College Football

Shedeur Sanders has lit a fire in Colorado, just as his father has across college football

Updated Sep. 20, 2023 10:13 a.m. ET

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RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Colorado is Shedeur Sanders' team. It always has been.

He was named to lead men. Did you know his first name is Biblical? Did you know it appears in the Old Testament in the Book of Numbers? Did you know Shedeur has a Hebrew origin meaning "field of light"?

Names anoint us, and he has been a lit fire beneath a fan base long starved for a winner.

Shedeur Sanders is 73-8 as a starting quarterback dating back to high school. He's averaging 417 passing yards a game with a 10:1 TD-to-INT ratio.

In 2021, he led Jackson State to an 11-2 record and a SWAC title. What's significant about that year apart from the obvious? There was no Travis Hunter on that team.

And if the No. 19 Buffs are going to go to Eugene and win against the No. 10 Oregon Ducks, it'll be Shedeur who leads the program to another new height.

He is the man who went into "Brady mode" on Saturday night, taking the ball on his own 2-yard line, down eight with 2:06 to play, and willing CU to a win. 

Breaking down Colorado's victory over Colorado State

He is the man who was among three players last year to throw for 3,500 yards, 40 TDs, and less than seven INTs.

He is the man who, like his name, lights up fans and scoreboards.

Hunter, for his part, suffered a lacerated liver after he was illegally hit by Colorado State safety and captain Henry Blackburn in the Buffs' 43-35 2OT win last Saturday.

On a Twitch live stream yesterday, Hunter said: "Good thing the doctors were there. Because if the doctors weren't there I would've still been out there playing.

"[Blackburn] did what he's supposed to do. It's football."

Blackburn's hit lacerated Hunter's liver, and he said it's cool. That's Heisman talk.

Prime's kept it real ahead of this week's contest versus Oregon.

"We have not played a complete game. ... If the offense is playing well, the defense is hot garbage. If the defense is playing well, the offense is horrible. And the special teams is not special."

After Hunter left, Kyndrich Breedlove took his place and got cooked. Prime said five-star corner and true freshman Cormani McClain "is not ready."  And when Prime was asked what's holding McClain back, he said, "He is."

And therein lies the glaring weakness for the Ducks to exploit, particularly by running a mesh concept as often as they can.

Oregon hardly looked unbeatable against the only Power 5 opponent it has faced all year in Texas Tech, barely escaping with a 38-30 win. The defense is suspect, but Bo Nix, Bucky Irving and Troy Franklin are not.

Vegas makes Oregon a three-touchdown favorite. But Vegas hasn't had the line right on Colorado all year, even when it made the Buffs a 20-point favorite against CSU.

Is Colorado's Shedeur Sanders already a top-5 NFL pick?

It can't account for the folks willing to not just put their money on Prime but to show up on his behalf.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was in Boulder in a Shedeur Sanders jersey. Lil' Wayne, Offset, Cam'ron, Wu-Tang, Gillie Da Kid and even Kawhi Leonard all were down there with "Big Noon Kickoff" — for Colorado vs. Colorado State.

Such is how Hollywood has adopted the Prime experience — a Black experience. And the Black ain't about want. It's about need. It's not about thriving. It's about thriving to survive. It's about not standing up, but charging at full-sprint when everybody else has fallen down.

Coach Prime makes traditional coaches nervous — even Black ones like poor Jay Norvell. Being comfortable in Black neighborhoods, among Black folks is one thing. Pete Carroll famously roamed the streets of South Central late at night because he wanted that predominantly Black and brown community to know the Trojans were their team. Barry Switzer roamed every Black haunt he could find to bring talent back to Norman, Oklahoma. But that's in recruiting someone else's house. Bringing their customs and culture to a place unused to those customs and culture is something different entirely.

The unmistakable flair of Prime's Colorado is everywhere. At the barbershop yesterday, one of the old heads tried to put me on game. He said, "RJ, these are your Fab Five. These are your Runnin' Rebels, your Miami, your LA Raiders. Blow your trumpet, young blood. Shake the walls of Jericho." 

Prime knows this and is doing his best to tell his players to enjoy it — to revel in being Black America's favorite football team.

And let's not be coy: Black folks are so Tinashe-2-On for this and ready to hand Hunter and Shedeur a Heisman apiece if they keep this up.

The biggest fear many coaches have is being exposed, being called out of touch with players they never had to be in touch with to get, to have social capital enough to coach them hard without reservation.

Prime became the best recruiter in the country two years ago when he won Hunter, a five-star who flipped from Prime's football alma mater, Florida State, to join him at HBCU Jackson State. The power of Prime can be seen in its full glory there, as well as in his freedom from the financial and occupational hazards of the job.

He'll wear his sunglasses and hat anywhere he damn well pleases. He'll rock his gold chains, custom pendants and hoodie beneath a jacket on national television. He'll tell a sideline reporter — in the first half of Week 1, mind you — that his star athlete, Hunter, would already have the Heisman at his house if only he'd connected with two more catches.

He'll hear every slight. He'll measure every compliment. Everyone isn't for him, and he is against them.

There are no neutrals when it comes to Colorado. He is a Black Count of Monte Cristo, fresh off the boat with the treasure of Sparta at his disposal.

He is a Black Edmund Dantes, who counted 72,519 stones in his walls, and never forgot those who orchestrated his imprisonment — including Napoleon Bonaparte himself.

He is the dream many Black folks aspire to personify — a Black man unencumbered by bills, unafraid of the world around him, bending its bars of reality to his will. So if they should pull the upset at Autzen, you should know Prime and Shedeur won't be surprised, even if many still will be.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The Number One College Football Show." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube.

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