WHAT’S THE RUSH, COACH PRIME?

On Monday, CU announced it will retire two jersey numbers during the spring game: Travis Hunter’s No. 12 and Shedeur Sanders’ No. 2. And when the news broke, one thought came to mind—

What’s the rush?

Look, I get it. Fathers are biologically wired to hype their kids. I say this as the guy in the office who corners unsuspecting coworkers to watch flag football highlights of his fifth grader.

“Hey Sonya from Accounting, I know we’ve never spoken, but would you like to watch a three-minute video of my son—a kid you’ve never met—doing mildly athletic things on a middle school field while I yell from the sideline like I’m auditioning for Hard Knocks?”

But here’s the difference: I’m not running a college football program. I’m not even calling plays for the fifth-grade juggernaut Titans. I’m just a dad—full of pride, devoid of power.

Coach Prime? He’s got power. Like, a lot of it. And while power is a privilege, as 19th-century historian Lord Acton famously said, absolute power… is kinda dangerous.

At BuffsBlog, we try to stay grounded in the data. And the data says it’s pretty rare—though not unheard of—to retire a jersey number immediately after a player’s college career ends. Beloved Buff4Life Darrin Chiaverini (go Riverhawks!) nailed it in a post on X:

“Legacys [sic] need time to be evaluated…”

Case in point: CU once had a player whose senior-year résumé looked a lot like Shedeur’s—First Team All-American, All-Big Eight, school record-holder, first-round pick. That player? 

Rae Carruth.

Now, no one’s saying Shedeur is anything like Carruth. But it does speak to why legacy needs time.

To date, CU has retired just four jerseys:

—Byron “Whizzer” White – HB, Supreme Court Justice

—Joe Romig – G/LB, two-time All-American, Rhodes Scholar

—Bobby Anderson – Boulder’s own QB/LB

—Rashaan Salaam – Heisman-winning RB with 2,055 yards in 1994

Interestingly, however, only Salaam’s number is still officially retired. In 2020, CU announced that 11, 24, and 67 would be reissued—with commemorative patches to honor the legends.

Step back and look across college football: the average wait time for a jersey number to be retired is 12.2 years. Among NFL Hall of Famers, only Earl Campbell had his number retired immediately. The rest? 14.1 years on average, with legends like Thurman Thomas, Reggie White, and Charles Woodson waiting two decades or more.

More importantly, though, this feels like a disconnect between Sanders and the university itself—a place that, perhaps surpsingly to recent CU fans, has done some pretty incredible things long before Deion Sanders ever arrived. In retiring these jerseys now, CU risks marginalizing the contributions of some serious Buffs royalty: names like Cain, Brock, Hasselbeck, Aunese, Pruitt, Williams, Hagan, Garten, Leeuwenburg, Bieniemy, Hudson, Biekert, Gurode, Graham, Solder, Lindsay, Stewart, Crosby… and the list goes on.

Let me be clear: I’m not opposed to Hunter and Sanders having their jerseys retired. They’ve been electric. They’ve raised the program’s profile. Hunter is a Heisman Trophy winner. Sanders is a great All-American QB. They are both likely to end up among the all-time greats.

I just think legacy should be earned, not declared. Not in the glow of hype or the heat of a moment—but over time, when the full story is known.

Because when you rush to hang a jersey in the rafters, you risk stepping over the names already etched in the foundation.

And as I watch Coach Prime steer this program his way, I get the sense that maybe Sonya from accounting was right all along:

“When it comes to his kids, this dad is a little crazy.”