Darian Hagan, no shock, timed his pitch to Fernando Lovo perfectly.
“I don’t know if I reached out to him (first), or he reached out to me,” the legendary former CU Buffs quarterback recalled to me by phone a few days ago. “I know (when) I reached out to him, he asked me if was in town. I said, ‘Yes, I’ll come up there.'”
This was late March or early April. The new Buffs athletic director and CU icon spoke for about 45 minutes on campus. Lovo laid out his vision for CU. They talked about Hagan’s legacy in Boulder, on and off the field.
“It went well,” Hagan said. “It was an opportunity to go up there and meet the new guy. He was awesome. It was good.”
It was cathartic, too, at least on Hagan’s end. At 56, still takes on life with a forward lean, still loves kids, still loves teaching. Darian’s heading into his third season as running backs coach at San Diego State, where former CU offensive coordinator Sean Lewis went 9-4 last fall with the Aztecs.
But for a couple years now, Hagan hasn’t exactly been sure where he stood with his alma mater. After two decades with CU football, the Buffs’ great wasn’t retained on the staff by new coach Deion Sanders. The university transitioned him to a non-coaching role when Coach Prime was hired in December 2022. Hagan had felt a little shut out when Sanders’ inner circle took charge and left CU to join Lewis’ staff in December 2023.
When the Buffs retired quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ No. 2 jersey in the spring of 2025, an honor that had bypassed great CU signal-callers such as Hagan and Kordell Stewart, it opened up old wounds again. So Lovo welcoming Hagan back to campus, a year later, Hagan felt, was a refreshing gesture.
“He’s a great dude,” the ex-Buffs QB said of the new Buffs administrator. “He made me feel good about CU.”
And when it comes to mending fences, that’s as good a start as any.
‘There shouldn’t be this contentious relationship between Buffs fans’
As Coach Prime heads into his fourth season in Boulder, CU football alumni remain divided. Not in their love for the Buffs. Not in their appreciation for what Sanders has done to elevate a program into the national conversation after Pac-12 irrelevance for more than a decade threatened to bury it.
It’s a perception thing. With the exception of a statue unveiling for former Buffs football coach Bill McCartney last year, a ceremony that wasn’t open to the public, many Buffs football alums feel as if CU athletics’ official position is that football at Folsom Field didn’t exist prior to Coach Prime. Which is funny, given that the Buffs won eight or more games 13 times from 1985-2005, a feat the current coaching staff has accomplished to date just once.
“Some of these new Buffs fans act as if CU didn’t play football before Coach Prime showed up,” said Brown, who was a second-team All-American linebacker at CU in 1992, when the Buffs went 9-2-1.
“And (yes), maybe CU wasn’t on the radar. But obviously, we’ve won national championships. We were among the top 15 (programs) in wins, all-time … and unfortunately, and with social media, as is often the case, things often turn ugly. So I’d love to see (Lovo) find a way to bring everybody together.
“Because we’re all Buffs fans. There shouldn’t be this contentious relationship between Buffs fans. And if I’ve got criticisms of Coach Prime’s program now, not only am I told I’m a terrible Buffs fan … but also, I’m asked, ‘What did I do for the program for the last 20 years?’ And I’m like, ‘Wow. Let me see. I’ve funded a scholarship. I’ve gone and I’ve talked to the team. I’ve done private coaching with players.’ The list is long. So the massive disconnect (on social media), I think, is unfortunately turning a lot of older fans off and away from the program. And that’s the exact opposite of what we need.”
The decision to retire 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter’s jersey before he had graduated, or even begun his NFL career, raised the eyebrows for several ex-CU football players from the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s. The jersey retirement for the program’s first Heisman winner, Rashaan Salaam, had taken years to come to fruition before its unveiling in 2017, not long after Salaam took his own life.
“It certainly didn’t help it at all,” Brown said. “Not only from an alumni standpoint, but (with) people within the building. If you can’t get a consensus within the building, that lets you know that it’s not being handled right. I don’t think anybody had any issue with a Heisman winner (Hunter) getting his number retired. But again, how it was handled, the timing of it, the pushing of it out there, even within (CU circles) over there, was not unanimous.”
Hagan, who was 28-5-2 as a Buffs starter and quarterbacked CU to a national runner-up spot in ’89 and to the program’s last national title in ’90, admitted to feeling hurt last year with the Hunter/Shedeur number retirements.
“Am I bitter or (anything) that my jersey’s not been retired?” Hagan reflected. “No. I’m not bitter at all. It would have been a nice gesture, but that doesn’t define who I am as a person. But, definitely, it would be awesome to walk in that stadium and see my name on a wall with other retired numbers.”
How can Lovo repair Buffs bridges that were recently burned? Former CU wide receiver and offensive coordinator says the Buffs A.D. would be wise to include more ’80s and ’90s football alumni in decisions such as retiring numbers going forward. And to more legacy tributes beyond a statue that’s tucked into one quiet corner of a practice field.
“I would tell (Lovo), it’s not about damage control at this point,” said Chiaverini, . “It’s about doing right by the guys who’ve earned the right to be up there.
“To me, there are deserving players like (Eric) Bienemy and (Alfred) Williams and Hagan — the list goes on and on. Countless All-Americans that were on 10-win and 11-win teams that, as an alum of CU, they need to (do it) the right way. Alums should be involved in this conversation. They should be included in this conversation. Nothing against Travis or Shedeur. They’re both great players in CU history. I’m a fan of them both. And I’m actually a fan of Deion. My thing is … I think there’s got to be some transparency in the voting process.”
‘You can’t erase that history’
Hagan said he was told that former Buffs greats had to be All-Americans or national award winners. That they had to wait a decade to be recognized.
He’s still waiting.
“What makes me feel good is, a lot of people say, ‘Man, I wish they would do the right thing and retire my number,'” Hagan laughed. “People tell me that all the time, but I’m not bringing up the subject.
“But I’m definitely for a committee to get these things right. (And) not just for myself — for Eric Bienemy, Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGhee, Kordell Stewart. Somehow, they’ve got to get it right. And do it the right way. I think that would appease a lot of people.”
Former Buffs want more outreach, not less. Hagan walked away from his meeting with Lovo feeling that the new caretaker of CU athletics gets it, at least. And that meant a lot, given the previous 20 months.
“I can’t speak for everyone. I can speak for myself,” Hagan said. “I’m a little biased. But at the same time, that’s my alma mater, I love my alma mater, I want to see them do well.
“But I think what (Lovo) needs to do is galvanize some things to make the guys (who played at CU) feel special. Make them feel like what we did is still relevant. We accomplished some great things there, that I think, at some point, need to be recognized and (revisited) again. Because the things that we accomplished, you can’t erase that history.”
