Coach Prime on the culture he is building at CU: ‘We will not settle for mediocrity’

The fact the Colorado Buffaloes’ football program was getting dramatically overhauled this offseason became extremely apparent the moment the newly-hired Coach Prime stood in front of the football team for the first time and told them that he was bringing his own ‘Louie’ luggage with him.

In the following months, that fact has only become cemented.

“We will not settle for mediocrity,” Coach Prime told Adam Rittenberg, an ESPN Senior Writer, in a recent interview. “It is what it is. You’re going to get on this program, or you’re going to get up out of here. We plan on winning and we don’t have time to procrastinate.”

With that in mind, Prime’s introduction of the team was harsh, but it was also honest. The Colorado Buffaloes are set to welcome in college football’s No. 1 ranked transfer class, and their best freshman class since the Mel Tucker era. The Karl Dorrell-era guys are set to lose some starting jobs, because as Prime said, Colorado is no longer interested in entertaining average performance.

“It’s not a hard message, because here’s the thing: A lot of people are used to being lied to,” Shedeur Sanders, Coach Prime’s son, and CU’s projected starting quarterback, told Rittenberg. “The players coming in, they’re coming to play — they’re not coming to sit. So if you’ve been here, you’re chilling, you’re thinking your spot’s good, that’s not the case. You’ve got guys wanting to play with top talent, each and every position. Nowadays, a lot of people are scared of the truth, and they don’t like hearing that.”

That sentiment was echoed by Prime himself, in the same interview.

“It’s a whole different level of expectation around here, and you got to be able to play the game,” the eldest Sanders said. “So a certain level that might have been welcome, that level is no longer welcomed here. It’s a whole different game now.”

At Colorado, Coach Prime is hoping to take a program that has been ecstatic with merely appearing in a bottom-tier bowl game, and turn them into a program with College Football Playoff aspirations.

So far, he’s off to a good start.