The SEC rules the roost in college football, and this Saturday brings a preview of what is to come after this massive round of conference realignment takes hold in the years to come. Alabama hosts Texas in primetime on Saturday night, in a game that could have significant College Football Playoff ramifications.
On paper, that matchup is the biggest in the country this weekend. However, if you ask legendary former SEC coach Steve Spurrier, he’d channel Lee Corso with a resounding, “Not so fast my friend!”
Appearing on The Paul Finebaum Show Wednesday, Spurrier revealed that he is all aboard the Coach Prime hype train, and is enamored with what Deion Sanders and his brand new roster has already accomplished at Colorado. To him, Colorado’s renewed rivalry matchup with Nebraska is this weekend’s biggest game, after the show that the Buffaloes put on at TCU last weekend, pulling out a stunning 45–42 win over the 2022 national runner-up.
“I think Rick Neuheisel said it, he said, ‘Who would’ve ever thunk that the second week of the season, Boulder, Colorado is going to be center of college football when they play Nebraska,” Spurrier said. “I know a lot of people think Alabama and Texas is big, but to me I think Colorado and Nebraska is the biggest game in the nation this week.”
Spurrier, the legendary former coach of Duke, Florida and South Carolina, had plenty of praise for Sanders’s team and staff.
“I love Coach Dykes and TCU, and they had a heck of a year last year, but this is historical. A team that was nowhere, and now all of a sudden they’re beating one of the best teams in the country,” said Spurrier. “A lot of the media, whatever, say, ‘Well, he’s really loud, and this, that and the other.’ Well he’s a ball coach too, and he’s got his guys prepared and he’s got a good coaching staff.
The former Heisman-winning quarterback was also impressed by Shedeur Sanders’s record-breaking performance in his Colorado debut.
“His son Shedeur, I mean he is a good player, gosh,” said Spurrier. “He throws a catchable ball. That’s how he throws for 510 yards, sets all kinds of records in his first game.”
"What @DeionSanders is doing is historical...Boulder Colorado is now the center of the college football universe."
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) September 6, 2023
High praise for Coach Prime's early success from HBC Steve Spurrier: pic.twitter.com/JJdJdd1Rcm
Colorado, now ranked No. 22 in the AP poll after the upset win, hosts its former conference rival Nebraska at noon ET on Saturday.