The Coach Prime Effect: Colorado readies for its most hyped spring game ever

There are no lack of numbers to marvel at when it comes to Saturday’s spring football game at Colorado.

Start with 45,000. That’s the number of tickets sold — technically a sellout — at Folsom Field. So great was the demand, it was achieved last month. They could have packed more in — namely the usual 53,000 capacity — but some entertainment lounges and luxury boxes at the stadium will not be in use.

Forty-five thousand is impressive enough though, especially considering just a year ago only 1,800 bothered to turn up/wander by for the annual intrasquad scrimmage. Besides, spring football has never been a big deal in Boulder the way it is in Tuscaloosa or Columbus.

CU’s all-time spring attendance record is a paltry 17,800 way back in 1990. The Buffaloes were a powerhouse back then. That fall coach Bill McCartney’s program, led by linebacker Alfred Williams and running back Eric Bieniemy, won a share of the national title.

There’s more though, such as the number 1, which represents that this is the first time ESPN will broadcast the game live across the country, with no less than the network’s top college play-by-play man (and CU alum) Chris Fowler calling the action. It is also the only spring game ESPN will broadcast on its flagship channel this year.

All of this, of course, is the Coach Prime Effect.

In December, CU hired Deion Sanders away from Jackson State, where he had quickly built an impressive team at the HBCU, going 23-3 his final two seasons. Sanders, a master promoter dating back to his playing days in the NFL and MLB — let alone Florida State — has drummed up enormous attention and anticipation.

CU went 1-11 last year and those losses came by an average of 29.1 points. The team was awful, but Prime has rebooted the roster with 41 transfers (and counting) and some star-powered recruits.

CU should be better. How many wins that entails is uncertain — five or six would be monumental.

In classic Prime fashion, he keeps ramping up expectations rather than shy away from them. There is no fear of expectations. There is no asking for patience. He is even setting the table that while Saturday may be a little rough around the edges, no one should lose faith. The season doesn’t start until September.

“We just want to go out there and give them a glimpse of what the possibility is,” Sanders said. “... I don’t want them to get misguided because what you see is not what you’re gonna see. You heard that? What you see is not what you’re going to see.

“I promise you, when we go out there and play our first game, you’re going to be happy with the product that we place on the field for you,” he continued. “I promise you.”

That’s the kind of thing that resurrects a fan base. If nothing else, the Buffs are interesting.

That, for now, is apparently enough for 45,000 Coloradans to skip hiking or skiing or biking or anything else they could do to come and not so much watch the team “play” as to just get in on the pep rally of it all. The program has also sold out season tickets for the regular season.

Which brings us to the most impressive number of them all on Saturday.

No. 3. No. 4. No. 10.

That’s the Class of 2024 national recruiting rankings of Collin Simmons, Williams Nwaneri and Dylan Stewart, respectively, in the 247 Composite Rankings (which averages numerous different scouting sources).

All three are dynamic defensive lineman. Simmons hails from Duncanville, Texas, Nwaneri is from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and Stewart is from Washington D.C. Each is among the very best and most coveted high school recruits in America — pursued by every big-time school.

There are 55 spring games this weekend, including Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Wisconsin. They could have attended any of those games, at the school’s expense, had they chosen. Instead they are each scheduled to be in Boulder this weekend.

Three top 10 recruits at the CU spring game? That’s even more unfathomable than selling the place out.

And that isn’t the full list.

Around 10 additional four- and five-star recruits from the Classes of 2024, 2025 and beyond will be in Boulder to check things out.

That includes 2025 five-star wide receiver Winston Walker Jr., who is already committed to CU, and even Class of 2028 quarterback (i.e. a seventh grader) Austan Cristiaan. Both hail from Prime’s hometown of Fort Myers, Fla.

Colorado won’t sign all of them, or even most of them. That they are in the mix is notable though. That’s the power of Sanders. No first-time FBS coach inheriting a one-win program that sits far from elite talent could pull this off.

That’s what can turn the spectacle and enthusiasm of Saturday into something tangible. Recruiting is nearly everything in college football. Coaching matters, but it’s no coincidence that Alabama and Georgia sign the best players and then produce the best teams.

Sanders did the same at Jackson State, bringing in high-major talent to the SWAC and dominating. Now he’s trying to do the same at CU; next year he’ll trot out the No. 1 cornerback recruit in the Class of 2022 (Travis Hunter) and 2023 (Cormani McClain).

Prime has delivered the hype so far in Boulder. Saturday the crowd will follow. This should be wild.

Whether 45,000 can make an impression on 3, 4 and 10 — among the other recruits — will be the most important equation going forward though.