Colorado University Athletics
Kordell Confident Coach Prime Will Build Success With Buffs
April 19, 2023 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Forever Buffs star quarterback Kordell Stewart has no doubt Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders will prove to be a success as Colorado's head coach.
Stewart, part of a large group of past Buffs in town for this weekend's Black and Gold spring game, has more than a passing connection to Coach Prime.
Stewart and Sanders faced off in the 1996 Super Bowl, when Sanders' Dallas Cowboys took a 27-17 win over Stewart and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The two then became teammates and friends late in their careers when they both played for the Baltimore Ravens in 2004 and 2005.
Since then, Stewart said, they have maintained a close relationship. When CU Athletic Director Rick George reached out to Sanders last fall to gauge his interest in the Colorado job, Sanders in turn contacted Stewart to get his input on the position.
Stewart admits he was surprised at the initial contact.
"I didn't know why he was calling about that," Stewart said. "I just heard Auburn and USF (as schools that were interested in Coach Prime). I thought, 'Why the heck is he calling me about Colorado?'"
But Stewart discovered that Sanders was indeed serious about the opportunity in Boulder, and he did his best to convince Coach Prime that it was an opportunity worth exploring.
"I gave him some inside stuff on what I thought we needed and needed to address," Stewart said. "He attacked it immediately — and here he is."
Now, Stewart is convinced that Sanders' lifelong successes will make a smooth transition to the Rocky Mountains.
"Coach Prime's effect is beyond words when it comes to this institution," Stewart said. "He has re-energized how we think about football. It's like there was a plug that was sitting on the floor next to the socket and someone had to be brave enough to put it in the wall and get this thing lit up again."
Stewart is well-versed in what kind of effect Sanders has already had on CU and the Boulder community, ranging from recruiting rankings to ticket sales to hotel vacancy rates.
But he also believes that effect is just starting and will continue to grow as he rebuilds and reshapes the CU program.
"This dude played it. He's done it. He's seen it," Stewart said. "He always had the opportunity to identify talent — he was one of those talents that had to be identified. You look at all of the things that he's done overall, it's kind of hard to say what he doesn't know when it comes to talent. Just look at the body of work, two Super Bowl (rings), the World Series — just winning across the board. Then he goes to Jackson State and turned that program around, literally overnight."
Stewart is part of a large contingent of Forever Buffs who will be in town for this week's events and reunions.
"What Coach Prime is doing with all the players coming back, it's well overdue," Stewart said. "To know that guys want to come back, they're asked to come back, they're needed to come back, is great … To see that it is happening this way, that positive energy, it matters. And so for me I'm really excited to say the least."
