Days are dwindling for Colorado as a member of the PAC-12 – and for the conference itself.
Per just gamedays, Deion Sanders’s Colorado Buffaloes football program has three left as a conference member – this week’s home finale on Folsom Field against Arizona followed by consecutive road trips to Washington State and Utah.
Should Colorado (4-5) find its way to two more wins, it would likely earn one more opportunity as a PAC-12 program – a bowl game.
Regardless, Coach Prime hasn’t spent any time in thought about the Buffaloes’ future roaming back in the Big 12 Conference.
“We don’t think about that. We could care less,” Sanders said in his Tuesday press conference. “Whoever is on the schedule, we’re going to play our hardest and we’re going to play to win.
“We don’t care what you call it, what conference you call it. I’m serious, I’m speaking for my staff as well as the young men that I coach: they don’t care of the conferences. They just want to win and play their butts off and prayerfully go to the NFL or be a professional in some form or fashion. They don’t care what package you wrap us up in.”
After turning heads with his recruiting at HBCU program Jackson State and doing so again in short order at Colorado, Coach Prime said he cannot recall an instance of conference affiliation being a subject with a prospect.
“I have not met a kid yet, and I’ve been recruiting for what is it four years now? Three-and-a-half, four years? I have not met a kid yet that’s said, ‘Man, you know, that PAC-12. Or that SWAC,’” Deion Sanders said. “Not yet. They’re concerned with how much they’re going to play. Not the schedule. They want to go to the next level. They’re not thinking about who they’re playing against and what they’re playing against and what you call it.
“I haven’t caught a recruit yet for that.”
Despite his team’s recent struggles, Colorado’s first-year coach praised the program’s growth and insisted he hasn’t wasted time dwelling on the four losses by a combined 29 points in the Buffaloes’ last four games.
“My life is positive. You’ve got to understand, I don’t dwell on yesterday,” Coach Prime said. “Losses are hard to flush, tremendously for me because I’m a bona fide winner. I’m a positive person throughout anything, so I don’t really dwell on it. I’m a natural fixer. I want to fix things, I want to make things right.
“I want our fans to be pleased, I want our AD to be ecstatic, I want our kids to all go pro and be successful in some for or fashion and that includes winning.”