Well, little snazzy open there.
The Buffs are back in.
The Dion era is here.
Deon Sanders just named the
head football coach at Colorado
known as primetime during
his Hall of Fame career.
He has transitioned now to coach
Prime and we sure hope he brings
whatever the magic was that led his
undefeated season at Jackson State.
Brings that here to Colorado next year.
This is one of the biggest coaching.
Course in Colorado State history.
I mean one of the biggest.
Absolutely a lot has happened in the past
two hours and what was once speculation
now excitement for his arrival.
Sanders will be CU's 28th full-time
head coach for the Colorado Buffaloes.
He's agreed to A5 year contract,
but we don't know how much
it's worth right now.
Sanders will be at an introductory press
conference on campus tomorrow at 1:30. It's
a really big deal for the Buffs who
are last in the PAC 12 this season.
In a statement Tonight,
Athletic Director Rick George says quote,
not only will coach.
Prime energize our fan base.
I am confident he will lead
our program back to national
prominence while leading a team of
high quality and high character.
Jacob Toby joins us now with more this
:) feel. This is a big deal. Very,
very big deal.
So many rumors and reports all day
and it wasn't even made official
until just before 8:30 tonight.
Jackson State actually cancelled
coach primes postgame media session
after their conference title game
today so he could tell the team this.
I know y'all been hearing the rumors
and everything that's been transparent.
Around about my whereabouts
and what I'm going to do.
And I like for y'all to hear it
from me and not from anyone else.
I've chosen to accept the job elsewhere next
year and just seeing what some of you guys.
Have. Claimed to.
Is undern believable and
that's the thing that.
They got me.
I think if you watched that video you
really respect the way he he went about it.
So many rumors. He said he didn't
even tell his own family that he
was making the official decision
because there's just a lot of stuff
going on. I love it.
He said Mama would tell everybody.
Yeah, yeah. He also
was telling his players you're
either gonna get elevated in this
job or terminated. Yeah. So it is.
I think he said it is what it is.
It it is sad for them, surely.
But for him that's incredible.
For us, Colorado
improvement Wise recruitment,
we could do all sorts of stuff.
Absolutely. And and Colorado is making
it a point to change. What are there?
The way they go about recruiting,
they're putting in a new pilot
program for transfer credit review.
It's been an issue in the past trying
to get students here transferring in
from other schools due to credit.
So the school announced tonight
they're going to change that.
That, plus their new NFL initiative,
their new collective with NFL.
Colorado's kind of been behind in that
aspect since NFL has became a thing.
Coach Prime is right at the forefront of NIL.
He can really do some big things,
partner up with some companies,
get these players some money and get
some better players in here too.
So it's going to be great.
And
judging from his past experience,
he's going to have a lot
to do with the community
as well. Yeah,
this guy really shaped the Jackson,
Missouri community when he was there.
I mean, he said it flat out when
there was a water issue there
and they didn't have clean water.
He said, quote, I'm not into politics,
I'm into people.
And he really cares about people and just
trying to get them safe and healthy there.
So he he did that.
He also reached out to Walmart,
got Walmart to pay for a whole new
practice facility, new field there.
So he really did a lot.
For for that community,
not to mention he struggled
with blood clotting issues.
He had nine surgeries last year,
made it back to the team,
was around the team even with you know,
he was limping, he was having trouble.
So he's just all in on kids.
That's that's his main thing.
He cares about the students,
he cares about the kids.
And he also wanted to
shine a lot on Hu schools,
historically black colleges and universities.
He did that.
He took Jackson state to a
whole new level in Colorado,
hopes that it's going to back where they
were once. Yeah.
Gonna be a big change between Jackson,
Ms, and Boulder, Co yeah,
I'm sure he'll do well,
Jacob, thank you.
And you know who might be the
most excited of all, of course,
is the current students in Boulder.
Louis de Leon is live on
campus for us tonight.
Just trying to catch up with people.
What are the students saying, Louise?
How excited are they right now?
They're very Steve.
Basically everyone that we talked
to realize why we were up here,
even in the 1st place.
Some people were even yelling from
their cars prime time when we were
walking around with the camera.
So a lot of energy right now around
campus and around town as well.
We spoke to students both on and off campus.
They had to endure a lot this
past season to say the least,
and they're just excited
about what's to come.
Everyone leaves during halftime because
we usually are down by so much.
So I'm just really excited to like see
a full football game play out well,
it was rough, you know?
And obviously you know.
There's gonna be a change in culture
and we're really excited to see
it said it could be our senior
year but we'll be back for games
and he's he's prime time baby.
Like you gotta like he'll be.
He's just awesome.
Our football team.
I was really worried for the next
four years we'd be complete like
really really really bad. But I think
Dion will bring some energy
that we actually need.
Really, really bad, that student last said.
That's one way to describe the one in
eleven overall season record there.
But hey, students are excited
that the sports world's worst
kept secret is now official.
Hey, we also spoke to MSU Denver
Sports marketing professor Darrin
Duber Smith today specifically about
how a person with such high notoriety
already and what the impact could be
there with having them come to campus.
And Jenny Stevie says it's really
hard to downplay the impact this
could have on the CU brand.
As well as the possibility for recruiting
more of what he calls high quality
students and professors to the school.
Heck, if we can
keep him in the seats beyond halftime,
that'll be a great, great success.
Louise Stillion, her brother,
thank you so much.
Appreciate it. Obviously,
a lot of excitement about this new hire
and it will continue into tomorrow.
We will be streaming his first
press conference with CU right
here on 9 news starting at 1:30.
We'll also be streaming that on 9 News Plus.
And Jacob Toby will have more coming up
later in this show in our sports segment.