Football is no child’s play. Every down is a tryst with fate. Even at the college level, the sport entails a group of men looking to inflict pain on one another. Moreover, injuries are rampant. One to your quarterback, no less, can change the trajectory of your season. You’d expect practice to at least be a little subdued to minimize the risk. Well, at the Colorado Buffaloes (8-2), that seems far from the case.

Warren Sapp, senior quality control assistant at the program, is seemingly leaving no stone unturned in his training. The HOF D-tackle was brought in by Deion Sanders at the start of this year to help solve his team’s issues at the line of scrimmage. You know how they say, “train like you’re supposed to play in the game”? Sapp appears to be living by this mantra.

In the lead-up to Saturday’s Week 13 game against Kansas, Deion Sanders Jr. took to his Well Off Media platform. He posted an excerpt of the Buffs’ training. Amidst the montage is a clip of Warren Sapp overlooking his guys. At one instance, Sapp pulls freshman DE Brandon Davis-Swain to the side. He instructs the player, “Go rip him! You’ve got him on the edge, just finish him!” Strong bit of coaching there from the 7x Pro-bowler.

It isn’t apparent from the video who in the opposition Sapp wants his young prodigy to “finish”. One wonders if it was in fact superstar QB Shedeur Sanders. Warren Sapp has impacted the Buffs’ pass rush. Their frequency of getting to the opposition quarterback is way up from 2023. However, you’d think Deion wouldn’t want the full force of Sapp’s wrath to strike on his son! 

Sapp has outwardly expressed his admiration for Deion. He is grateful for the opportunity Coach Prime presented him with during this tumultuous period. The feelings are surely reciprocated. With what lies ahead for their team, both these football icons will have their work cut out in order to prepare the troops for some of the most high-stakes football of their young careers.

The Buffaloes stand on the precipice of some uncharted territory

Colorado is placed at no.16 by the committee in the latest iteration of the CFP rankings. With just 2 Saturdays of the regular season left, a backdoor entry into the top 12 seems tricky. However, the playoffs still remain penetrable for Deion and Co. via an ulterior route.

With how things in the Big 12 have shaped up, the Buffs control their destiny.  For a spot in the conference championship game, they only need to win their remaining games. The rest will take care of itself since conference toppers BYU have yet to face 3rd-place Arizona State. A program that everybody wrote off in August is within touching distance of the playoffs. From taking over a 1-11 program 2 years ago to this, Deion deserves due credit.

Super Bowl champions of Prime and Warren Sapp’s ilk would know better than to think about that just yet. Colorado is firmly in “one game at a time” territory right now. Kansas (4-6) on the weekend are no pushovers either. The Jayhawks are coming off back-to-back wins against Iowa State and BYU, teams that had a singular loss between them outside of the ones to Kansas. Going by what is happening in training, the Buffs seem more than up for the challenge.