Coach Prime had his work cut out for him from the start, when he took the CU Buffs head coaching job.

However, despite the long road that lies between where Colorado’s football program currently resides and the ‘contender’ status that Prime wishes to attain, the Buffaloes are doing everything in their power to reach that destination this season.

“We want to do it now. We’ve taken criticism. That’s fine,” Coach Charles Kelly, the CU Buffs’ defensive coordinator, shared during Pac-12 Media Day in Las Vegas, Nevada. “People have their opinion to say what they want to. But we did within what the rules allow for us to be able to create the best roster possible for the University of Colorado. We don’t apologize for that.

“So what our job is now is to make sure we coach and we develop and we bring these players along. Every day when you’re in college coaching, you do three things: you evaluate, you recruit, and you develop. You do that on a daily basis. Coach does that. In [our] organization, our team, with our staff, he’s evaluating every day. If he can make something better, he’s going to make it better.”

Kelly also discussed that the staff has had clear goals and expectations set for them by Coach Prime.

“There’s a sense of urgency. In fact, I can tell you, nobody outside is going to put any more pressure on us than we’re going to put on ourselves. Coach Prime made it very clear  [what] his vision [was] from the beginning,” Coach Kelly said. “One of the things that I respect most about him is he tells the truth. He made it very clear what his vision for our program was. As a leader, what you do is you make sure everybody in the organization understands your vision. We all understand that vision. It’s not necessarily fear for our jobs; it’s just this is our vision for where we want to go.”

Helping to enable that chase is the fact that the CU Buffs appear to have the game’s most important position already squared away, thanks to the arrival of their star quarterback, Shedeur Sanders.

“I love Shedeur and what he brings to the table as a quarterback,” Coach Kelly, who was on college coaching staffs that had four quarterbacks drafted in the top 15, with Jameis Winston, Tu’a Tagovailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. “I’ve been very fortunate to be on some teams with some very good quarterbacks. They all have some really good characteristics. The first thing is Shedeur is very smart, all right? He understands the game. He understands what people are giving him. One of the most important things that a quarterback can do is to make good decisions. He makes good decisions. We go against him in practice, and I watch him. He has a strong arm. He’s very accurate. What I call hand talent, the guy has hand talent, very accurate with the football. He’s got all of those things. He’s got the traits that make him a great quarterback.”

We’ll finally get to see what Shedeur Sanders looks like against Power-5 competition on September 2nd, as the Colorado Buffaloes travel to Dallas-Fort Worth to face the TCU Horned Frogs.