Colorado University Athletics
Former Buffs Star Pritchard On Coach Prime: 'Colorado Instantly Got Better'
December 07, 2022 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER— Former Colorado star Mike Pritchard still remembers lining up against Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders when the two were teammates on the Atlanta Falcons.
When Pritchard arrived in 1991 as a first round draft pick at wide receiver, Sanders had already established himself as one of the NFL's premier cornerbacks after just two seasons in the league.
"He was an unbelievable athlete, which everybody knew," said Pritchard, who now hosts a radio talk show in Las Vegas. "You could see it in the speed, the power, everything that you admire as an athlete yourself. But what really made him stand out was his work ethic. It was unmatched. We would do drills where you might have 20, 25 plays and the starters would get six or seven reps in a row, then take a break. But Deion took every single rep. He was always preparing himself, conditioning himself to be the best. It didn't matter if it was practice or watching film — he had that incredible work ethic, an amazing attention to detail and a passion to compete."
Of course, Pritchard could have never fathomed at the time that Sanders would someday become the head coach at Colorado. But as Sanders' career has unfolded, Pritchard believes it is the "perfect pairing" for the Buffaloes.
"You have a coach who understands what it takes to make an impact," Pritchard said. "And you have a program that needs an impact. And what you've seen these last few days has been an amazing acceleration."
When word started to filter out that Coach Prime was a candidate at Colorado, Pritchard said he was "hopeful." Then, when it became official, he became ecstatic.
Now, he's been doing interviews over the last few days across the country, talking about the overnight resurgence of CU football and what the expectations might be.
"I keep getting the same question repeatedly," he said. "Given the floor of what the program was when he took over (the Buffs were 1-11 last season), you aren't sure what the expectations should be. Immediately in the playoffs? Immediately playing for a national championship? I don't know about that, but I do know this: CU is instantly going to be better. Colorado is going to be bigger. Colorado football is going to be better. Instantly. The profile is growing overnight and that's going to be contagious throughout the entire athletic department because Coach Prime is that kind of person. It's going to spread."
Pritchard believes Sanders' work ethic and his drive to succeed will immediately resonate with players. The formula no doubt worked at Jackson State, where he was 27-5 in three years, and Pritchard said it should immediately translate at Colorado.
"I go back to when I practiced against him," Pritchard said. "As a receiver, you would try to time it up so you got to compete against him in one-on-ones. It was intimidating, no doubt. But you knew if you could be successful against him, you could do that against anybody in the league.
"But what really stands out to me today, what I still remember, is those few times when you were able to beat him, he would immediately ask you how you did it. He wanted to know because he wanted to file it away and get better. He was always learning, always trying to improve."
Pritchard was part of a golden era of Colorado football, playing on the 1989 team that lost in the Orange Bowl to Notre Dame, and again the following season when CU beat the Irish in a rematch and won a national championship.
"One thing I think became evident at his press conference was how passionate he is, how much he wants to win," Pritchard said. "You can see that players will want to be around him, they will want to be trained by him and they will want to be part of his impact on Colorado football. The best athletes are going to be intrigued by him and you can see it already happening."
Earlier this week, Pritchard and a number of other teammates from those great teams coached by Bill McCartney met in Las Vegas to attend the official induction of the late Rashaan Salaam into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Naturally, Sanders' arrival in Boulder became a hot topic of conversation.
The consensus?
"Everybody's excited," he said. "I think the bottom line was this: it's OK to dream again."
