Year One of the Coach Prime Era: Hits and Misses / Moving On: Charting Changes in the CU Coaching Staff and Roster

This is Stuart Whitehair, publisher and editor for the CU at the Game website, and your host for the CU at the Game podcast.

Welcome to our first post-season podcast. I am joined for this episode by Neil Langland, and we are going to begin our journey into what promises to be another memorable off-season for the Colorado football program. 

First, a note. We are going back to posting episodes every other week, with our next episode covering Signing Day. The Recruiting Class of 2024 will be signing their Letters of Intent on Wednesday, December 20th, with our podcast taking a deep dive into the Class being posted that Friday. 

We will open this podcast with a review of Year One of the Coach Prime era. It’s hard to believe the impact Deion Sanders has had on the CU athletic department, the City of Boulder, and upon college football as a whole, but it’s worth taking a few moments to look back at what the Buff Nation has ... compared to what might have been. 

Quick quiz: Which is the most unbelievable factoid from Year One of the Coach Prime era? 

•That CU sold out every home game for the first time in school history (not to mention the Spring Game)?;
•That CU, after a 1-11 season, was nationally ranked in September?; or 
•That more viewers watched the Rocky Mountain Showdown (with a 10:30 p.m., ET kickoff) than watched the prime time Pac-12 championship game between two top five programs in Oregon and Washington? 

After our short trip down memory lane, we turn our attention to the reshaping of the coaching staff and roster, with a look ahead to how Signing Day might influence CU’s won/loss record next fall.

So ... Was the loss of offensive coordinator Sean Lewis, with his “most likely” replacement being Pat Shurmur, a net loss or a net gain for the program? ... If Coach Prime brings in well-known names, like Warren Sapp and Brian Leftwich, who have no collegiate coaching experience, will that help or hurt the development of the roster? ... And ... Are there enough quality offensive and defensive line transfers out there, who can be counted upon to turn CU’s front lines into strengths instead of weaknesses? 

Let’s find out ...