Deion Sanders military training method is working, but will it sharpen Buffs in 2024?

Colorado's coaching staff hopes to improve from lackluster end to last season

CU Buffs

No one in the college football world believes Deion Sanders was satisfied with last season. While the season gave Coach Prime fits throughout, especially post-Oregon, the big difference is CU’s staff thinking outside the box and trying different things to ensure 2024 will not be a repeat of 2023. Last season was great from a contrast perspective. The Boulder faithful had not seen excitement, sales, or attention at the same level since the National Championship days of over 30 years ago. Overall, year one of Coach Prime in Boulder was a success. Not just escaping the ills of a one-win season. Remember, most of the CU fans have had a subpar product for decades. While the program was in a better position, it did not translate to the wins Coach Prime was hoping or expecting. 

This is not a new idea or a Prime centric idea. There are 65 Power Five teams and not all of them can win every game. The difference is found in how a coaching staff responds. Some have a belief in their system and the answer is to keep doing the same thing but expect to execute better. Sometimes it’s a talent issue. And sometimes, a staff must look deeper and find new or different solutions to fix an established problem. For the third time since March, Coach Prime’s coaching staff has invited an elite team of military personnel to put the Buffaloes’ players through military grade training. Which likely stems from a glass ceiling feeling from last season. There were times throughout the season when the team looked gassed or there was a level they failed at or couldn’t reach. 

There was even one post game locker room address that included the words “you quit today”. While it’s easy to point to an idea of a willingness gap, there was a sense that too many players felt they were giving their 100 percent, when those on the staff did not believe that was true. Anyone who has competed at the highest levels knows your breaking point is further away than you think it is. That might be what Prime is trying to teach with the introduction of military training. 

The fact of the matter is most of these players have been elite athletes most of their lives. With familiarity and ease comes comfort. Except, the players need to know what it takes to succeed when it's not easy or comfortable. When you’re the big fish in a small pond, you rarely have to dig deep. You’re going to excel most of the time because you are better than those around you. What happens when everyone on the field is a big fish somewhere? 

Colorado faced a few teams last year that were faster, tougher, stronger, more focused in almost every aspect. Those who cover the team closely know how much that hurt Coach Prime to get decimated in two of those games with one being Oregon. Especially in that moment, considering all the ‘extra’ behavior from Coach Lanning, that is a feeling the staff does not want to have again. Military training is only part of that solution equation, but it is a very intriguing one. 

Whether it was the Marines four months ago or the Navy SEALS this week, there are a number of enjoyable things to pull from it. The first and most obvious is next level training forces cream to the top. If you took the time to watch all three Well Off Media videos showing players doing military training, one thing in particular should jump out. Travis Hunter is not human. He does not tire. There seems to be no challenge he cannot complete at a satisfactory level. 

When the Marines were in town, by the halfway point, most of the players were cooked. Lots of hands on knees, heavy breathing, even Shedeur can be seen struggling to get to his feet from a seated position. All the while, Travis is moving around like he’s just starting a workout everyone else is wrapping up. At one point, the players in pairs had to carry a tree-sized log.  Most of the players struggled to even keep it level, much less move at a good speed. Travis and one other player who we won’t mention for obvious reasons, were flying by like they were carrying pool noodles. Coach Prime has been saying it since Jackson State and we’re saying it now. Travis Hunter is simply built differently.

The next big positive won’t seem like it. Some of these players are getting worked. Especially with the Marines from months ago. The reason this is a good thing goes back to the difference between where a player thinks his breaking point is and where it actually is. Most elite athletes push to the point where they think they are maxing out. But one doesn’t truly know their breaking point unless they walk up to it and stare it in the face. Countless times, Coach Prime or one of his position coaches have said, “I want you going so hard, you have to be carried off this field”. The brutal truth is at no point was any player ever seen dragging themselves off the practice field, largely because no one ever took it to that level. The coaching staff simply removed the option by way of military training. As a coach once told me a very long time ago, “the work will reveal weaknesses,” as he stood over me after passing out when I actually faced my breaking point. While it’s uncertain if Prime will take it that far, the premise remains. These players have to understand the difference between where they think 100% is and where 100% actually is. 

The best part of these military training sessions is that it’s working. If you go back and watch the first workout footage with the Marines, what you’ll see are college football players out of their element. Some better than others, but short of Hunter, most were on some level of in over their heads. By the time you finish the footage from the Navy SEALs workout, you will immediately notice the number of players that seem in over their heads has been dramatically diminished. By the end of the SEALs video, you’re seeing guys moving from station to station, they’re being competitive late in the workout and very few of them appear to be ‘gassed’. Whether it was “unknown time, unknown distance,” which puts them through tasks where the finish line is unknown or suffering now as a unit to be successful later, these were within a training setting intended to force players to complete actions not typically found in football training. When have you seen a football player in a game of crab walk? Carry another, sometimes larger man on his shoulders like he’s Forrest Gump carrying Bubba to safety? Interesting detail on that, the guy being carried is responsible for making it easier on the guy doing the carrying. High stepping on a 3 foot thick gym mat for an excessively long time. Tandem crunches with a shared log on their chest. Pressing and carrying a metal ammunition box. Groups of four carrying a stretcher with 300 pounds of plates on it. Then later a lineman with a skill position player taking that same 300 pound stretcher on goal line to goal line sprints. Calisthenics that require them to rely on their teammate. All activities that force each player to rely on the efforts of the man next to him. 

As the Marines and the Navy SEALs provide different approaches to military solutions, the workouts from either party were very different. Again though, this is about putting football players in a position to test themselves physically by means not typically associated with football. Water does add an interesting dynamic though. A body in water is heavier than a body out of water, and getting a man from underwater to out of water is a significant test of strength. By the midpoint of the SEALs training footage, there are a number of different stations and players can be seen jumping in, moving to the next station, then to the next station, talking trash along the way and doing so without showing signs of being out of their element. 

By the conclusion of that footage, you cannot see a single player with hands on their knees, no one’s sitting, no one’s pulled themselves out, no one quit. Which one would have to believe makes the head coach very pleased. In some small regard, this might’ve been an outside the box idea that concluded with a mission accomplished. Especially if the “mission” was to let each man discover how much further they can go than they previously believed. 

The real mission is not accomplished yet. We know that won’t materialize until September when the coaching staff and fans hopefully can confirm that those outside the box approaches to fixing issues from last year. All indications are that the team is moving in the desired direction. The military workouts aren’t the only indicators either. The casual fan, or the CU outsider, is not likely to pick up on it. Practices are different, but most importantly, the players' engagement and response to those practices are different. We’re seeing multiple players speaking out independently from a position of leadership that was missing in last year’s offseason workouts. Players are getting after players for not doing enough; instead of waiting for coaches to say it. The best part of it all too is these voices are not limited to Shedeur Sanders, Shilo Sanders, or Hunter. There is a sense that there is a collective ‘buy in’ that dare I say, might not have been so prevalent last season. 

Coach Prime and the players have all seemed to identify some of their shortcomings and are actually taking steps to correct them. This isn’t Einstein’s definition of insanity. Quite the opposite in fact. This is Colorado’s staff choosing not to do the same thing over and over and expect the same result. This is them doing something different and knowing they’ll get a different result.