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The Colorado Buffaloes are officially under the microscope. On Thursday night, Deion Sanders begins his second season in charge of the school's football program when the Buffs host the North Dakota State Bison at Folsom Field -- and a win will calm the waters around Coach Prime's team.
Sanders has courted controversy recently after barring Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler from asking him questions in press conferences, although he reaffirmed his status as a pre-eminent player's coach after opening bank s for players on his team who already have children. Even with the recent blowback in the media, Sanders retains the backing of his star players, such as the versatile Travis Hunter.
Hunter: No one is bigger than the team
Hunter, a cornerback/wide receiver who will continue to see reps on both sides of the ball in 2024, recently confirmed to Fox News Digital that Sanders is a difficult coach to play under, and he can easily understand how Colorado has gone through so much upheaval since he took over in 2023.
"They can't take the criticism. They can't take coaches getting on them. They can't take not being able to start right off the bat. They think everything is handed to them, and they can't take how they're getting treated," Hunter said about the scores of players who have left the team via transfer over the past two years.
Hunter -- and starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders -- are transfers themselves, as they followed Coach Prime to Boulder from Jackson State. Their belief in Coach Prime stems from a NFL preparedness point of view -- Sanders is a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee after starring at cornerback for several NFL teams, and Hunter thinks no program in the country gets its players ready for the pros quite like Colorado.
"We gotta come in there with our socks high, be at meetings 15 minutes before they start. It's not necessarily advice he gives us, it's what he instills in us," Hunter said. "We already know what we gotta do at the next level since we're doing it right now in Colorado. It's pretty much going to be a walk in the park once we get to the next level.
"Everything that y'all see that he says online, that's actually how he is when the cameras aren't on," Hunter continued. "He tries to help us out as much as he can. That's him. He's looking out for us on and off the field."