Coach Prime Has a PROBLEM at Colorado — And It’s Bigger Than JuJu Getting Benched

Chris Moore: What it do with the business is word on the street. Chris is known to handle it. Get your mind right, let me talk to you. About these cli Colorado buffs, y'all. We we gotta talk about Colorado. But forewarning, I'm not here to bury Coach Prime. I don't have no shovels here. I'm not telling you that the Coach Prime era is over. I'm not telling you that Juju Lewis can't play. I'm not telling you everybody needs to transfer. I'm not telling you that coach prime needs to get on Zillow and start looking at different locations or go into LinkedIn and putting their resumes. I'm not telling the fans in Colorado to not go to Folsom Field. but I am gonna tell you the truth. you've probably heard a lot of conversations, but you ain't heard from me. And we gonna talk about. That was a hard game to watch. As you know, Colorado lost 23 to 13 to Baylor University. RG3's Baylor University. And for long stretches of this game, y'all, watching Colorado play football, felt like somebody had assigned me homework. My kid, when he gets homework during the week, he is in a tizzy. He feels a way. Like we got homework, Dad. Yeah. Yeah. Do I have to finish this? Do I have to do this? Yeah, you that's how I felt when I was watching this game. Like, I I I really gotta watch this. I gotta see I gotta watch this in. Because right now Colorado has a problem. Problems to be exact. and I think I finally figured out what the this team reminds me of. it reminds me Of a food recall. As you know, you you you notice how many food recalls that we've been getting lately? You wake up, don't eat the eggs. Okay. Next week, don't eat the strawberries. Dang, okay. Next week, don't eat these cookies. Dang. If you purchase this ground beef between these dates, please return it immediately. And at some point, I'm standing in my kitchen like. What the hell can I eat? Hello, somebody. That's what Colorado football is right now. That's Coda over there. Shouts out to Dakota. The quarterback situation. We got to check out the number on this expiration date. We on this third down offense, we got to make some returns. On the explosive plays defensively, it's possibly some contamination in there. Special teams. Bad packaging. The offensive rhythm, we gotta recall because something about this package ain't right. And here's the distinction. I'm not saying Colorado football is a bad program by any stretch of the imagination. I am saying that the product Colorado is putting on the field right now is bad. Yeah, there's talent in the building. There are coaches I believe that can coach. There are players who can play. But you put everything together. Sound like the rock. Shine it up real nice. You turn it sideways and you s But when you put everything together, when you seal the package, when you send this package of Colorado football on the road to Baylor University, something went wrong. And that's what makes one of Coach Prime's comments after the game so interesting. Coach Prime basically said, it feels like we're better than our opponents, but the score doesn't dictate that. And we've got to figure out why. Coach Prime, that is the question. Because at some point we're better than them. It doesn't matter. Football ain't figure skating, y'all. What do you mean by that, Chris? There ain't no judges holding up cards saying. Colorado looks more talented. Looks to be the more talented team. and give you a nine. No, that's not how football works. And right now, right now, Colorado has a lot of things that look good individually, but they don't consistently connect. You see a good run here. Holding. You see a good play over here. Next play, nothing. You get a good defensive series. Then you get an explosive play. You get a nice completion. Then the drive stalls. The momentum, man. Soon as you get the momentum, all of a sudden you make a mistake. Colorado keeps giving you little samples of Costco. They keep giving you the the mail samples, the the samples at the mall. I'm sorry. They keep giving you the mall samples. that's good. Then you go looking for the full menu, or you go order that same, that same sample that you that you picked up at the mall, you go to that same restaurant, the food don't taste the same. Where W why is this product that y'all gave me on this little trade not the same that y'all gave me when I bought a full plate? Because Baylor isn't some unbeatable machine. That's what makes it so frustrating. That's what makes it so irritating that this we've heard this so many times. This was a winnable football game. And Colorado couldn't consistently do the basic things necessary to win. Now, of course, Juju is the is the storyline out of this game. this is a conversation that everybody's gonna have. Juju got benched. I'm not gonna overreact to it, but I'm not gonna underreact to it either. Something needed to happen. And maybe, just maybe, this was Juju's scared straight moment. Do y'all remember scared straight? They take these hard-headed kids into the prison and basically say, you think you're tough. The path that you on right now, this is where it's gonna lead you. And about eight minutes later, you see a kid crying like, I'm going back to school, I'm gonna listen to my mama, I'm gonna I'm gonna clean up my room, I'm gonna do better in school, I'm gonna go, I'm not gonna cut school no more, I'm not gonna do drugs no more. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes you need to see the alternative. I grew up in church. My pastor wanted to start a college of young adult program. And he told the leader at that time that he wanted that program to be the alternative to the alternative. And that's what Colorado has strive has strived to be. The alternative to the alternative. Sometimes you just need something to shake you. And maybe Juju sitting down was football of was Colorado's football version of scare straight. Because now you understand that that job ain't promised to you. You're talented, you're young, you're highly recruited. You cheers. Everybody knows your name. But none of that makes you quarterback one forever. This becomes even more interesting because of the clip with Brendan Marion. Miriam is on the sideline telling Juju stop playing scared. That's what caught my attention. It went viral on the webs. It went viral on social media. So I know that you saw it too. Because that's the word scared. Not scared like Juju is afraid of contact. Not scared like he's a like he's physically afraid to play football. I'm talking about plain afraid to make the mistake. And therein lies the difference, y'all. Because you're trying so hard not to screw it up. You're trying so hard to, you know, not let yourself just go. And you can see it sometimes. He's holding the ball too long. He's thinking. He's second guessing. He's like, don't throw here, don't throw there, maybe this, check down to that. And by the time you make the decision, college football has already moved on. And that's dangerous for a quarterback. Especially in Brandon Marion's offense, because I don't need Juju out there playing like he's sick in the SAT. It's gonna be A No. C sounds kinda good too. Could it be B Brother, throw the ball. Throw the ball downfield. Trust what you saw. Give your receiver a chance. Trust what you've studied. And if you're wrong, you're wrong. Come back the next play. Because Coach Prime said the same thing after the Northwestern game. He didn't want Juju becoming afraid to let it go after throwing interceptions. He wanted him to flush out his mistakes and keep playing. So when Coach Prime is talking about confidence and Coach Marion is telling him to stop playing scared, and then against Baylor, Juju gets benched, the dots start to connect. And those dots show me that this isn't just about statistics. This is about this young man getting his swag. I'm not even gonna say swag back because I don't even know if he had the swag to begin with, to be honest with you. And no, I'm not crapping on Juju. He's cool, he's calm, he's collector. I get it. You can be cool, calm, and collected because we see that with Jalen Hurts. But you can't be cool, calm, and collected and not produce. Because Coach Prime has already told us about Juju. He's been saying that he's coming around the mountain and basically he ain't there yet. Fair. Juju is developing, but coach, we might need to find another route around this mountain. We might need to find another mode of transportation around this mountain. Because I don't know how Juju is traveling right now. I don't know if he's walking. I don't know. I know they got wild animals out there in in Boulder. So I don't know if he's horseback riding. I don't know if he's on a buffalo. Did he take the scenic route? Is Google Maps reroute him? Where is this man? Like like Kiki Parker said, I don't know this man. Sorry to this man. Because at some point we've got to get around this mountain. Do we need a tunnel? Do we need a skylift? Do we need a helicopter? Call somebody because coach good because Coach Prime needs them. Colorado needs them. His teammates need them. We need Juju Lewis to just pull up. And that is why I don't want the benching to become this to become this thing on whether or this conversation or narrative on whether Juju Lewis is good enough. He's developing, but the question is how do you accelerate the development without destroying his confidence? Therein lies the balance. Therein lies where you learn how to coach or show off how you do coach because Juju has shown flashes. We've seen him on a game winning drive. We've seen why people were excited about him. The arm talent didn't disappear. The ability didn't expire. But right now he just does not look free. And quarterbacking is one of those positions where if you hesitate, hesitation is expensive. There's a saying, he who hesitates, you know the rest. If you don't know it, you can Google it. But here's the other thing, Juju has a problem, and it's not his, it's not Juju's problem. It's not even his fault. Juju finds himself in a situation where he's 19 and he's being compared to other 19 year olds. Kamario Taylor down in Mississippi State. Because the worst thing that can happen when you're a young quarterback trying to develop is another young quarterback somewhere else looking like he got the cheat codes. Y'all remember CJ Stroud? Y'all remember his rookie season? Quarterbacks at that point were judged differently on their rookie season based on how CJ Stroud performed. He ain't been that good since. And Camario Taylor, he's already generating Heisman conversation. And everybody starts looking at Juju like, well, he's young. That's not fair, but it's sports. People don't allow you to develop in isolation anymore. Every Saturday is a comparison. When you're in sports, you have to update your resume on a daily basis. I just updated my resume. I've been at my job for year. But I've started to update my resume because some things have changed. Hello, somebody. And then every when every young quarterback who balls out, all of a sudden they're all of a sudden people saying, see, why can't our duck why why can't Juju do that? Well, it's a different out, it's a different offense. It's different circumstances, it's different personnel, it's a different type of development, all that stuff. It doesn't matter. Fancy, age, stars, and production. And then that's what they compare everything to. And that's why Julian Lewis has to stop worrying about everybody else's timetable. Your biggest opponent right now, it ain't Kamario Taylor. It is not Camario Taylor, excuse me. It's not Isaac Wilson. It's not Twitter. It's not people calling him a bus. It's hesitation. It's confidence. Juju needs one of those games where he lets that thing rip. He needs to let the ball go. I don't care if there's a mistake mixed in. The good thing about mistakes is that you can learn from a mistake. And because Juju, you found yourself so in ingrained into the number one spot, you had room to make an error. Now You don't have that room anymore. We want somebody to make a play and juju running down there talking crazy. We want some juice. We want this is my offense. This we want. This is what we want. We just want confidence, brother. Not because you're supposed to be QB one, but because everybody can feel that you are QB one. And I think one of my biggest issues with Colorado, where are the Hellraisers? Every winning football team has them. I ain't saying they they don't have any. I'm talking about those dudes who are just a little unreasonable. When the game getting choppy, they smiling. When quarterback takes a questionable hit, they're the first one running over. Opponents start celebrating. y'all think it's sweet. ho ho ho ho. When somebody makes a play, they talking. When the team looks dead, they screaming at everybody. Offense, defense, special teams. I need the guy where the coach occasionally has to say, thank you, bud. Chill. And he's like, nah, coach, they they disrespecting me. I need one of them. I need one of them Draymonds. If you wanna take it to football I need a Max Crosby. I need a Leonard Floyd out there. I need a Hellraiser. Colorado needs players who take things personally. And I'm not talking about the fake tough guy stuff. Don't give me that. Don't go get a fifteen yard penalty trying to prove that you're hard. No, don't do that. I'm talking about fire, competitive, competitive personality. The guy who changes the temperature on the sideline. Yeah, it was hot on that field. But it's gonna be hot on this sideline if y'all don't get y'all act together. Because when I watch really good teams, there's usually somebody who says, All right, enough. Not in the press game. Not not in the press. Not in the press. But during the game. Enough. Get get on my back. All right. Let me take us to the promised land. Run behind me. Throw throw me the ball. Right now, Colorado has a lot of players. I need some more personalities. Coach Prime has has leaders and dogs on his team. Well, these dogs ain't really dogging. These dogs are sounding like puppies right now. Not the whole entire team. Again, not the whole entire team. I need some more dudes who can turn ugly football games into the kind of game that they want. Because if the game gets ugly, somebody better enjoy ugly. You better get ugly with me. And this is where we got to keep it a buck about Colorado. That's a lot of questions right now, and very few answers. What's the offensive identity? Who's QB1? How long is Juju's leash? Can the offensive line consistently hold up? Where are the explosive plays coming from? Who's the emotional leader? Who changes the game when everything is going wrong? Who is who is the guy Colorado's opponent has to worry about? And defensively, can you stop giving away the explosive play after good work, after a good play? Stokes, Baylor made a Stokes dinner tonight. I mean, appetizers and everything. Stokes, penalty. Stokes gives up a big play. Stokes, interception. Stokes, another bad play. Get it together. It's a lot of questions. And after watching this team today, I don't have some magic, some magical answer. I don't have no magic potion for you. Sometimes sports conversations become so philosophical. Well, the team needs to look within themselves. they need to get back to playing better football. This is a game they have to really look in the mirror and identify who they are. This ain't therapy, bro. Block somebody. Tackle somebody. Complete the pass, have some balls and throw down the field. Convert on third down. Don't give up explosive plays. Make a play when the game demands a play. Football gets complicated, but sometimes the problems are very simple. And again, I'm not here to bury Colorado. I love Colorado. I want Colorado to win. If you look at that staff of Colorado, you can see more than one reason why I want this team to win. I love Coach Prime. I love Brandon Marion. I love Chris Marv. I love the position coaches. I love what this team does. I love what they offer. It will be easy to bird Colorado. Everybody can run to a mic after a loss and yell, Coach Prime failed. Congratulations. You get your thumbnail. You get your you you get your likes. You get your views that you're looking for. That's not really analysis though. Colorado can improve. Juju Lewis can improve. This offense can find something. It can be something. This season can still produce some good football and make it to a bowl game. But I'm also not going to protect them from what we're watching right now. Cause this right here, this this this right here, this Colorado team right here, you got beat 41 to seven. Then you come back and lose 23 to 13. And at some point you need something positive to happen. Not a moral victory. Not well, at least this part of the game got better. You need a win. You need a complete 60 minute football game that ends in a win. Something everybody in that building can point to and say, that right there, that's what Colorado football is supposed to look like. So here's where I'm at. Colorado football. Colorado football isn't dead. Coach Prime ain't finished. Juju Lewis ain't a bust. But this particular product, you gotta recall it. You gotta send it back. You gotta check those ingredients. You gotta check the packaging. You need to see who's working the assembly line. Cause something ain't right. And Juju, my brother, maybe getting benched was his scared straight moment. Maybe Brendan Marion telling him to stop playing scared is exactly what he needed. Because sometimes confidence doesn't come from somebody putting their arm around you saying, You're doing a great job. Just keep on going. Sometimes confidence comes from getting embarrassed a little bit. Hello somebody. Sometimes you gotta get mad. Sometimes sitting on that sideline watching somebody else play your position and thinking, I don't ever wanna feel like this again. Great. Use it. Because I don't want it scared Juju Lewis. I don't want a reckless Juju Lewis either. I want the Juju who sees it, who can trust it, and let it rip. And Coach Prime, we got to get this brother around that mountain. Walking ain't working. Get him a bike, get him a four-wheeler, get him an ATV, get him a tunnel. I mean, call the National Guard. Figure it out. Because Colorado needs him. Coach Prime needs him. Juju needs Juju. And ultimately, Colorado also needs some hail raisers. I said it before. They need some confidence. They need an identity. They need somebody to make plays, playmakers. Most importantly, they need some answers. Because after Baylor, there's a whole lot of questions. Colorado has given us very few answers. I'm not burying them. I'm not gonna put lipstick on a pig. It was ugly. And sometimes that's the conversation, a hard conversation. This has been more insight. Insight you can trust because there is more where it came from. Make sure you like, comment, subscribe.