Six weeks into the season, Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes hit the road to Tempe with intentions of winning their fourth game of the season and exceeding their pre-season win total set by oddsmakers. The Prime Era is off to a roaring success and the future in Boulder is brighter than anywhere else in the country but on Tuesday, Coach Prime shared his admiration for what head coach Kenny Dillingham is building at Arizona State.
“I know what kind of man he is and he is great for their program,” said Coach Prime. “He’s great for college football. Offensively, a truly tremendous mind, but he’s gonna be a great head coach, man, so I have the utmost respect and love and admiration for him because we were going to work together at one point.”
On Wednesday, Coach Dillingham confirmed Coach Prime’s words that the two were going to work together at one point in time.
“Yeah, it’s a true statement,” said Dillingham. “I have a lot of respect for Coach Prime. I recruited Shedeur, he’s a phenomenal player.”
Dillingham was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Auburn when Shedeur Sanders was a recruit in 2019. Dillingham was able to earn the commitment of 2023 five-star quarterback Jaden Rashada last off-season but the talented freshman will miss his fourth consecutive game after being named the starter before the season. Trenton Bourguet will start for the Sun Devils against the Buffs for the second season in a row on Saturday.
Colorado is dealing with multiple injuries at key positions and will once again be without superstar two-way player Travis Hunter. If Coach Prime has his way, Hunter could be held out until the end of October.
“Travis is doing well,” said Coach Prime. “He was out at practice today coaching his butt off, he’s one of the best coaches we have. Travis is, I say maybe a week or two, let’s say two or three [away from playing]. It would be my dream and desire for him to stay out until after the bye week.”
As he recovers from the liver laceration he suffered against Colorado State, Hunter has embraced his role as a coach and has been helping bring along standout freshmen Cormani McClain and Omarion Miller.
“Trav is always helping out at practice and in the game,” said Miller. “He was just telling me to do what I do and take over, put the team on my back.”
Miller set a Colorado freshman record with his 196 receiving yards vs. USC which was the highest mark by a Colorado receiver since K.D. Nixon’s 198 receiving yards vs. Oregon State on October 27th, 2018. Miller was brought on to the field in the second half last Saturday and managed to serve as the dynamic X-receiver CU has missed since Hunter went down.
Cormani McClain proved his five-star ability against USC’s talented group of receivers and is in contention to start across from Omarion Cooper at cornerback this weekend against Arizona State. While McClain continues to find his footing in his first collegiate season, Hunter has been consistently meeting McClain on the sideline to fine-tune the freshman’s game.
When speaking on Tuesday, Coach Prime revealed that safeties Shilo Sanders and Myles Slusher returned to practice this week however both have hurdles that must be cleared before being placed back in the starting lineup. Freshman cornerback Carter Stoutmire also returned to practice and has a chance to play on Saturday. However, the Buffs will be without starting right tackle Savion Washington for an extended period of time.
“[Washington will return] this year but not this week for certain,” said Coach Prime. “I’ll tell you what, that young man played his butt off and he was in tears on the sideline because he couldn’t go back in. He has a special place in my heart because he really wants it.”
Liberty transfer Reggie Young II took Washington’s place and is expected to start at right tackle against ASU. Despite the loss of their starting right tackle, Shedeur Sanders and the Buffs outscored the Trojans 14-0 in the fourth quarter last Saturday. Pro Football Focus has Shedeur as their highest-graded quarterback in the country in the fourth quarter and the third-highest-graded quarterback on the season overall so far.
The Buffs have scored at least 36 points in four of their five games this season and will face a Sun Devils team that is only averaging 16.8 points in their four prior games at home. While ASU has been struggling to find the end zone, they have been able to move the ball fairly successfully averaging 312.5 yards per game this season.
CU’s defense has been able to generate turnovers at a consistent rate all year to this point. Pair that with Shedeur’s ability to take care of the football and the Buffs are tied with Western Kentucky for the seventh-best turnover margin so far this season (+7). Colorado’s defense will have the opportunity to wreak havoc on an ASU offense that has given the Sun Devils the worst turnover margin in the country through Week 5 (-12).
Coach Prime and Coach Dillingham aggressively utilized the transfer portal to rebuild their teams over the off-season and will have the chance to face off again in the near future in the new-look Big 12 Conference. Both coaches are on the cutting edge when it comes to program building and have the distinct advantage of being able to truly relate to the players of today’s generation.
Colorado has an advantage at quarterback and is the more talented team overall despite their health concerns heading into this weekend’s matchup. Oddsmakers have given the Buffs a 4.5-point advantage over the Sun Devils for what could be the first conference win of the Coach Prime era at Colorado on Saturday.
