Pac-12 Media Day: Buffs Focused On Being 'Best Team We Can Possibly Be'
July 21, 2023 | Football, Neill Woelk
LAS VEGAS — Colorado's Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders may not have been physically present at Friday's Pac-12 Media Day, but the force was nevertheless strong.
Sanders had to miss what would have been his Pac-12 Media Day debut because of surgery to treat blood clots in his leg. In his place, Colorado defensive coordinator Charles Kelly took the stage while quarterback Shedeur Sanders (Deion's son) and wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter were the Buffs' player representatives.
But that didn't mean questions about Sanders and his impact on the program didn't carry the day.
"He's doing great," said Kelly, who came to Colorado from Alabama to join Sanders' staff last winter. "You can bet once fall camp gets here he'll be ready to go."
Since the day Sanders was hired early last December, the Buffs have been at the forefront of college football coverage from coast to coast. Sanders has orchestrated one of the most dramatic roster makeovers in modern college football history, and the biggest question surrounding the program at this point is a simple one:
Just how good will the Buffs be? More precisely, how quickly can CU's coaches mold a team with roughly 70 new faces into a cohesive unit?
Critics say it won't happen overnight, and the conference's preseason media poll reflected that thought. The Buffs were picked to finish 11th in the league, ahead of only Stanford.
Meanwhile, CU also did not have a single player named to the first or second all-conference offensive team while Hunter, a first team pick at cornerback, was the only defensive choice.
Still, no preseason poll has ever scored a touchdown or prevented one. As Kelly so aptly reminded the media, "If we all went off predictions, we wouldn't kick the ball off. We wouldn't play the game."
But the Buffs will kick the ball off and they will play the games in a schedule that might just be one of the more difficult in CU history.
Colorado will face three teams in the first five games — TCU, Oregon and USC — likely to be ranked in the nation's top 25. The other two come against two of the Buffs' historic rivals, Nebraska and Colorado State.
Kelly, though, isn't one to be daunted by big games. He knows more than a little about coaching in those games — and more importantly, what it takes to prepare to win those affairs.
"What we're focused on is being the best football team we can possibly be," Kelly said. "Where you're picked or where you're expected to place has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. It's how we work, how we develop as a team, how we come together as a team. That's what's going to determine whether we win or not. It will be all about us. It won't be about anybody else, or anybody's prediction."
Kelly speaks from experience. He spent his last four seasons working for Nick Saban at Alabama as the Crimson Tide's associate defensive coordinator. Alabama was 47-6 in his time there, including a perfect 13-0 national championship season in 2020.
Now, after less than a year in Boulder, Kelly said he sees plenty of similarities between Saban — perhaps the greatest college coach of all time — and Sanders.
"First of all, they're very good men and they have conviction," Kelly said. "When they believe in something, they fight for it. That's a sign of a good person, and they tell you the truth. Not what you want to hear but what you need to hear. The other thing is they have a way of setting a standard and they're not going to deviate from that standard and everybody that works with him is going to be the same way. When the standard is the standard and you bring people to that standard, that's how you elevate your program."
But Kelly admits that there is already a sense of urgency in Boulder. When Sanders was hired, he vowed to turn the program around in a hurry. There was no talk of a "rebuilding plan" that would take several years.
"Nobody outside is going to put any more pressure on us than we're going to put on ourselves," Kelly said. "Coach Prime made his vision very clear from the beginning and we all understand that vision. We want to do it now."
Kelly knows there has been criticism about the dramatic roster shakeup in Boulder. Only a handful of players from last year remain, with dozens of others shown the door.
"People have their opinion but we did it within the rules to create the best roster possible for the University of Colorado," Kelly said. "We don't want to apologize for that. So what our job is now is to make sure we coach and we develop and we bring these players along every day. Every day when you're in college coaching, you do three things: you evaluate, you recruit and you develop … It's just a sense of urgency that this is what we got to do to bring Colorado football back to where our fans deserve it."
CONFERENCE OF QBS: There may not be a conference in America with more quality quarterbacks than the Pac-12.
Tops on the list, of course, is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, USC's Caleb Williams. But the group also includes Washington's Michael Penix, Oregon's Bo Nix, Utah's Cam Rising, Arizona's Jayden de Laura, Washington State's Cam Ward and Colorado's Sanders.
At this point, Sanders might be considered as part of the pack behind Williams, Penix and Nix.
But he has the tools to move his name up the ladder in a hurry. The question is how he will fare against Power 5 competition after playing his first two years at Jackson State.
Sanders' numbers at JSU were spectacular. He led JSU to a 23-3 record in two seasons and holds school records for touchdown passes in a season (40) and completions (344). He finished his two years there with 6,983 yards, 70 touchdowns and just 14 interceptions.
Kelly, who saw his share of quality quarterbacks at Alabama, said Sanders' numbers can't be ignored — no matter where he compiled them. And, he's seen in practice what Sanders is capable of achieving.
"Shedeur is very smart," Kelly said. "He understands the game. He makes good decisions. He has a strong arm and he's very accurate. He's got the traits that make him a great quarterback. Then look at what he's accomplished. Look at how many yards he's thrown for, look at how many games that he's won … Production is what you look for. And I think he has all the attributes to be a productive quarterback at any level."
OFFENSE OR DEFENSE? One of the more interesting questions to be answered this year is how many snaps Hunter will get on the offensive side of the ball.
Two years ago, he was one of the nation's top-rated defenders with offers from every major program. He shocked the world by choosing to join Coach Prime at Jackson State.
But while he is clearly a standout cornerback, he also has the talent to become an elite wide receiver — and he spent much of his spring playing that position. He wrapped up the session with an outstanding game at receiver in the spring game at Folsom Field.
Kelly said it won't be a surprise to see him playing both spots with regularity in the fall.
"There are very few players that have the ability to do what Travis can do," Kelly said. "Coach Prime has a solid plan on what he wants to do with him … When you talk to this young man about playing corner, he understands how to play the game. He understands the techniques. He knows what we're doing on defense. So what we did in the spring was let him play more offense because he needed to develop more as a wide receiver. It will be one of those situations where coach will make sure that he has a plan going into the game about how we're going to use him. I can tell you this — if a guy can put points on the scoreboard, he's going to play for us."
BUFFS DEEP AT WR: Hunter is by no means the only talented wideout on the roster. When asked which players had impressed him thus far, Shedeur Sanders named his wideouts. Along with Hunter, the group includes Omarion Miller, Adam Hopkins and Jimmy Horn Jr.
"I've got so many options, it's like what car do I want to drive today?" Sanders said. "I'm just really excited."
