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While everyone is fawning over the Georgia Bulldogs for winning their second consecutive national championship in convincing fashion over TCU, Deion Sanders was working.
Sanders shocked the college football world in early December when he left Jackson State to take the head coaching job at Colorado.
The Buffs won just one game in 2022 and fired head coach Karl Dorrell just five games into the year. They haven’t reached a bowl game since 2016.
But Coach Prime seems up to the task. Sanders came in and immediately laid down the law, which rubbed many in the college football sphere the wrong way. But since then he’s more than backed it up off the field. Sanders picked up a number of big recruiting wins prior to December’s Early Signing Day, which included flipping four-star running back Dylan Edwards from Notre Dame.
The question, however, was never about how Sanders would fare off the field. But instead, his critics wonder how successful he can be on the field while taking a big step up in competition.
We’ll get our first taste of that answer when Colorado takes on Arizona State in Week 0 the 2023 NCAA football season. And ESPN is doing all it can to make sure anybody who wants to tune in, can.
ESPN Shifts Coach Prime To Prime Time For Colorado Debut
Brandon Marcello of 247Sports reports that the Pac-12 and ESPN have worked to move Colorado’s game against Arizona State forward on the schedule so that it can be broadcast in prime time.
The #Pac12 is working to finalize a Week 0 matchup between Colorado and Arizona State in August, a source tells @247Sports. ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit said/reported on #CFP broadcast the two will meet in Week 0.
Game would mark the debuts of Deion Sanders and ASU's Kenny Dillingham.
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) January 10, 2023
Colorado was previously scheduled to play national runner-up TCU in its first game of the year, but ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit revealed that that had changed on Monday night.
“(Sanders) was on GameDay with us and he actually gave us some news … breaking news, from Prime,” Herbstreit said. “They’re actually not going to be opening up with (TCU). Colorado’s going to open up with Arizona State in their first game, and then they’re going to play TCU in their second game. Looks like they’re sneaking around there a little bit, but that was just told to me from Coach Prime tonight.” – via 247Sports
The Sun Devils, like the Buffs, are working in a new head coach. Arizona State hired Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham last month.
So the matchup features two new star coaches in the Pac-12 and also gives Coach Prime a little bit of an easier start to his Colorado tenure.