Is Prime Approaching his Boiling Point?

Shedeur, who is in the running to be the first pick in next season's National Football League Draft, was still the quarterback and leader of that same 4-8 team that Smith left. Shedeur described Smith as being a "mid", football speak for average at best. 

Coach Prime then took to Twitter to embarrass Jaheim Ward , who left with Smith to go play at Austin Peay, a very good FCS school in Clarksville, Tennessee. 

Prime quote tweeted one of his players running out a snapshot of Ward's accomplishments at Colorado.

You don't see a starting quarterback and a head coach trolling former players and dissing them on social media everyday. However, it has become an art form for Prime and Shedeur. They act like they have something to prove to those kids that were part of the same 4-8 dumpster fire that Prime led in 2023.

Those comments and tweets infuriated Smith even more.

Out of the 72 players that followed Prime to Colorado in 2023, 61 percent are no longer on the roster, according to CBS Sports. It appears as though Coach Prime lives and dies by the transfer portal, and he's been doing more dying lately than anything else.

With a stat like that under his belt, you would expect some humility from the man who refers to himself as Coach Prime and who has his own clothing line sold in the school bookstore and online, made by Nike. 

But no, he saddles up with his 4-8 record and has to challenge the integrity and fortitude of kids that pledged their devotion and lives to him. He kicks the proverbial dog so much that when the dog gets up to strike back, he has no life left at all.

However, we should have expected that since Sanders walked into his first Colorado team meeting on December 4, 2022 with Tupac's "All Eyez on Me" blasting through the speakers.

There is a growing sentiment that Prime is failing as a coach and as a mentor. From that very first day, it was all about him and his sons, and everyone else had to take a backseat.

"I'm coming to restore, to replace, to re-energize some of y'all that are salvageable," Sanders said that day. "I'm not going to lie. Everybody that's sitting their butt in a seat ain't going to have a a seat when we get back."

When they got back for spring practice, players got the point and saw who was taking their seats. It was Shedeur, Travis Hunter and 19 more players that came in for spring practice. 

Then, according to The Athletic, on the morning of April 23, 2023, the group text blew up for the returning players. They were called into exit meetings with Prime and were told that their time as a football player at Colorado had come to an end. 

The following morning those that would not be returning were locked out of the football facility. They could not get their belongings and they could not enjoy a final meal together.

Smith didn't even get to meet with Prime. Defensive coordinator Charles Kelly brought Smith and another former teammate into his office for a little chat that was not so social, according to The Athletic.

They were told to hit the bricks, and enter the portal.

"He was destroying guys' confidence and belief in themselves," Smith later said. "The way he did it, it could've been done with a little more compassion."

Shedeur, Shilo and Hunter would take those spots away from the players that suffered through a 1-11 year in 2022 and saw their head coach Karl Dorrell fired after an 0-5 start. Shedeur became the face of the program and it was all about the Sanders' Boys and Hunter, who transferred in from Jackson State. 

No one else mattered.

It still appears as though Prime is living vicariously through Shedeur, who is projected as a top 10 selection in the next draft, at worst. He relies on Shedeur's laurels to make fun of players with lesser talent. 

What is going to happen when Shedeur leaves for the NFL and Deion is on the sidelines, without his kids? Who is going to defend him then? Who will Deion be able to make divine?

All that this behavior does confirm the criticism that Smith and former Buffalo signee Cormani McClain have levied against Prime. He appears to lack compassion and does not know how to deal with inferior players. Coach Prime needs to learn how to be a coach for 85 players, whether they have the talent of Hunter or the lack of talent like Smith.