BOULDER — Deion did Indy better than Indy does Indy. Sean Payton held court, smiling at everybody but the scribes. A radio row loomed behind one end zone, while a DJ spun tunes behind another.
Crowds cheered players who grunted through the bench press. NFL Network talking heads broke down Shedeur Sanders’ warm-up tosses like they were the Zapruder film.
Who needs a scouting combine when you can hold your own CU-bine at 5,360 feet? Boulder on Friday offered many of the same touches downtown Indianapolis does in February — minus those late-night runs to the 24-hour Steak ‘n Shake. It even snowed, for pity’s sake.
“It really had a different feel to it,” longtime NFL Network reporter Steve Wyche told me. “Because usually, (college pro days) are kind of, I won’t say haphazard, but they’re a little less structured. There’s not a program.”
CU had one of those, too. Literally. The 2025 We Ain’t Hard 2 Find Showcase presented visitors with a 24-page booklet, held fast by round, tiny plastic spines — complete with a schedule, a map of the Indoor Practice Facility, and individual bios of the 16 Buffs participants.
“This was really structured, really well thought-out and coordinated,” Wyche continued. “So, salute to that. As someone who had to broadcast this, it made our jobs a lot easier.”
Denver has two pro football teams now. Broncos to the south, CU to the north. Why would Deion Sanders ever leave for the NFL when he’s got a $10 million-per-year contract to run his own expansion/feeder franchise, complete with a Flatirons view? More to the point, why would you ever want to work for Jerry Jones when you can be Jerry Jones instead?
“I mean, this was a big deal,” NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger, a Cowboys lineman back in the day, said after the showcase wrapped. “I was at Penn State last week, but Abdul (Carter) and Ty Warren didn’t really work out, so it wasn’t quite the same. We didn’t get the same turnout. But I just thought the level of it (at CU), to see (Broncos coach) Sean Payton there, and (Browns coach) Kevin Stefanski, and see the guys who are running these organizations, I thought that was pretty cool.
“I thought just the level of attention by the people watching was about as electric as it gets.”
Which is the point. It was always the point.
Whatever you think of Coach Prime’s predilections, he’s kept his word on this front: Sanders promised to bring the NFL back to BoCo in a big way. Last week, he brought them by the hundreds.
Here’s why that matters: In the 23 NFL drafts from 1984 to 2006, CU’s golden age of the gridiron, the Buffs saw an average of four players selected every spring.
During CU’s woebegone Pac-12 Era, 2011-2023, the Buffs averaged roughly 1.4 draftees per year.
Causation? Correlation? Connection? Take your pick. They all apply.
“An event like this is going to help recruits come here,” Wyche continued. “You saw all the teams here. You see how many guys (they’re) going to start putting in the NFL.”
And, no, academics and athletics don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, CU football reported a program-record 3.011 team GPA for the fall 2024 semester. On the flip side, the NCAA also charted the Buffs with a rolling academic progress rate of 960 for 2018-2023, which ranked 14th out of 16 Big 12 schools. Let’s just say the transfer portal and APR scores don’t always play nicely together, and the more guys you’ve got going in and out, the harder that needle will be to thread.
But running a college football program like an NFL front office isn’t new. It’s everywhere. In an age of the portal — free agency, more or less — and paying players, the game is coming to Deion, not the other way ’round.
The Buffs’ support staff includes a general manager and a director of player personnel. Mike Zimmer, one of the most respected NFL defensive minds of his generation, has been helping consult/headhunt at CU for years now. Pro assistants Pat Shurmur and Robert Livingston had never called plays at the FBS level before they got to Boulder. So far, particularly in the case of Livingston, the transition to the college game has looked seamless.
A staff that features Warren Sapp, Marshall Faulk, Domata Peko and, reportedly, Byron Leftwich only strengthens those perceptions, those pipelines. And those rumors.
“Look, it happened with Jim Harbaugh. It happens,” Wyche said. “If, next thing you know, CU is playing for a national championship, then you better believe you’re going to hear NFL rumors.
“Now, whether Deion wants to entertain those, because NFL owners could say, ‘Well, we’ll pay the buyout.’ … It’s just a matter then of, do the goals change? Does the goalpost move, so to speak?”
In the meantime, enjoy the big stage. Programs that send guys to the league, by and large, draw guys who can play in the league. It’s one of those hard coaching truths that never changes, whether you’re in Boulder or Berkeley. Kids want to be on TV. Kids want an audience with Payton and Stefanski. Coach Prime ticks both boxes.
“And then having guys like Warren Sapp and Marshall Faulk and Domata Peko and Byron Leftwich (on the staff), and the atmosphere and program that they’re building,” Wyche stressed. “I just think all of this is going to continue to keep guys coming to CU and it’s going to keep Deion here.”
There’ve always been stars at Folsom. But for more than a decade, as the Buffs played to dozens on the Pac-12 Network, Laviska Shenaults were blessed exceptions. If Friday was any harbinger, so long as CU keeps doing NFL that matches its NIL, they’ll become the rule.
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