Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders has catapulted Power Five college football into a higher strata of national attention in just three games. Aside from the three straight wins, two being at their home field, and the bombastic confidence displayed by the entire Sanders family, something else might not be immediately recognizable to the uninitiated.
To be frank: Coach Prime is turning a Rockies PWI into a Saturday HBCU homecoming-level turnup.
The biggest trick Coach Prime ever played on college sports was that he was coming to a PWI. Instead, he brought the HBCU ethos to the mountains, minus the majority-Black student body enrollment piece.
Any Given Saturday
What is so immediately recognizable about the energy is that it starts early in the week with the anticipation of the big game on Saturday. The hype and enthusiasm surrounding the game is insatiable, and the drip that encompasses the Coach Prime aura is nothing less than a streetwear fashion show.
Imagine the sleepy town of Boulder, Colorado, where the Buffs turned in a paltry 1-11 record last year. There was no interest from the commercial rap community in the town, whose neighbor, Denver, gets all the hype in the region and not for the performance of new quarterback Russell Wilson.
Fast-forward to the Coach Prime era, a heavily used transfer portal that shuttled old players out and new ones in, and you have the makings of a face lift for the city. Now, even when the game isn’t until late evening on the East Coast, you have the Saturday Big Noon game day commentary team exhorting about the Buffs home games. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was on hand to give Deion Sanders his flowers, and rapper Lil’ Wayne donned a custom Buffs jersey.
Later, Wayne would open the show with an on-field performance to solidify the enormity of the moment for the world.
Taking It Personal
Coach Prime would bring out his mother to rally the troops and drive home because the rivalry game against Colorado State was personal. After all, CSU coach Jay Norvell indirectly disparaged Coach Prime’s mother when inplying he wasn’t raised right for wearing a hat and sunglasses indoors.
Why did he do that? All it did was make Prime bring out his mom to tell the team to “kick ass.”
Later, after the hard-fought game, which saw NBA stars like Chauncey Billups and Kyle Lowry in the suites with rapper Offset on the sidelines, Prime had Young Dolph protege Key Glock in the locker room rapping in the middle of the celebrating team.
The entire scene is like the best homecoming experience anyone ever had at an HBCU homecoming. Expect it every Saturday home game, and now Boulder, Colorado, will always be different.
