Super Bowl winning coach to join coaching staff?
Deion Sanders’ coaching mentor may be joining the CU football staff.
There are rumors within the program that former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer will be joining the football staff as a defensive analyst.
Zimmer was spotted at practice in Boulder this past week, deceked out in full CU gear. Zimmer was Sanders’ defensive backs coach for the Cowboys Super Bowl run in 1995. Since then, they’ve kept a tight relationship and Zimmer served as an analsyt with Sanders at Jackson State in 2022. Zimmer was set to be named Colorado’s defensive coordintor in 2024 but was instead hired as the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys (again). The Cowboys decided to replace Zimmer after this past season, with Longmont’s own Ed Werder reporting that Zimmer would likely retire from coaching in the NFL. Now, the scuttlebutt is that Zimmer may be re-joining Deion Sanders’ staff, giving Sanders two former NFL head coaches on his staff with Zimmer and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.
Zimmer finished his head coaching run with the Minnesota Vikings with a 74-59-1 record. He has ties to Boulder, as his nephew, Andrew Zimmer, graduated from CU in 2010 and has been an offensive assistant with the Buffs since 2022.
It’s time to ask hard questions about the basketball program
Tad Boyle said last week that the only outgoing transfers he expected were Harrison Carrington, a former walk-on, and Courtney Anderson, a seldom-used-guard.
Tad Boyle was wrong.
Over the last couple of days, each of Javon Ruffin, Assane Diop, and RJ Smith have announced that they, too, are entering the transfer portal.
Javon Ruffin participated in senior day ceremonies, so most observers (myself included) figured that he was ready to be done with basketball. The fact that he’s considering playing elsewhere, while a surprise, isn’t a big loss for the program because the coaching staff was already planning on his exit. However, the exit of Diop and Smith is surprising and, while not fatal from a basketball standpoint, seems to indicate that Boyle doesn’t have his finger on the pulse of the team.
Diop was a good defender but an albatross offensively, with a field goal percentage of 38.9% and the third highest turnover rate on the team at 25.2. Teams rarely guarded him closely in the half court, instead clogging up driving lanes and post entires for other players. Diop averaged 3.8 point and 3.7 rebounds per game.
Smith, on the other hand, was one of the few competent shooters on this year’s team, shooting almost 39% from 3 and having an effective FG percentage of 56%. Smith turned the ball over too much for a shooter with a low usage rate (he had the 2nd lowest usage rate on the team at 15.2% behind only Felix Kossaras at 13.7%), but Smith had the potential to be a high caliber role player if he leaned into being a pure 3-and-D guard.
That potential just won’t be fulfilled at Colorado.
It’s reasonable to assume that CU is prioritizing paying Bangot Dak and Sebastian Rancik. Post Malone will be returning, and Felix Kosaras and Andrew Crawford are both returning (some might cynically say that they are returninig because they wouldn’t be in demand if they wanted to leave the program). The incoming class, while good — it’s rated 38th nationally — is not good enough to lead this next year’s team to a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 finish. The starting point guard currently looks to be Felix Kossaras, who looked bad in his lone start against Villanova in the Crown Tournament (finishing with 9 points and 4 turnovers on 37.5% shooting). Kosaras had the lowest Kenpom offensive rating on the team and the highest turnover rate on the team this past season. If he is the lead guard on the team, Coloardo is in trouble.
CU now will sign at least 3, and maybe 4, players in the transfer portal. Given CU’s struggles in the portal and low NIL budget, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the caliber of players that CU will land. For more on potential transfer options, check out:
Bottom line — the questions about whether Tad Boyle can successfully lead this program in the new era of NIL and the transfer portal grow only stronger.
Sheppard Shines at We Ain’t Hard 2 Find Showcase
The football world descended on Boulder on Friday for the CU pro day showcase. NFL executives, coaches and scouts crammed into the CU indoor practice facility for a final look at Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. And while they looked fantastic, the biggest winner of the day may have been Will Sheppard.
Sheppard, who was snubbed from the NFL Combine, showed out. He recorded a 40.5 inch vertical jump (!) — which would have been 3rd among all WRs at the combine, and he recorded a 10 ft. 11 inch broad jump (!) — which would tied for 4th at the NFL combine. He measured over 6’2″ without shoes and ran his 40 yard dash in the mid-4.5s, which is plenty fast enough. Will Sheppard made himself some money on Friday.
Will Sheppard's 40.5 inch vertical: pic.twitter.com/l3La7I1ZNd
— RG(@RyanGreeneDNVR) April 4, 2025
Other players that had impressive pro days include Jimmy Horn Jr. (who ran a 4.40-second 40), Chidozie Nwanko (with 30 reps of 225 pounds, which would have placed first among defensive tackles at the NFL combine), Shane Cokes (with 29 reps of 225 pounds, which would have tied for the best at the NFL combine), BJ Green (who ran a 4.59 second 40), and Justin Mayers (with 28 reps of 225 pounds, which would have been 6th at the NFL combine, and a 32.5 inch vertical jump). These are NFL caliber results, folks.
Travis Hunter didn’t test in individual drills, but did participate in throwing deals with Shedeur Sanders. The QB was impressive, throwing to Jimmy Horn, Jr., LaJohntay Wester, Travis Hunter, Will Sheppard and Drelon Miller. Miller’s inclusion (as he is the sole non-draft eligible participating receiver) is interesting, and indicates that CU staff (and Sanders) both think very, very highly of him. I would be very surprised if Miller doesn’t have a massive season this fall.
Per Ryan Koenigsberg at DNVR, Sanders finished his pro day workout 62 of 67, which actually could have been a normal gameday stat line for him (!). Of the 5 incompletions, 3 were drops.
Oh, and check out this throw/flip combo from Sanders and Jimmy Horn Jr. I’m going to miss watching these guys play at Folsom.
Silent football commit?
Eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that there are several different photo backgrounds that CU uses with high school players on their recruiting trips. There is one background that is particulary noteworthy…..the WE COMING background.
The large majority of those players that take a photo with Deion Sanders and that particular background have committed to Colorado. Thus, it’s fair to link photos with this background as an indication that the player made a commitment to CU while on the trip.
Yesterday, 4-star offensive tackle Johnnie Jones tweeted the above photo. Jones is a 6’6″ 305 pound tackle out of Tampa, Florida and is ranked the #11 offensive tackle in the country and the #139 player nationally, per 247 Sports. He has plans to visit Ole Miss, Florida State, UCLA, Penn State and Miami — hopefully he has committed to CU and doesn’t end up making those trips. CU’s high school football recruting is about to take off, folks. For more on CU’s high school recruiting, check out our recruiting hot boards. The most recent hot board was on the defensive side of the ball, and can be found at:
Great stuff as usual. I’m a broken record but this site deserves a larger audience.
Thanks Bradley! Always appreciate the kind words.
Couldn’t agree more.
It really seems like football recruiting is picking up after Coach Prime’s extension. I’ve noticed a lot of high-level high school players are now tweeting at CU and noting they’re “Not Hard 2 Find.” Check out G’Nivre Carr’s twitter, for example. We could be looking at the best HS class we’ve had in 20+ years.
Anyway, thanks for the blog. I’ve enjoyed reading!
Hi Jim. I agree that HS recruiting is going to be strong — I think we’ll see 20-22 HS players this year, which is way higher than it’s been in Deion Sanders’ first 2 years. I think this has always been the plan — turnover the team with transfers, and slowly start to build with more high school players. Thanks for reading!
Rock solid work.
Thanks Max! I appreciate the kind words.
Looks like the blog is picking up! Super excited to see where this community builds.
Thanks Kiefer!
John, increasing your exposure by including it in the Buffs NewsStand.
NCBuff
Thanks Craig — I really appreciate it.
Nice work John! Hope you’re correct in your forecast that Johnnie Jones could be committing. Appreciate what you are bringing to all of the Buffs fans here. Glad to see you are now included in Craig’s Buffs NewsStand.
Thanks John!