Soon-to-be-retired CU chancellor Phil DiStefano put Deion Sanders' Colorado football head coach hiring completely on Rick George during one of his final statements representing the University of Colorado Boulder.
In the process, he praised George for being everything the school's athletic department needed in its leadership.
“I give Rick all the credit for hiring Coach Prime,” DiStefano said (h/t BuffZone). “I think it’s exactly what we needed for this university. How things have turned around in a very short time in a year, year and a half … and the economic impact that has occurred because of Coach Prime for the city, and for the county, has just been amazing.”
DiStefano didn't indicate that Coach Prime's presence in Boulder is pushing him out. Instead, it sounds like he didn't want to deal with a post-NIL world of collegiate athletics.
“Personally, it concerns me and I think it concerns many people that we’re not going to have intercollegiate athletics like we know it,” DiStefano said. “Unless Congress steps in somehow, but I think where we’re heading is going to change college athletics as we know it.”
DiStefano either absolved or robbed himself of either the scrutiny or the glory of what the "Prime Time" era in Boulder ends up being. Thus far, it's been a box office success, but the on-field results are an improvement, and because of the timing of CU's resurgence, mainly in September 2023, a disappointment.
George has the weight of either end result on his shoulders. Ultimately, though, George will be seen as a visionary for going outside the box to breathe life into a program that had slipped into irrelevancy despite being capable of fielding the nation's best team.
Nothing has done more for the University of Colorado this century, in any sport, than the implementation of "Prime Time" into town.
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