He did it at the FCS level at Sacramento State. He did it again last year at San Jose State.

For any wide receiver, the natural progression is to put up those numbers at the power conference level. Scudero was no different.

The checklist for a receiver entering the transfer portal is simple. Find a team that puts up points. And one that has a quarterback that can get anyone the ball. Colorado didn’t put up many points in 2025. And the jury remains out on young-but-talented Buffaloes quarterback Julian Lewis.

Scudero, though, had other attractions that led him to Boulder. Tops among them, and perhaps the key to CU’s offensive fortunes in 2026, was the addition of Brennan Marion as offensive coordinator. Yet much like his new teammates on the other side of the ball, Scudero saw the wisdom in honing his craft as a receiver by learning from one of the greatest defender of receivers the game has ever seen in CU head coach and Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders.

“As a receiver, what better way to learn from a guy than the greatest ever to do it at the cornerback position?” Scudero said. “He truly understands the cornerback position and he teaches it so well. That����ap something I can take huge advantage of. If I know what the cornerback’s doing, then I know how to win the route. I’ve definitely tried to pick his brain, learn different things.

“Even when I scored in the spring game. I thought it was a good route. But he said I could’ve gotten out of it one step earlier. Learning things like that is part of the reason I came here.”

While Scudero should provide another set of dependable hands in a talented receiver corps, it is the meshing of Lewis with Marion’s Go-Go offense could make or break the entire season for a Buffaloes program looking to course correct after last year’s 3-9 campaign.

Lewis may have flashed the potential last year that made him a coveted five-star recruit, but he fell short of the sort of dynamic play that might have stirred excitement in the offseason. Certainly CU’s offensive struggles didn’t originate from Lewis, who was thrown into the fray to replace ineffective transfer Kaidon Salter. Nonetheless, it was a forgettable season for the Buffs’ attack, as CU ranked 93rd in the nation (out of 134 FBS teams) in passing offense, 103rd in rushing offense and 112th in total offense. CU tied for 103rd in scoring offense, averaging just 20.9 points per game.

That latter number was a big reason Sanders brought in Marion, as his Go-Go offense has put up points at every stop of Marion’s coaching career. Remarks by Lewis went viral after the Big 12 media days in July after he said he was mostly “free-balling” while on the field last season, as opposed to meticulously reading defenses. Yet it was an understandable approach for a player that reclassified to join CU a year early and didn’t turn 18 until September of last year.

The training wheels will be off for Lewis this year, as the Go-Go offense is predicated on a multi-faceted run game balanced by a vertical passing attack. Lewis, assuming he beats out Utah transfer Isaac Wilson for the starting job, often will have to decide if the Buffs are running the ball or throwing after the ball is snapped.

Lewis certainly should have plenty of weapons at his disposal. Scudero, DeAndre Moore (Texas) and Kam Perry (Miami Ohio) lead CU’s receiver additions through the transfer portal. The Buffs also return Joseph Williams, their second-leading receiver last year, and Hykeem Williams, who still is trying to fulfill the vast potential that once made him a five-star recruit at Florida State.

It����ap a similar story at running back, as returnees Micah Welch and DeKalon Taylor — the latter who is coming off an injury-shortened first season with the Buffs — are battling for a leading role alongside transfers Damian Henderson II and JaQuail Smith, both of whom played for Marion at Sacramento State, and Richard Young, who saw limited playing time in three seasons at Alabama.

As always, Lewis and the skill players will only be as good as the guys up front. The offensive line has been problematic throughout Sanders’ tenure, even while boasting one of the top left tackles in the nation in Jordan Seaton. Seaton has since transferred to LSU, and while CU returns a couple part-time starters in Yahya Attia and Larry Johnson III, the Go-Go offense will launch in Boulder with yet another revamped offensive line.

So how will fans know if CU’s new-look new attack is working properly?  Easy, according to Marion.

“To me, if we’re operating at our fullest, we’re winning,” Marion said. “My grandfather taught me young that if you didn’t win the game, it ain’t good. I’ve been in a game where we’ve had 750 yards of offense and lost the game. We needed more. It����ap just about winning the game. I want to operate in a system that creates our players and gives championship habits and gives them the ability to go win games and win plays.”

Meet the offense

Quarterback

Scholarship: Julian Lewis, 6-foot-1, 190 pounds, R-Fr.; Kaneal Sweetwyne, 6-3, 195, Fr.; Isaac Wilson, 6-0, 210, So.

Walk-on: None

Running back

Scholarship: Damian Henderson II, 6-2, 205, Jr.; Cam Newton, 5-9 185, Fr.; JaQuail Smith, 5-11, 170, So.; DeKalon Taylor, 5-9, 165, Sr.; Micah Welch, 5-9, 215, Jr.; Richard Young, 5-11, 210, Jr.

Walk-on: Titus Bautista, 5-10, 185, So.; Bryce Hicks, 5-9, 185, So.; Cody Jordan, 5-9, 185, Fr.; Leonardo Valle, 6-1, 210, R-Fr.

Receiver

Scholarship: Ernest Campbell, 5-9, 145, Jr.; Quanell Farrakhan Jr., 6-1, 180, So.; Quentin Gibson, 5-9, 155, So.; DeAndre Moore, 6-0, 190, Sr.; Kam Perry, 5-9, 170, Sr.; Danny Scudero, 5-9, 175, Jr.; Jacob Swain, 6-1, 185, Fr.; Alexander Ward, 6-1, 180, Fr.; Christian Ward, 6-3, 205, Fr.; Hykeem Williams, 6-2, 220, Sr.; Joseph Williams, 6-2, 200, Jr.

Walk-on: Tagert Bardin, 6-0, 160, Jr.; Kaleb Mathis, 5-9, 165, Jr.; Carson Westbrook, 5-11, 170, So.

Tight end

Returners: Zach Atkins, 6-4, 240, Gr.; Fisher Clements, 6-7, 265, Gr.; Zayne DeSouza, 6-6, 260, R-Fr.; Ben Gula, 6-5, 285, Fr.; Brady Kopetz, 6-4, 270, Sr.; Corbin Laisure, 6-5, 250, R-Fr.

Walk-on: Charlie Williams, 6-4, 245, Jr.

Offensive line

Returners: Yahya Attia, 6-4, 340, R-So.; Leon Bell, 6-8, 330, Gr.; Chauncey Gooden, 6-3, 380, R-Fr.; Phillip Houston, 6-5, 280, Sr.; Bo Hughley, 6-7, 295, Jr.; Demetrius Hunter, 6-2, 310, Sr.; Larry Johnson III, 6-7, 350, Sr.; Sean Kinney, 6-2, 305, Jr.; Jayvon McFadden, 6-3, 295, R-Fr.; Xavier Payne, 6-7, 320, Fr.; Jayven Richardson, 6-6, 315, Sr.; Andre Roye Jr., 6-6, 295, Sr.; Jose Soto, 6-3, 310, Jr.; Taj White, 6-5, 310, Gr.

Walk-on: Hudson Steber, 6-3, 270, Fr.

Since moving to Boulder as Colorado’s new athletic director last winter, Lovo has been laser-focused on improving the fan experience at CU’s venues, particularly at Folsom Field. That includes pumping up the volume.

Lovo has spent time at Florida, Ohio State and Texas. He knows what big-time college football looks like. And sounds like. So as a test run for the sound system blared across the stadium’s vacant seats, Lovo could almost picture the Folsom frenzy.

“When the music was cranked up and I was looking around the stadium, I imagined it packed full — 50,000 Buffs fans screaming — and I got chills,” Lovo said. “This to me is one of the most iconic venues in all of college football, and I’ve been really fortunate enough to be at many of them. Fans travel from across the state, across the country, to come out and support.

“I watched it from afar when I was at the University of Texas, the year with Travis (Hunter) and Shedeur (Sanders). That����ap why I’m working so hard to get our fans to come out and support. Because I think when this stadium is full and everybody’s yelling and screaming, this really is one of the hardest venues to play in, in one of the most iconic settings.”

Of course, nothing stirs the masses in Boulder more fervently than wins. Those were in extremely short supply in 2025 and, outside a few thrills in 2024, they generally have been hard to come by through three seasons under head coach Deion Sanders.

Still only in the second season of a five-year, $54 million extension signed after the 9-4 campaign of 2024, the highest-paid coach in CU history takes a 16-21 mark into his fourth season leading the Buffs (9-18 in conference games). Yet in many ways the Buffaloes are leaning into a fresh-start approach.

After battling through bladder cancer prior to the 2025 season, Sanders has regained the spring in his step and reclaimed the offseason responsibilities he was forced to delegate last year, particularly in evaluating possible transfer additions. There are new coordinators on both sides of the ball — Brennan Marion and his unique Go-Go attack on offense, Chris Marve on defense — to lead units that battled for the tag of “most disappointing” a year ago.

The revamped rosters on both sides have come with a shift in attitude. Leadership and fortitude were problems for the 2025 Buffs. The new-look 2026 Buffs opened the preseason with a week of training in Colorado Springs during which phones were left in the dorms, continuing the quest for improved intensity and camaraderie.

“It did change,” said offensive lineman Yahya Attia, a three-year Buff, of the team’s attitude. “We’re more rough now. Character. Pride. And straight-up coaches. It����ap always hard when you bring in people from different places and experience. It don’t really matter if they’re experienced or not. That����ap why we’ve got coaches that are going to hold us together and make sure we’re on the same page. We want to win, that����ap the reason. We know how it was last year. We gotta change it this year.”

Sanders has touted his staff as the best he’s had at Colorado. Marion will be the third full-time offensive coordinator in four seasons under Sanders. Same with Marve on defense. In 2025, the Buffs’ lack of toughness reared itself in early losses against Houston, BYU and TCU, all of which saw CU outscored in the second half. After a possible season-saving win against a ranked Iowa State team, the Buffs came out of a bye and rolled over in a 53-7 defeat at Utah. The Buffs never recovered, finishing the year with five consecutive losses.

The goal is for a more energetic, engaged Sanders and his staff to steer the Buffs through rough waters, particularly in a wide-open Big 12 Conference expected to feature one close game after another. If that happens, then maybe Lovo’s vision of a rockin’ Folsom Field will come to fruition.

“Not only experience, but understanding the group of young men that we have,” Sanders said of his staff. “We’re not just speaking to the football guy. We’re speaking to the young man that����ap maybe has just broken up with his girlfriend. That is mismanaging his money. Who wants to be that guy but doesn’t understand the work ethic that comes along with being that guy. They understand how to communicate with the young men that we have.

“These men on the staff. And they love this game.”

Given the Thursday night slotting for CU’s season opener next week at Georgia Tech, the Buffs already have begun the game-week process in terms of preparing for a team that .

“It����ap a great matchup. It really is,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said. “We’re doing primarily the same thing they’re doing. A couple guys that once played here that play over there. It����ap going to be fun. I admire and respect their head coach (Brent Key) so darn much. I really do. Love the city. All the way across the board, it����ap a good match. It really is.”

Sanders referred to the looming reunion with former Buffs Tawfiq Thomas and Savion Riley, but of far more concern to CU’s leader is how the Buffs have gradually turned the page from preseason competition to game prep. Sanders said this week he believes his team has checked off the developmental checkpoints along the way.

“We have stages,” Sanders said. “We have deadlines. We have points that we gotta hit. We’re right where we want to be. I like where we are. We’re right where we want to be. Everything is on a timeline. We’re going to hit those marks strategically.

“We’re going to practice that morning (Tuesday) that we leave. Have another walk-through probably when we get there. So we’re gonna get our work in. And that����ap the main thing. Just getting the work in and not making things too complicated where the kids gotta think too much. Just let them play football and have fun while they’re doing what they do.”

Rough ruling

Linebacker Tyler Martinez and Ezra Christensen played starring roles together last year for the New Mexico State defense. Martinez planned to reunite with Christensen at CU this year, but Christensen’s bid for an injunction that would have granted him a sixth season of college football was denied Monday.

“I shot him a text (Monday) just sending him my condolences,” Martinez said. “I know he was looking forward to playing this year. He didn’t go through the whole draft process at our former school. I know he’s hurting right now. That����ap my guy. I feel terrible for him. Not a lot of it makes sense right now, and I know he’s struggling with that. Just praying for him and hoping he’s doing all right.”

Business trip

The Atlanta Falcons picked Sanders fifth overall in the 1989 draft, and he spent the first five of his 14 NFL seasons in Atlanta. The two-sport standout also played three-plus seasons with the Atlanta Braves.

Still, asked this week if the Buffs’ trip to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech offered a sort of full-circle moment, Sanders said this will be a business trip and not a homecoming.

“I have no nostalgia, to me. I’m not built like that,” Sanders said. “If we went back to Fort Myers (Florida) I’d be happy, that����ap my hometown. But, this game that I want to win very badly. That city had some meaningful moments, but we’re going there with one purpose, and that����ap to win, whether I played there or not.”

Bednarik watch list

Bowling Green transfer Gideon Lampron was named to the preseason watch list for the Bednarik Award, which is given to the top defender in the nation. Lampron recorded 119 tackles last year with 17.5 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles while starting all 12 games at Bowling Green.

BOULDER — Linebacker Gideon ESPN Lampron while boarding a flight in December. Days later, he was landing in Colorado as a member of the Buffaloes.

His final season is now ready for take off.

“I’m so thankful that I approached him and everything worked out,” Lampron said.

This is how the airline encounter unfolded for the fifth-year player with a distinctive middle name: Lampron boarded a plane leaving Dallas and bound shortly after the transfer portal opened. He was heading home and Sanders was off to see his QB son, Shedeur, who is with the NFL’s Browns.

Deion Sanders was sitting up front and Lampron summoned the courage for a quick introduction before heading to his seat. He was in the market for a new school after leaving a Bowling Green program coached by Eddie George.

Nothing fancy, just announcing his desire to play for Sanders. The Colorado coach gave Lampron a fist bump and said, “Godspeed.”

That was that. Or so he thought.

Lampron was putting his bag in the overhead compartment when Sanders walked back toward him. Sanders told and he’d make some calls.

“A few days later, I was in Boulder,” said Lampron, one of numerous transfers added to that went 3-9 last season. “That����ap insane.”

New linebacker unit

Lampron is part of a revamped linebacker corps in a system directed by new defensive coordinator Chris Marve. Lampron joins fellow transfers Liona Lefau (Texas) and Tyler Martinez (New Mexico State), who quickly have become two of his closest friends. Lampron and Lefau are on the preseason watch list for the Butkus Award, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate linebacker.

“Gideon has exceeded expectations,” said Sanders, whose team opens the season on Sept. 3 at Georgia Tech. “Gideon is not just a dawg; he’s a bona fide leader. He’s a playmaker. He’s a guy who loves to practice, loves the game, shows affection to his teammates.”

All part of the lessons he learned while working his way through the ranks. Coming out of high school in LaGrange, Ohio, he wasn’t highly recruited. The 6-foot, 220-pound Lampron started his career in the FCS at Dayton, where he had 27 1/2 tackles for loss over three seasons and earned first-team in 2024.

Next stop: a two-hour move north to Bowling Green. He had 119 tackles for a team under the direction of George, the Heisman Trophy winner from Ohio State and standout NFL running back.

Now, there’s another elite NFL player serving as his coach in Sanders.

“Being around greatness, it����ap definitely something younger athletes like me should chase,” Lampron said. “I’ve been fortunate enough for my two head coaches to be some of the greatest football players ever. I’ve learned so much from them.”

One of the biggest pieces of advice he received came from Sanders.

“He said: ‘Everyone in your life is there for a season or a reason. You’ve got to decide what they’re there for,’” Lampron recounted. “That really stuck with me.”

Middle name being ESPN

About his conversation-starting middle name of ESPN: It was the idea of his father, Marty, who, it pretty much goes without saying, is an enormous sports fan.

“Sports are a big part of our family,” Lampron said. “I appreciate” the name.

To build camaraderie with his fellow linebackers, they naturally watch sports. This summer, their viewing lineup included UFC fights and World Cup soccer games.

“It was fun watching those with the boys,” Lampron said.

The next assignment is helping shore up a defense that gave up 30.5 points and 425.7 yards per game last season. Marve steps in for , who left to take a position with the Denver Broncos.

Lampron is certainly flying high since he landed in Boulder. He was one of several Buffaloes players invited to Sanders’ mansion near Dallas for a leadership retreat last month.

“It put things into perspective for a lot of us for what you could attain if you really lock in,” Lampron said. “This is my last year of college football. I don’t want to leave any stone unturned.”

A former quarterback at Alabama, Niblett became one of the most decorated high school head coaches in Alabama history, becoming the first coach to win seven state titles. Niblett won six of those at Hoover High School before crossing state lines to spend the past four seasons at Gainesville (Ga.) High School, where his teams made two more state title game appearances.

Overall, Niblett compiled a 281-67 record at the prep level. He probably could have kept posting double-digit win totals while collecting state titles until retirement. So why, oh why, would Niblett travel so far from home for work arguably outside his wheelhouse?

It was to embrace a new challenge, and . It certainly wasn’t because of Niblett����ap affinity for dry air.

“I love humidity, because I love to sweat,” said Niblett, hired in January as CU’s tight ends coach. “That����ap probably the biggest difference for me. People here are awesome. I work for an unbelievable man who’s an unbelievable coach and mentor and leader that����ap given me this opportunity. Our staff is unbelievable. Our players want to be coached. When you’re in that kind of environment, and you’re around people who love to win and love each other, you come to work every day and this is a ‘get to’ moment and not a ‘have to’ moment. And I’ve enjoyed that.

“I miss my family, no doubt. My wife and kids are still back in Georgia. That����ap probably the hardest part. But I’m surrounded by some really good people.”

The tight end spot has been an afterthought in the Buffs’ attack under Sanders, but that����ap expected to change with new offensive coordinator Brennan Marion. If that happens, veteran Zach Atkins could play a leading role. Now in his second season at CU after transferring from Northwest Missouri State, Atkins recorded 20 receptions for 149 yards last season.

“I’m excited about (Atkins). He probably had his best practice (Tuesday),” Niblett said. “He had some touchdown catches, but he also did the dirty work he needed to do in the core, and make sure he’s doing a really good job of being a dominant blocker on the perimeter. I’m proud of his progress, as well as some other guys in our room.”

Proud tradition

Andre Gurode played for CU during an era when the Buffs routinely churned out NFL-caliber offensive lineman. The offseason transfer of Jordan Seaton, likely a future NFL draft pick, notwithstanding, it����ap been a while since the Buffs were well-represented in NFL trenches. Gurode wants to change that.

Gurode was a second-round pick in 2002, the same draft in which linemate Victor Rogers was selected in the seventh round. CU has had just two offensive linemen selected over the past 13 NFL drafts, and both were late-round selections — Arlington Hambright (seventh round in 2020) and Will Sherman (sixth round in 2021).

Gurode, in his second year as one of CU’s offensive line coaches, said he’s trying to instill the same fight in the latest generation of Buffs.

“Rule No. 1 when I got here was if you don’t fight, you can’t play,” Gurode said. “You got to find someone to fight first in practice. We instilled that in our guys to work hard, to be dependable, to ask for the pressure and not complain. We don’t need complaining. We need execution, and that����ap what we’re trying to focus on.”

Hey, mate

There aren’t many Australian athletes on campus. So when CU punter Damon Greaves was “yapping away,” as he described it, on an elevator ride that included an inordinately tall freshman, his accent was impossible to miss.

As it turned out, Greaves was sharing the lift with Goc Malual who, along with Alex Dickeson, joined the CU men’s basketball team this summer from Down Under.

“I knew we had two Aussies. I didn’t know what they looked like,” Greaves said. “He was like, ‘You an Aussie?’ We got to know each other through that. I’ll try to meet the other Aussie there as well. There’s certainly a few more Aussies around here than there were at (Kansas).”

CU has two other Australian athletes in women’s basketball center Jade Crook and skier Hugo Hinckfuss.

Cory Randall Hilliard, 54, faces one count of embezzlement of public property, one count of theft and one count of first-degree official misconduct, according to a . Hilliard is in custody with bail set at $7,500 after turning himself in Monday morning at the Boulder County Jail, according to jail records.

Hilliard, the former Senior Associate Athletics Director, is accused of taking $9,510.50 from CU Boulder’s Nike Elite program between 2021 and 2025, the release says. He used that money to buy Nike products and ship them to a house in Superior, according to an arrest affidavit.

Each CU Athletics employee gets $625 to spend on Nike products every year, as part of the school’s sponsorship deal with the company, the affidavit says. Hilliard had full access to the Nike Elite program’s $90,000 budget, and used that to steal more money, according to the affidavit.

A CU internal audit shows Hilliard spent more than his allotted $625 for four years in a row, starting with $729 over his limit in 2022, the affidavit says. He is accused of spending even more each year, having spent $6,011 over his allotment in 2025, according to the affidavit. At the time, Hilliard’s salary was $200,000, CU officials said.

The items were mostly similar sizes of men’s clothing, the affidavit says. Hilliard told internal auditors in July 2025 that he spent more money than he was supposed to, and that he spent it on himself.

When speaking to a CU Police officer on July 28, 2026, Hilliard said he was working to repay the debt, the affidavit says.

Another Athletics employee was working to assess Nike Elite spending during contract negotiations and found that Hilliard appeared to have spent $6,300 in one year, according to the affidavit. When that employee looked at individual transactions, he found the clothing purchases with consistent men’s sizing.

When that man’s supervisor brought the findings to CU Athletics Director Rick George, George notified the university on July 22, 2025, prompting the internal audit, the affidavit says.

CU Boulder and the CU Police Department investigated Hilliard by checking his financial records, interviewing other Athletics Department employees and looking at transactions Hilliard made with his Nike Elite account, according to the release.

Hilliard left CU in August 2025, according to CU Athletics spokesperson Steve Hurlbert.

Hilliard was hired last December as chief financial officer of USA Swimming, according to The Associated Press. The organization put him on leave Monday after learning of his arrest.

CU is actively working to update its policies with its Nike Elite program to reflect the internal audit’s recommendations, Hurlbert said. That policy is expected to be finalized by the end of this week, he said.

“CU Boulder does not tolerate fiscal misconduct in any form and once CUPD was notified it took immediate investigative action,” CUPD Chief Ashley Griffin wrote in the release.

Hilliard is scheduled for a review hearing in Boulder County District Court on Wednesday, according to online court records.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Assistant coaches Nate Tomlinson and Evan Battey have taken the lead on Colorado’s scheduling matters. And it����ap Tomlinson and Battey who have the Buffs lined up for a demanding nonconference schedule.

“Coach Tomlinson and coach Battey have kind of taken that piece over,” Boyle said. “They’ve definitely challenged ourselves. We’ve definitely stepped it up. We’ll have our challenges, there’s no doubt about it.”

CU’s head coach made the jest with tongue in cheek, as Tomlinson and Battey both played for the Buffs under Boyle. But the challenges ahead are very real for the Buffs, who added to an already-tough nonconference slate this week by announcing a matchup with perennial Big Ten power Purdue at the Indy Classic in Indianapolis on Dec. 19.

With CU set to face Providence, San Diego State and Purdue — plus two foes still to be determined at the Acrisure Series — on the road, the long journey back to relevancy within the Big 12 Conference has begun this summer, ahead of Boyle’s 17th season leading the Buffs.

In two seasons after returning to the Big 12, the Buffs have gone just 10-28 in conference games. Thanks to the challenging nonconference schedule, a CU team featuring seven true freshmen and 10 newcomers overall won’t have luxury of settling in gradually.

“We’ve finished up week six here. We’ve got two more weeks, and then we’ll give them a break in August to go home, get their batteries recharged, and come back for school ready to go,” Boyle said. “We’ll use our full eight weeks this summer. We’ve not always done it in the past. We’ve done it with individual work, but in terms of team workouts, we’ve done a lot of team stuff here.

“Hopefully we’re ahead of the game. We’re certainly further ahead than we would be if we hadn’t done it, that����ap for sure.”

CU’s summer workouts have not yet included forward David Gomez, one of . A 6-foot-8 forward, Gomez played just two games as a freshman at Charlotte last season before suffering a season-ending foot injury. Gomez still hasn’t been cleared for full workouts.

Last summer, the Buffs used a summer exhibition trip through Australia to assimilate seven true freshmen and two transfers into the mix. At the time, Boyle , and for the most part that trait that held true through the 2025-26 season but eroded during Big 12 play. The Buffs’ competitiveness often took ugly detours in Big 12 play, as CU suffered a 30-point loss at Iowa State, a 19-point loss at Baylor, a 34-point loss at Texas Tech and a 40-point loss at Houston.

Once again, Boyle is pleased with the early fire on display from his new-look Buffs. But that will be put to the test almost immediately when the season begins in November.

“Their competitiveness and their willingness to learn and be coached is what����ap stood out to me,” Boyle said. “I’m pleased with the team and I’m excited.”

At Smith’s behest, Perez strapped on a headset and spent hours each day using a pair of virtual-reality goggles. “I was kind of in awe,” Perez recalled. He could turn his head and scan the field inside a living, moving playbook, where a VR program placed his vantage point directly over the shoulder of any quarterback who’d ever played for Smith. He could toggle over to a play-call — “Nebraska,” for example, a concept with a couple in-breaking routes — and evaluate how his reads played out against a variety of coverages.

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“It’s a new thing,” Perez told The Denver Post Wednesday. “But I think it’s something that’s going to be a necessity at some point, once everybody gets their hands on it. Because they’re going to see an advantage. And even at the Division I level, you’re trying to find a 1% advantage.”

Extra reps off the field

In a matter of weeks, the 37-year-old Smith will bring his virtual-reality systems to Boulder to work with CU’s quarterbacks, an under-the-radar analyst hire to Deion Sanders’ staff that could prove consequential for 18-year-old sophomore Julian Lewis. At Big 12 Media Days earlier this week, Lewis set the collegiate football world ablaze by telling ESPN he “wasn’t really looking at defenses as much” and was “free-balling” during the Buffs’ 3-9 season in 2025.

Now, the former blue-chip recruit will have access to a system that Smith hopes will have a Gladwellian effect — filming every concept called by new OC Brennan Marion during CU’s training camp and immersing Lewis and other quarterbacks in first-person virtual reality playback of the playbook to better read defenses.

“My whole goal is to move you up a class,” Smith told The Post this week. “So what I mean by that is – if you’re a freshman, if I can put you in the system and get you 10,000 reps of our plays before you hit the field, I want you to feel more like a sophomore. Because you’ve gotten things you can’t get without this technology. And so that����ap the growth you’ll see with (Lewis), is the mental side.”

The 31-year-old Perez, for his part, is an old dog who learned this new trick this spring. Such software, Perez told The Post, can be “exponentially better” when applied to, say, an 18-year-old sophomore QB in Lewis who in Georgia.

“You can really break everything down, right?” Perez described, rattling off a list of examples. “The route depth — what are we doing with this dig route? Who are we trying to influence?”

“I think for someone like that,” Perez said of Lewis, a few sentences later, “this will be really beneficial if taught right.”

An innovator in the QB realm

Smith will serve as a teacher, a hyperactive offensive mind who began his coaching career at age 19 in Louisiana high school football and has . A self-described spring football “fanatic,” Smith wandered up to Boulder this winter to interview for a slew of offensive openings at Colorado, and decided to take an assistant quarterbacks role working under Marion. His five-year career in the UFL (formerly XFL and USFL) was done, he decided.

Then St. Louis head coach Ricky Proehl called Smith in December to offer him the Battlehawks’ play-calling job. Smith called Colorado back.

He wound up accepting both.

How, exactly, has he fulfilled separate professional and collegiate coaching jobs at once? Smith argues they don’t overlap. Not exactly. Smith arrived in Colorado Jan. 3, took a week-long came back to Colorado in February, then left before spring ball to coach the 6-4 Battlehawks for four months.

“I just wanted my cake,” Smith said, voice lifting with a smile, “and to eat it too.”

At some point in that winter haze, while under a temporary agreement with CU, Smith installed his virtual-reality software and showed staffers how to film plays — with a camera directly behind the quarterback — during spring ball to upload into the program. Back in 2010, while serving as the youngest offensive coordinator , Smith began to realize that a younger generation wasn’t so much interested in physical playbooks as in interactive screens. So he taught himself to code and built an initial rough virtual-reality film system that he called a “super-Madden” while .

Smith kept adding with yearly advancements in virtual-reality software and artificial intelligence, while . Over the past decade, software has become a crucial tool for quarterbacks to learn their own offensive systems.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Battlehawks quarterback Michael Pratt, a former seventh-round NFL draft pick, in an April video from St. Louis’s X account.

extra reps off the field

AJ Smith and Michael Pratt explain the VR technology used to give Battlehawks quarterbacks an edge.

— St. Louis Battlehawks (@BattlehawksUFL)

Others have. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, the NFL’s 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year, . The next level of such software, which Daniels reps and Smith’s hand-built program includes, is the ability to speed up practice clips inside the headset to accelerate mental processing.

“Cognitively, you see guys running so fast that when we go, ‘OK, now make the read in real time,’ real time seems slow,” Smith said. “So if we’ve slowed the game down, we’ve accomplished something.”

Can that slow the game down for Lewis, who said point-blank this week that he was still taking a high school approach to a collegiate offense last year? In his first two starts at the end of a lost season in 2025, Lewis completed 56.1% of his passes for 460 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Solid — but Marion’s new offense will need more explosiveness after CU finished 15th in the Big 12 in scoring offense last year.

Smith is betting he can help.

“I’ve yet to find a quarterback,” Smith said, “that really doesn’t gravitate to this.”

The Colorado Buffaloes’ head coach was present, but he wasn’t himself.

Coach Prime hadn’t been in Boulder or even around his team in weeks. At the time, it was unknown publicly that he was battling bladder cancer.

As he arrived at The Star last July, he was dressed to the nines, at least outwardly.

“I had shorts up under (the suit) and I had a hoodie up under there, just because I had lost a large amount of weight and I didn’t want a lot of people to know,” he said Tuesday during 2026 Big 12 media day, once again at The Star. “Smiling, stylin’, profiling, trying to do the best I could to falsify how I was really feeling.”

On Tuesday, Sanders, 58, was himself again. He’s a year older but has the health and energy to try to get the Buffs back on track after a disappointing 3-9 season in 2025.

“I’m back, I’m healthy, and I got my thought process, my me back,” Sanders said.

Sanders has acknowledged that his absence throughout the spring and summer in 2025 impacted the Buffs last year. Now cancer-free, he’s put full effort into making sure this is a better season for the Buffaloes.

“He’s around every day this summer,” said senior safety Ben Finneseth, who is entering his fourth season under Sanders. “He’s been around more than I’ve ever seen him in my entire life. The way that he’s bought into our team this year, he’s taken it up another level.”

Sanders was engaged and around his team in previous years when healthy, but after a disappointing 2025 campaign that included a five-game losing streak to close the season and a lack of leadership, he’s made a point of being even more involved with the roster build and preparation.

“I sat there (in the office) with a couple of staffers and we watched every single guy that����ap in that locker room on film and made the decision on every single guy, every single recruit,” he said. “Everything has just gone up. Everything. There’s not a ‘T’ that����ap not crossed, an ‘I’ that����ap not dotted. We are on it, and you can see by the recruiting, you can see by the team that we’ve assembled.”

The CU roster includes some key returning players, including quarterback JuJu Lewis, tight end Zach Atkins, receiver Joseph Williams, running back Micah Welch, and Finneseth.

It����ap a roster that����ap also loaded with transfers, including receivers Danny Scudero and DeAndre Moore, defensive lineman Santana Hopper, linebacker Gideon Lampron and defensive backs Cree Thomas, Boo Carter and Naeten Mitchell.

The coaching staff is also very different, including coordinators Brennan Marion (offense) and Chris Marve (defense).

“The coaching staff, I keep saying this is the best staff I’ve ever had in my life and they are,” Sanders said. “That����ap not to demean any of the previous coaches. They were good also, but these guys are special and they have the gift of communication with these young men. I’m excited about all of the possibilities. I really am.”

While Sanders is excited about his team, outside expectations are low. No Buffs were included on the preseason All-Big 12 team announced Monday, and several national publications have the Buffs finishing near the bottom of the 16-team Big 12.

“We don’t care about what people say,” he said. “People are always going to have an opinion. If my kids and my coaches and our staff don’t understand who they are, we have a problem. They’re not going to allow you to identify who we are, and just because our guys were snubbed off a poll that����ap probably not going to be consistent with the end of the season, we don’t give a darn.

“Our kids know who, what, when, where, and how they are, and they know what they got to do, and how they got to work. It just gives them that extra oomph inside of them, and I’m thankful and appreciative of that.”

Sanders has some extra oomph, as well, as he enters his fourth season in Boulder feeling healthy and re-energized.

“Colorado has given me a tremendous opportunity that I’m so darn appreciative of, and I want to live up and surpass the expectations,” he said. “My younger self would be proud; would be proud that I was here last year fighting a battle called cancer, and now I’m here with full strength, full energy. I got that thing back, I got that swagger back, I got that dawg back, I got that charisma back.

“I cannot wait to get back on that sideline and do our thing. I can’t wait to get back to camp.”

On Monday, offensive lineman Dewey Young verbally committed to the Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders.

Young is the 20th player committed in CU’s 2027 class, and the fourth four-star recruit. He’s rated a four-star prospect by On3 and 247Sports.

Listed at 6-foot-4, 325 pounds, Young is from Kalamazoo (Michigan) Central High School. Per On3, he’s the second-highest rated player in CU’s class, behind quarterback Andre Adams from Nashville.

Colorado has five offensive linemen committed in the 2027 class.