Will lightning strike twice for Deion Sanders? Or will it bounce off the left upright at the worst possible time?
University of Colorado Boulder head football coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders speaks during a spring football press conference at the UC Health Champions Center on on Friday, March 6, 2026. Will lightning strike twice for Deion Sanders? Or will it bounce off the left upright at the worst possible time? Coach Prime announced this past Friday, his first media scrum of the 2026 spring football calendar, that the Buffs are going into his fourth season without a special teams coordinator.
Now this got several corners of the ol’ interwebs worked up into quite a lather. After all, CU has to replace Sanders favorite Alejandro “Auto” Mata at placekicker — and when you’re coming off a 3-9 campaign, you need all the gameday advantages you can muster. But then the cooler heads at the Grading The Week offices reminded us that the Buffs also had gone into the 2024 season without a dedicated special teams coach — without one who was listed on the CUBuffs.com website, at any rate.Reilly resigned just before the start of the 2024 season and multiple reports popped up not long after confirming that he had sought NIL funding for CU from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.unique — among Big 12 football programs, CU was the only one entering spring ball that didn’t list “special teams” as an assignment for any of its assistant coaches. According to CU athletics’ website, counting analysts, the Buffs had four offensive line coaches, three defensive line coaches, three linebackers coaches, and two coaches each assigned to wide receivers and running backs, officially.The metric site BCFToys.com ranked the Buckeyes’ special teams as 95th nationally in unadjusted special teams possession efficiency last season and 44th in unadjusted efficiency two years ago. CU listed Michael Pollock as special teams coordinator last season. The Buffs ranked No. 131 out of 136 schools in unadjusted special teams position efficiency in 2025 and checked in at just 104th in 2024. Like a lot of things in CU’s Sanders Era, the results for the Buffs’ special teams the last three years — like the rosters, the coaches and the results — have been all over the map.Keeler: Nazem Kadri just made Dallas see Stars. Time for Avalanche to bring a Stanley Cup hero home.Should Broncos sign big-name free agent RB like Travis Etienne Jr. or rely on draft?Keeler: Nuggets missed out on Khris Middleton, so they’ve got to fix Cam Johnson Buffs women’s basketball coach JR Payne has had the best hoops team, men or women, in the market since the season tipped off. She’s built up the kind of consistency in her program you can set your Apple Watch to. If the fates are kind, she’s about to notch her fourth NCAA Tournament bid over the last five seasons, and has already clinched five 20-win campaigns in a row. The last Buffs coach to reach 20 victories or more in six straight? The legendary Ceal Barry. This past Wednesday, Lovo announced that CU had extended Payne’s contract through 2031. It’s hard to argue that every nickel wasn’t deserved.Meanwhile, the top men’s college hoopster in the metro just might call DU home. A belated tip of the GTW week cap toDude’s not just a heck of a player. He’s a heck of a story, too. Johnson grew up in Ankeny, Iowa, the same hometown as Broncos cornerback Riley Moss, and wound up at Minnesota State-Moorhead — a Division II program in the Great White North — as a 6-foot-1 freshman. Johnson followed Minnesota State-Moorhead coach Tim Bergstraser to DU when the latter took the Pios job, and the young man didn’t miss a beat while stepping up a level. Over his first 31 games, Johnson led DU in scoring , assists and 3-point makes . As of Friday morning, he was tied for ninth among Division I players in 20-point games this season. As Bergstraster rebuilds DU, Johnson’s already shown the goods to be one of his key pillars. To say nothing of an absolute keeper.Ikon pass prices announced for 2026-27 season, going on sale March 12Avalanche bring back Nazem Kadri in trade from FlamesColorado road conditions: Snow, crashes close roads across Front Range, mountains Four renowned Denver chefs are cooking all day Sunday to raise money for Colorado Immigrant Rights CoalitionKeeler: Nazem Kadri just made Dallas see Stars. Time for Avalanche to bring a Stanley Cup hero home.
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