to get (a receiver) behind all of that.
“And when you start that process, it’s not about a 5-star (talent), it’s not about a 4-star. It’s a body. If we can get an athletic body that can actually come in and know what we’re asking for and is ready to go to work … because after you stop (it once), I’m going to come back and do it again. And then when you stop it again, we’ll come back and do it again … that becomes our mentality. That’s what I’m excited to see coming.”
So begins the pitch for “Coach Prime” Season 3, a reality show with a ticking clock. Next fall will likely be the last season in which Shedeur, brother Shilo, and all-purpose All-American Travis Hunter play in CU gold together. All roads lead to Aug. 31 against North Dakota State.
Year 1 in Boulder was a cannonball from 5,360 feet above sea level, about making as big of a splash as possible. Year 2, we find out if The Prime Plan actually sinks or swims where it counts. The scoreboard.
“They’re all about trying to win, and they’re doing it at all costs,” Stewart noted. “They’re not being apologetic about it. A lot of guys before (at CU) were extremely apologetic. It felt like they had to fit into how Boulder was and didn’t want to hurt people’s feelings.
“Because Prime doesn’t care. He’s about one thing and one thing only. And that’s winning. And whatever it takes to get it done, he’s going to do.”
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.
