Can Deion Sanders meet ‘incredibly high level of expectations’? Former CU linebacker Chad Brown’s take

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An insider’s take on all the Coach Prime and Deion Sanders impact and hype from Chad Brown, a star player for the Colorado buffs during their heyday, including the 1990 team that won the Orange Bowl and finished No. 1 in the nation Brown was an all-conference linebacker who would play 15 seasons in the NFL and be named to the CU athletics hall of fame class of 2017.

It's a new era for the Colorado Buffaloes, welcoming football legend Deion Sanders as the new head coach. A jolt of excitement has swept Boulder in Coach Prime’s wake attracting the attention of top recruits and driving surging ticket sales and social media buzz.

We wanted to get an insider’s take on all the hype from Chad Brown, a star player for the buffs during their heyday, including the 1990 team that won the Orange Bowl and finished No. 1 in the nation

Brown was an all-conference linebacker who would play 15 seasons in the NFL and be named to the CU athletics hall of fame class of 2017.

Chad Brown
Buffs are now part of the national conversation in college football and they haven't been there in what, two decades? It's been a long time.

Reporter Russell Haythorn
This guy, is he the real deal? Clearly he knows how to coach, right?

Chad Brown
There is a brand for Deion Sanders… bigger than any coach in college football. CU is selling shirts, that don't say CU or Buffaloes or Colorado on the front. They say ‘Prime.’ So he certainly has learned how to build a brand and he's very savvy as a media marketer and manipulator.

And while that style of coach may not be for me, I'm 52 years old. For the 17 or 18 year old, they're into that.

I think he certainly knows the game of football. Is he a guy who can get up on the whiteboard and scheme up ways to beat your defense? I don't think that's necessarily his skill set, nor does it have to be. He's able to hire coaches who bring that skillset with them. But in college football it’s all about recruiting.

Now you can transfer without any penalty. So kids are able to look at their current situation where they're at. Do I want to leave this school and go be with Coach Prime?

Denver7

Is Boulder going to be a place for me? Is it a better playing opportunity? A better NIL opportunity? Name, image and likeness opportunities. So Coach Prime is bringing, I think, a spotlight where kids are going to recognize they are going to be on national television….

So these opportunities that he's offering are real opportunities for these kids who are going to commit to the transfer portal. They're going to help the buffs on the field but they will also be helped themselves by making this move.

The arrival of Coach Prime as he likes to be called, brings a level of excitement that hasn't been around and brings a level of interest in the program that hasn't been around.

David Zalubowski/AP

And with interest and excitement comes recruits, comes boosters, comes money - comes eyeballs.

So we've been begging for something like this to happen. So there's lots of folks who are now jumping back in. I'm hoping that the expectations won't be past the reality of what can be done within one year.

The talent pool will be better, the players will be better. The results will be better. But will it be able to meet this incredibly high level of expectations? That remains to be seen.