Commentary: Honeymoon appears over for Deion Sanders

Nothing kills a honeymoon like waking up next to 3-9 for five months. There's no welcome look in Elizabeth Stephan's eyes when she reaches for her CU shirt, and now she's starting to criticize little things Deion Sanders does. "We're not anything new and shiny anymore," Stephan, a CU sophomore, told me as the 2026 Black & Gold scrimmage kicked off Saturday at Folsom Field. "We're just kind of a mediocre team that somehow still makes headlines because of our coach." Talk about a mic drop from about 5,440 feet up. On a pleasant, overcast Saturday afternoon along Colorado Avenue, The Coach Prime Era at CU officially shifted from the honeymoon phase to the reality phase, especially with the undergrads in the crowd. "I think the honeymoon is definitely not going anymore, personally," said Stephan, a Minneapolis native and one of those out-of-staters whose parents dug her going to CU, in part, after watching the Sanders Effect from afar. "I think the honeymoon phase has ended, and they're really struggling to try to keep it up, in my opinion." You know the signs. The passion fades. The glow dims. Little things you used to overlook start to get on your nerves. Expectations don't always line up. Communication can be blunt and awkward. Saturday wasn't awkward, but compared to previous Aprils in Prime Time, it was remarkably … normal. No national TV. No Hollywood A-listers — although ex-Denver Broncos great Aqib Talib did show up to talk shop. The event was ticketed but free. CU reported a crowd of 27,772 in "claimed" attendance. In person, it looked more like 17,000-18,000, up close. Which is, you know, fine. Not great. Fine. And pretty close to last year's reported attendance of 20,430. CU announced a spring crowd of 28,424 in '24, well down from 47,277 in '23, Coach Prime's first public exhibition as the Buffs' boss. "As someone who came from a Big Ten-school culture, there's a lack of culture here in general for football," Stephan continued. "It kind of feels like, for me, (for) students, it's like, 'Show up, it's a fashion show, smoke, drink, leave."' "So," I countered, "it's sort of like the SEC?" "Yeah, but the thing is, they win. And even if they lose, they do a ton of pregame activities. They have more lights, and just … everything." The lower bowl of Folsom's east side was pretty much full. The upper section of bleachers? Not so much. Mind you, that was also by design — the west side of the stadium was roped off entirely, so that 50% of capacity was scrunched into one half of the building. The eye test made it seem smaller. Like, a lot smaller. "That's not just us," Sanders said after the scrimmage. "No one's valuing spring (football games) anymore. You've got several major colleges not even having spring games. The only thing that would bring it back is if we compete against another school … "Winning also helps increase that (interest). But people get tired of the same-old, same-old, at a certain point … Things are so different in college football right now with kids moving, kids leaving … so it's hard for the fan base to get to know all these kids and to buy in and say, 'You know what, I'm going to support that, (and now) he's gone.' So I understand it, wholeheartedly. But we have a tremendous fan base. We have a tremendous student body. We still have a lot of people out there that (are) crazy about CU football. And I'm excited about that." On one hand, he's right. Nebraska, which would fill Memorial Stadium in Lincoln for a "Magic: The Gathering" tournament if it meant setting some kind of record, drew just 27,188 for its spring game late last month. That was the smallest crowd for a Big Red football exhibition since 2000. "And so to come here and walk in, there's like 10 people," said Omaha native Jess Wozniak, a Folsom first-timer whose son played alto sax in the pep band Saturday. "When we first got here … I was like, 'Wow, there's not many.' Now it's filling up. Now it's looking better.' "I think the hype (for Sanders) is still there. I feel like it's filling up — so the hype has got to be here, still, somewhere, right?" "It's also a free ticket," I noted. "Oh, true," she laughed. "I didn't think about that." Garrett Tyrrell of Durango, Colo., sitting to her right, piped up. "Put it this way," he said. "The old man is still watching." So are the kids. Stephan and fellow CU sophomore Colin Chow hiked it up to the top of Section 213 to get an aerial view of Ralphie's run. Not long after, Buffs QB Julian Lewis opened the scoring for the day with a 13-yard scoring touch pass in the back of the end zone to Danny Scudero, the former San Jose State star and arguably the jewel of Coach Prime's transfer haul. "I think (2026) could be better than (last fall)," Stephan reflected. "I don't think it's going to be better than (2024) with Shedeur (Sanders) and Travis (Hunter). That was an insane year. A lot of culture. It was really fun. Everyone was excited going into every game. "But (2025), not so much. There were a couple of games we went into, and we were like, '(CU) is going to lose, might as well show up.'" Stephan stayed for the Buffs' home finale against Arizona State last fall — all the way to the bitter end of a 42-17 defeat. Her dad taught her to never leave early. "And I was like, 'This (stinks),'" she laughed. "That was the only game I left halfway through," Chow, a Golden, Colo., native, added. "I mean, they were competitive in ('23 and '24) — even if (CU) didn't win, everyone was excited. People had expectations for weird games or sudden victories. But (last year), it was like, 'Well, we're down 30, no one on this team is going to pull that out.'" Chow grew up nearby. But Stephan's parents were so enamored of the Coach Prime Experience that they flew down to attend games, just to see Sanders up close. "I think part of it, too, is (that) Deion isn't really as new or as (much of) a novelty now," Stephan said. "He's been here as long as a lot of students who go to the games. "That's cool, but it's not the same as Deion coming in and 'saving it' from what it was earlier. So it's just a different feel when new students come in. There are expectations now instead of (it being) the new cool thing." At 11:35 a.m., about 90 minutes before the scrimmage, a 20-something in a blue t-shirt looked at the line forming across the street and waved at me. "Excuse me," he asked, nodding back to Folsom behind us. "So, what is the event today?" "CU's Black & Gold game," I replied. "Spring football." "OK, thanks." He shrugged, turned on his heel and walked away. Never saw him again. Sometimes, reality bites.