On Monday, the Denver City Council approved a contract that will allow an airport concessionaire to open a Fat Sully’s Pizza restaurant inside Concourse A.

Known for its ginormous New York-style pies, Fat Sully’s is owned by the Atomic Provisions group, which also owns Denver Biscuit Co. and Atomic Cowboy. Airport concessionaire FM Juice Company will operate the pizza shop under the Fat Sully’s name. (All of DIA’s branded concessions, from Tattered Cover to Great Divide Brewing, do business this way.)

The restaurant group declined a request for comment.

The city council also approved a second Chick-fil-A and a second Shake Shack in Concourse A. Both Chick-fil-A and Shake Shack opened their first DIA locations in Concourse B.

Atomic Provisions, owned by former CU Buffs football player Drew Shader, boasts seven Colorado locations with all three restaurant brands, including the newest, which opened this fall, in Golden, and two locations in Kansas City.

Other local businesses with their names at the airport include: Snooze, Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli, New Belgium Brewing, Smashburger, Elway’s, Etai’s, Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs, Boulder Beer Tap House, and Mercantile Dining & Provisions.

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Daniels, a fifth-year quarterback, won the Heisman and AP player of the year honors last week after accounting for 50 touchdowns and nearly 5,000 yards of offense this season.

He was joined in the backfield by Missouri’s Cody Schrader, a sixth-year running back and former Division II player who leads the nation at 124.9 rushing yards per game.

The other sixth-year player of the AP first team was North Carolina State linebacker Payton Wilson, who won the Chuck Bednarik Award as national defensive player of the year.

Kansas State guard Cooper Beebe, edge rushers Laiatu Latu from UCLA and Jalen Green from James Madison, and Texas defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat were the other fifth-year players to make the first team.

College players who were in school during the 2020 pandemic season were granted an extra year of eligibility and they are still making their presence felt around the country.

Eleven more fifth-year players made the second and third teams and there were eight sixth-year players selected to those teams, including Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr., the Heisman runner up. Penix and the second-ranked Huskies face No. 3 Texas in the College Football Playoff’s Sugar Bowl semifinal on Jan. 1.

Colorado Buffaloes sophomore receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter was named to the first team. Colorado State junior tight end Dallin Holker made the second team and Air Force senior safety Trey Taylor earned a third-team nod.

Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt and Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. were selected first-team All-Americans for the second straight year. Beebe and Georgia tight end Brock Bowers moved up from second team last season to first this year.

No. 5 Alabama led all teams with three first-team All-Americans, all on the defensive side: cornerbacks Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold and linebacker Dallas Turner.

The Crimson Tide, seeded fourth in the College Football Playoff, faces No. 1 Michigan in the Rose Bowl semifinal on Jan. 1.

First-team All-Americans (by conference)

• SEC — 9.
• Big Ten — 6.
• Pac-12 — 4.
• Big 12 — 3.
• ACC — 1.
• MAC — 1.
• Sun Belt — 1.
• Independent — 2.

The AP All-America team was selected by a panel of 18 college Top 25 poll voters.

First team

Quarterback — Jayden Daniels, fifth-year, LSU.

Running backs — Ollie Gordon II, second-year, Oklahoma State; Cody Schrader, sixth-year, Missouri.

Tackles — Joe Alt, third-year, Notre Dame; Olu Fashanu, fourth-year, Penn State.

Guards — Cooper Beebe, fifth-year, Kansas State; Zak Zinter, fourth-year, Michigan.

Center — Jackson Powers-Johnson, third-year, Oregon.

Tight end — Brock Bowers, third-year, Georgia.

Wide receivers — Malik Nabers, third-year, LSU; Marvin Harrison Jr., third-year, Ohio State; Rome Odunze, fourth-year, Washington.

All-purpose player — Travis Hunter, second-year, Colorado.

Kicker — Graham Nicholson, third-year, Miami (Ohio).

Edge rushers — Laiatu Latu, fifth-year, UCLA; Jalen Green, fifth-year, James Madison.

Interior linemen — T’Vondre Sweat, fifth-year, Texas; Jer’Zahn Newton, fourth-year, Illinois.

Linebackers — Payton Wilson, sixth-year, North Carolina State; Edgerrin Cooper, fourth-year, Texas A&M; Dallas Turner, third-year, Alabama.

Cornerbacks — Cooper DeJean, third-year, Iowa; Kool-Aid McKinstry, third-year, Alabama.

Safeties — Malaki Starks, second-year, Georgia; Xavier Watts, fourth-year, Notre Dame.

Defensive back — Terrion Arnold, third-year, Alabama.

Punter — Tory Taylor, fourth-year, Iowa.

Second team

Quarterback — Michael Penix Jr., sixth-year, Washington.

Running backs — Audric Estime, third-year, Notre Dame; Omarion Hampton, second-year, North Carolina.

Tackles — Taliese Fuaga, fourth-year, Oregon State; JC Latham, third-year, Alabama.

Guards — Tate Ratledge, fourth-year, Georgia; Clay Webb, fifth-year, Jacksonville State.

Center — Sedrick Van Pran, fourth-year, Georgia.

Tight ends — Dallin Holker, fifth-year, Colorado State.

Wide receivers — Troy Franklin, third-year, Oregon; Malik Washington, fifth-year, Virginia; Luther Burden III, second-year, Missouri.

All-purpose player — Ashton Jeanty, second-year, Boise State.

Kicker — Jose Pizano, third-year, UNLV.

Edge rushers — Jonah Elliss, third-year, Utah; Jared Verse, fourth-year, Florida State.

Interior linemen — Byron Murphy II, third-year, Texas; Howard Cross III, fifth-year, Notre Dame.

Linebackers — Jeremiah Trotter Jr., third-year, Clemson; Jason Henderson, third-year, Old Dominion; Jay Higgins, fourth-year, Iowa.

Cornerbacks — Quinyon Mitchell, fourth-year, Toledo; Beanie Bishop Jr., sixth-year, West Virginia.

Safeties — Tyler Nubin, fifth-year, Minnesota; Caleb Downs, first-year, Alabama.

Defensive back — Kris Abrams-Draine, fourth-year, Missouri.

Punter — Matthew Hayball, sixth-year, Vanderbilt.

Third team

Quarterbacks — Bo Nix, fifth-year, Oregon.

Running backs — Blake Corum, fourth-year, Michigan; Kimani Vidal, fourth-year, Troy.

Tackles — Javon Foster, sixth-year, Missouri; Troy Fautanu, fifth-year, Washington.

Guards — Christian Haynes, sixth-year, UConn; Luke Kandra, fourth-year, Cincinnati.

Center — Zach Frazier, fourth-year, West Virginia.

Tight end — Ben Sinnott, fourth-year, Kansas State.

Wide receivers — Ricky White, fourth-year, UNLV; Brian Thomas Jr., third-year, LSU; Tetairoa McMillan, second-year, Arizona.

All-purpose player — Xavier Worthy, third-year, Texas.

Kicker — Will Reichard, fifth-year, Alabama.

Edge rushers — Chop Robinson, third-year, Penn State; Bralen Trice, fifth-year, Washington.

Interior linemen — Kris Jenkins, fourth-year, Michigan; Braden Fiske, sixth-year, Florida State.

Linebackers — Nathaniel Watson, sixth-year, Mississippi State; Edefuan Ulofoshio, sixth-year, Washington; Danny Stutsman, third-year, Oklahoma.

Cornerbacks — Ricardo Hallman, third-year, Wisconsin; T.J. Tampa, fourth-year, Iowa State.

Safeties — Trey Taylor, fifth-year, Air Force; Dillon Thieneman, first-year, Purdue.

Defensive back — Sebastian Castro, fifth-year, Iowa.

Punter — James Ferguson-Reynolds, second-year, Boise State.

The Denver Post contributed to this story.

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There are reasons for it coming across that way, one of which we’ll get into shortly. But let’s say this, too: To be fair to the GTW peanut gallery, not a single soul on our crack team said Coach Prime couldn’t recruit. Or that he couldn’t sell, as confirmed by the commitment of mega high school tackle Jordan Seaton, the latest feather in the man’s talent-building cap, earlier this week.

But GTW’s overall stance hasn’t changed. Yes, 4-8 is a heck of a lot better than 1-11. Yes, Boulder is back on the national college football map. But as to other parts of The Great Deion Sanders Experiment? Jury’s still out.

Coach Prime wants … “privacy?” — F

And Prime hasn’t exactly engendered our sympathies when he stiff-arms local media outlets in favor of video operations run by family members and friends — or in favor of paid business partners.

His program. His media team. His rules. His message. Sanders has had multiple camera crews following him around darn near everywhere for the 12 months in which he’s been employed by CU, and fair enough. But you can’t have it both ways. Because Sanders also had the gall, during a series of interviews with national outlets earlier this week, to tell People magazine this:

“You always wish that you had a little more privacy. But the same thing that makes you shine will show your blemishes. So, you’ve got to take the good with the bad. You can’t just want everyone there when the hype machine is rolling, you have to understand there’s another side to this.”

There is. And good on a man who brought his own Amazon Prime crew and at least two YouTube channels north with him to acknowledge that, at least. Still: A reality show and reality itself, even on Planet Prime, aren’t always the same thing.

You signed up for this, Coach. Both sides. All sides.

More Denver college hoops cred — A-.

Our little “football” state keeps building up steam as a college hoops one, doesn’t it? CU features a future NBA lottery pick (Cody Williams) and has the seeds of a potential NCAA tourney resume already planted. CSU, king of the locals, heads into a big Moby Arena tussle with Saint Mary’s on Saturday sitting at 13th in the AP Poll, unbeaten (9-0) and a sexy pick to win the Mountain West.

Don’t tell anybody, but an early strain of March Madness seems to be catching on at other men’s hoops outposts across the Centennial State, too. Air Force sports a 7-2 record with three “true” road wins, already tying a single-season record for away victories before the middle of December. DU — hockey school, not a football one — sports the nation’s points leader, and No. 2 points-per-game scorer as of Friday, in guard Tommy Bruner. Yeah, he’s a volume shooter (Bruner leads the country in shots, with 180, going into Saturday). But when you’re connecting on your treys — Bruner was good on 4 of 9 attempts from distance in a loss at CSU this past Wednesday — at a 46.3% clip, dude, fire away.

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In this edition of the Kickin’ it with Kiz podcast, Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla talks sports betting, bourbon, Broncos and the controversy surrounding the College Football Playoff. Among the topics discussed:

• Kiz is joined by Denver Post staff Nuggets beat writer Bennett “Benito” Durando as they break down the College Football Playoff and the game lines they are eyeing this weekend.
• Kiz talks Broncos and their chances for a playoff Berth after winning five of their last six games.
• Nate Kiszla, son of Kiz, stops by to talk bourbon with his pops.

The Kickin’ it with Kiz podcast is brought to you by Argonaut Wine & Liquor, featuring Buffalo Trace.

Subscribe to the podcast

SoundCloud | iTunes | Google Music | RSS

Producer: AAron Ontiveroz
Music: “Bumble Bees” by Schama Noel

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Jordan Seaton, the nation’s No. 1 offensive tackle recruit as ranked by 247Sports.com’s composite rankings, announced on Fox Sports 1’s “Undisputed” on Thursday morning that he’s committing to the CU Buffs.

The 6-foot-5, 287-pound blocker played his senior season of football at IMG Academy in Florida after transferring in from St. John’s High School in Washington, D.C.

“You’ve got to believe in Coach Prime,” Seaton told Fox Sports 1. “Having the opportunity to play with somebody who’s done it at the highest level, a (Hall of Fame) level. Very few can say they did that. I’ve got two Heisman candidates (to play with) — Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, they’re amazing. You know how they go.

“If you ain’t rocking with us and you claim you’re a dawg, why are you not coming to Colorado? Why you not helping somebody who looks like you?”

The Buffs hosted Seaton, a five-star recruit, during their loss to Oregon State on Nov. 4. The tackle had offers from 29 Power 5 programs, per the 247Sports database, and had been considering CU along with Ohio State, Alabama, Texas, Florida and Tennessee.

Seaton represents one of Coach Prime’s biggest recruiting wins as a head coach in a short career that’s seen several already.

Sanders shocked experts by landing cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter, the nation’s No. 1 prep recruit in the Class of 2022, at Jackson State. Hunter then followed Coach Prime from Jackson, Miss., to CU. Hunter, a sophomore, was recently presented with the 2023 Paul Hornung Award, given annually to “the most versatile player in major college football.”

Floridian Cormani McClain, 247Sports’ No. 1 cornerback recruit for the Class of 2023, committed to the Buffs in January and appeared in nine games as a true freshman, recording two pass break-ups.

Seaton also addresses the Buffs’ most glaring weakness in Sanders’ first season as an FBS coach: the offensive line.

CU allowed the most sacks (56) of any Power 5 program this past fall, and Sanders’ son Shedeur, the Buffs’ starting quarterback, was sacked 52 times in 11 starts.

“That will never happen again,” Seaton told Fox Sports 1.

It’s presumed that, like Shedeur, Seaton will start from Day 1 at CU.

The Buffs’ starting left tackle this past season, Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan, recently entered the transfer portal.

“He’s an elite-level football player,” Pat Ward, Seaton’s former coach at St. John’s, told The Post last month. “Just a very good athlete, great work ethic, wants to be a great player. One of the best players I’ve ever coached.”

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“You guys are gonna make me cry,” CU Buffs coach Deion Sanders told a crowd of roughly 4,600 at the CU Events Center on Wednesday night for a special screening of the Amazon Prime reality television show “Coach Prime.”

“You have been the best set of fans I have ever experienced in my entire life.”

After thanking those fans, who sold out CU’s football season despite a 4-8 finish and a 1-8 mark in Pac-12 play, Buffs faithful were treated on the arena jumbotron to episodes two and three of the reality program’s second season, which detailed the NFL icon’s move to Boulder last December and his debut campaign with the Buffs.

Episodes 1 and 2 of “Coach Prime” are slated to drop Thursday via Prime Video.

Sanders addressed the crowd and thanked Sports Illustrated, which recently named him its 2023 Sportsperson of the Year, via a makeshift stage on the Events Center floor.

While CU finished last in the Pac-12, interest in Sanders’ FBS debut as a head coach was such that the Buffs wound up playing in two of the top 10 most-watched college football games of the 2023 regular season.

CU’s 42-6 loss at Oregon finished No. 2 in the regular-season ratings, with 10.03 million viewers, while the Buffs’ 43-35 overtime win over CSU in the Rocky Mountain Showdown at Folsom Field drew 9.3 million, which ranked fifth in viewership.

A few minutes before the coach’s presentation, Sanders, his family and CU luminaries such as former Buffs quarterback Kordell Stewart, a longtime Coach Prime friend and confidant, walked through a quick series of “gold carpet” interview sessions backstage.

“I mean, this is what it’s about, right?” Stewart reflected when asked about the first year of Sanders’ reign in Boulder.

“Imagine if we have social media back when. I’m talking (from ex-CU QB) Sal Aunese to the Darian Hagans, the Charles Johnsons. And then coming in and having a chance to be a part of it.

“So at the end of the day, man, it’s a new time. It’s a new day. The landscape was totally different. But it’s still transparent …

“But it couldn’t be any better this.”

And on a night that celebrated his 1-year anniversary at CU, Sanders wouldn’t leave the stage without trying to raise the bar for Year 2.

“It’s my challenge … that we’re gonna get Peggy (Coppom) to a bowl game next season,” Sanders said of the CU superfan, who was also in attendance.

In a joint statement posted on Edmonds’ Facebook page Sunday night, Sanders and Edmonds said they have decided to move forward in life as friends.

“We have mutually decided that it is best for us to move forward in life as friends and have made this decision with love in our hearts, respect for each other, and appreciation for the time we’ve shared together,” Edmonds and Sanders wrote. “Please keep us in your prayers as we go through this transition.”

Sanders praised Edmonds in a comment on a since-deleted Instagram post of the announcement, calling her a “true blessing,” according to the New York Post. 

Sanders and Edmonds met at a movie premiere party in 2012 for a film Edmonds produced, according to People. They became engaged in 2019.

Edmonds founded her own production company in 1993 and was an executive producer of a reality TV series about Sanders’ life, Deion’s Family Playbook.

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Deion Sanders? Shedeur Sanders? Travis Hunter? The Buffs should be beating prospective offensive play-callers off with a stick. Not sticking Shedeur with another season of Pencil Pat pushing the buttons.

Yet when USA Today asked Coach Prime Monday if Shurmur, who put Teddy Bridgewater on a stretcher and Drew Lock in purgatory, would return as CU’s offensive coordinator, this was Sanders’ reply:

“Yeah,” Coach Prime said, “most likely.”

Lordy, the man’s interviews for the “Coach Prime” TV show that debuts later this week must be pure gold. Because his offenses are anything but.

Sanders took the keys from Sean Lewis and handed them to Shurmur around Halloween. CU hasn’t won a game since.

Only three Pac-12 teams scored fewer points than the Buffs did — 20.25 per game — after Nov. 1. And Stanford, Arizona State and UCLA still averaged 2.6 league wins, or more than twice what CU wound up with once the dust settled.

Prime can do better. Can’t he?

I mean, yeah, half of a crummy offensive line has to be replaced on the fly. But the core pieces at the skill positions, if healthy, look sterling.

Shedeur Sanders was a one-man offense last year. In 11 games, he broke CU’s single-season passing yardage standard. He was a touchdown toss away from tying the single-season mark there, too. He’s got an NFL arm with NFL shoulders, connected to an NFL head.

Surely, there’s another Sean Lewis type out there — a young, aggressive play-caller who’s just itching for a chance to help No. 2 smash records to his heart’s content. Someone begging for a chance to work with one of the top returning signal-callers in the country. For a chance to work with Hunter, college football’s most gifted superfreak.

Good offensive coordinators should be banging down athletic director Rick George’s door right now. If they aren’t, is it because they know something we don’t?

The Prime Plan has always been aimed at Year 2. New conference. New hope. The revamped Big 12 is imminently winnable, a hoops league stuffed with football middleweights. A perfect final ride for The Chosen Ones — Shedeur, Shilo and Travis — together in Buffs gold. A chance to push every chip to the middle of the table.

So why is Papa Sanders recycling this one?

The cynic would say No. 2 is No. 1 when it comes to the CU offense, and retaining Shurmur offers the added bonus, in theory, of making Deion’s son even more attractive for NFL scouts in advance of the ’25 draft.

Shurmur brings a long NFL track record to the table, even if that record has more wild twists than Wolf Creek Pass. Perhaps Pops wants Pencil Pat teaching Shedeur a pro-style offense using pro-style terms at a pro-style clip.

Although wouldn’t Byron Leftwich bring those same NFL bona fides, without all that Broncos baggage?

Whatever Shedeur wants, Shedeur gets. If a conflict emerges between one of Sanders’ children and a coach, which one do you think Coach Prime is most likely to side with, consequences be damned?

“Pat and I communicate really well,” the elder Sanders said following a season-ending loss at Utah. “Pat and Sean communicated really well. Pat and Shedeur communicate really well. So I think he did a great job. I really did.”

Twenty points per game? 0-4? Great?

Ask yourself this: Which coach would you rather have out on the recruiting trail preaching the gospel of Prime? Lewis, a 37-year-old who kept a PlayStation 4 in his office at Kent State for players to come in and use? Or Shurmur, who turns 59 next April? And who said two years ago, in front of a pack of NFL reporters, “I’m not a very social-media savvy guy.”

Sanders is on his phone selling everything to everyone, all the time. Shurmur thinks TikTok is the sound a watch makes after you wind it. What could possibly go wrong?

Yes, the staff is in flux, a remake-in-progress. Yes, a lot figures to change over the next eight or nine months. But the Buffs already lost a ’24 QB commitment with Lewis’ departure. Former defensive ends coach Nick Williams, one of CU’s most respected recruiters, just left the Buffs for the same job at Syracuse. Tim Brewster, another bag man, took his shouting to Charlotte.

And have you looked at CU’s fight card for next September?

Best take care of business against North Dakota State in that home opener, kids. Because then it’s at Nebraska on Sept. 7, followed by a visit to CSU on Sept. 14. Even with a 12-team College Football Playoff field, those non-conference losses can come back to bite you on the backside. Unless you’re Nick Saban.

Asked Monday about the CFP next December, Sanders told 247Sports.com that “we plan on being in that situation.”

With Pencil Pat calling the plays?

Best plan for 6-6. Most likely.

“That’s a big mistake,” Moore, son of the late offensive line coach and blocking guru Joe Moore, told The Denver Post last week when asked about CU. “My opinion: You’ve got to have somebody (who’s a veteran) in that room. … If you can build it, that’s not how I would build it.”

Moore’s father, Joe, was the longtime offensive line coach at Pitt and Notre Dame, a football icon in western Pennsylvania and Mr. Miyagi to blocking senseis from Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz to Jimbo Covert and Russ Grimm.

Joe Moore was a tough cookie, old-school, a contemporary of Mickey Andrews, the former Florida State defensive coordinator and one of Sanders’ spiritual mentors. A demanding son of a gun. A “we” guy and not a “me” guy.

So much so, in fact, that the national trophy presented to the best offensive line unit in college football — The Joe Moore Award — is named in his honor. So is the offensive line camp James Moore runs outside Pittsburgh every year.

“I watched (CU) at the beginning of the year, and obviously (the Buffs’) offensive line is not very good right now,” the younger Moore said of the Buffs, who gave up the most sacks per game (4.67) of any Power 5 program this season and saw star quarterback Shedeur Sanders taken down 52 times in 11 appearances.

“But do they have a guy or two who could be ‘the guy’ in that (offensive line) room and have guys that come in the transfer portal and go through spring ball (that can help)? I don’t know.”

And there’s the rub. The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) transfer portals open for business Monday, and CU is expected to burst through those front doors like it’s a Black Friday midnight sale.

Coach Prime’s stated methodology — still unique, and controversial, after a 3-0 start sank to 4-8 over his inaugural season in Boulder — is to devote 80% of his available roster slots to undergraduate transfers or grad transfers in any given recruiting cycle.

CU’s starting left tackle this fall, Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan, reportedly entered the portal this past Friday. Sanders said after allowing seven sacks at UCLA that he wanted new offensive linemen for 2024, a season that will see sons Shedeur and Shilo play their final year of collegiate eligibility together. It’s also expected to be the last hurrah at CU for sophomore two-way star Travis Hunter, who will become eligible for the NFL Draft after the ’24 campaign.

Can a Big 12-quality offensive line be built, or rather re-built, strictly through transfers? And can it jell in just eight or nine months together? Can a position group that traditionally requires time and preparation, like a roasted turkey, be microwaved like a pizza and still hold up?

“Yes. The answer is yes,” CBS Sports analyst and ex-CU Buffs football coach Rick Neuheisel told The Post. “Yeah, you can. And I think there are going to be a lot of people intrigued with the idea of Deion being there after all that publicity and at a time of the season (September) when it’s absolutely gorgeous (in Boulder).

“When (transfers) are thinking about Deion, they’re thinking about that time of year. … He’s going to have entrée to many a living room.”

Selling is the part of the job where Sanders excels — especially when it involves selling himself. But patience? That’s less of a strong suit, especially when so many of CU’s chips are expected to be pushed to the middle of the table for the 2024 season.

Shopping-by-portal has proven to be a sound method for plucking singular, elite, plug-and-play “free agents” at positions such as quarterback, tailback, wide receiver, cornerback or pass-rusher. But the offensive and defensive lines, bedrocks of a program’s foundation, are less about the individual and more about the collective — chemistry and cohesion that can take months, if not years, to master.

Also, the truly great ones, to paraphrase Coach Prime, are traditionally hard to find on the transfer market. From Black Friday through Dec. 1, 43 wideouts entered the portal, according to the 247Sports.com database. Only 20 offensive tackles and 30 interior offensive linemen put their names in the hat over that same eight-day window.

“It’s such a developmental position,” offered Cherry Creek offensive lineman Hayden Treter, a senior who committed to play college ball at USC last June. “Rarely do you see a guy come out of high school or (from a smaller) school, transfer up and enroll and he’s just a star.

“I think, you know, there’s only really (a few) exceptions, such as Kadyn Proctor in Alabama, or the right tackle in Miami (Francis Mauigoa). But it’s rare, because it’s unit-based. You’ve got to know the guys for months and months and months and months. And even those (standout) dudes are struggling a little bit.”

Of the offensive line units that were picked among the semifinalists for the 2023 Moore Award, three hailed from the Pac-12 — Oregon, Washington and Oregon State. And collectively, the Ducks, Huskies and Beavers started only one first-year transfer up front.

Experience matters. Of the four FBS teams that allowed the most sacks per game this season, all but one, Wake Forest, opened the season among the bottom 25 programs in the nation in the category of most career offensive line starts.

“It (stinks) for them,” Treter said of the Buffs’ offensive line struggles. “It’s hard to watch sometimes. … You know they’re going to get there eventually. But with offensive line, you need time. You can’t take a guy and teach him three years worth of technique in half an offseason. It’s almost impossible.”

As a player, Sanders excelled at what conventional wisdom said was “impossible.” But as a coach, when it comes to building a Power 5-worthy offense line in a hurry, he might be battling against forces too strong for even his charm, willpower and work ethic to overcome.

Moore says Sanders would be wise to seek out a friend of his family, Mike Munchak, who has loved ones in Colorado and served as the Broncos’ offensive line coach from 2019 to ’21.

“To me, it’s more about attitude and everything (taught) in that (offensive line) room,” Moore said. “You look at Iowa’s offensive line, right? If they weren’t very good at the beginning of the season, they got pretty good. They’re doing better. That’s typical (Ferentz). That’s why he’s 11-1 (over Iowa’s last 12 games) in November. That’s getting better.”

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In Sports Illustrated’s defense, while 2023 proved to be a solid year for storylines, it was a down one as far as North American sports icons. The guys who sell magazines.

Enter Deion Sanders.

The Grading The Week team loves them some Coach Prime. But Sanders being named SI’s Sportsperson of the Year earlier this week? That was the newsstand equivalent of Harold Baines getting strong-armed by Jerry Reinsdorf and Tony La Russa into Cooperstown.

With a 4-8 record? Last in the Pac-12? Come on. That lowers the bar a bit. For everybody.

Now before you accuse the crack GTW staff of being pro-CSU and a bunch of FoCo homers — they’re not, and Jay Norvell and his staff have some explaining to do after a squad with Tory Horton and Mo Kamara failed to reach a bowl — we do respect SI’s argument. However flimsy.

Sanders opened doors for Black undergrads and Black citizens, period, in historically white Boulder. He was a pop-culture phenomenon who turned CU football into must-see TV. The Buffs have a national brand again, a national cache — like Kentucky, UCLA or Kansas basketball.

That said, the brand is basically one guy. And when that one guy leaves, he’s taking almost all of those curious onlookers with him.

SI.com also has some ‘splaining to do. Especially after SI.com got busted earlier this week for promoting AI-written pieces by made-up, software-generated authors. What was for decades the preeminent platform for the top sports writers in the country — Dan Jenkins, Frank DeFord — is now just another platform.

Well, this article was written and edited by real people. And the reality is, we’d have rather seen Nikola Jokic on that SI cover, truth be told.

Sports illustrated — F

By the magazine’s decree, the Sportsperson award is presented to “the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement.” And given that criteria, the GTW crew rattled off at least four local candidates who deserved as much, if not more, recognition as Coach Prime:

1. Nikola Jokic, center, Denver Nuggets

Performance: NBA champion. NBA Finals MVP. Sportsmanship: Cost himself MVP votes by resting during March and April as he healed up for the playoff run to come, when he could’ve pushed for a triple-double average for the season (at 9.8 assists per game, he was darn close). Third only only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain, who played a combined 35 seasons, in career assists by a center. Achievement: Led Nuggets to franchise’s first-ever NBA title. Made Kendrick Perkins and Stephen A. Smith shut their traps. Actually, forget SI. Call the Nobel Prize people.

2. Rudy Carey, coach, Denver East

Performance: Notched his 10th boys basketball state title, a CHSAA record, by leading Denver East to an 82-61 win over Fossil Ridge. Sportsmanship: As a means of honoring the memory of slain East student Luis Garcia, Carey’s Angels warmed up during the Final Four wearing “Angels Against Gun Violence” T-shirts. Achievement: Led East to its 12th boys title all-time, tying it with Manual High for the most in state history.

3. Jamal Murray, guard, Denver Nuggets

Performance: NBA champion. Averaged 32.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3.8 3-pointers in a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Western Conference Finals, the Nuggets’ first postseason series victory over The Lake Show. And yet he still wasn’t named the MVP of the conference finals (See: Jokic, Nikola.) Sportsmanship: When asked about not winning WCF MVP, the Canadian replied: “All that comes after you win a championship. If we were to lose, no one gets that trophy, right? We win the championship, everybody eats. I’m just excited to see everybody succeed.” Achievement: The first NBA player since 1977 to put up back-to-back 40-point playoff games without committing a turnover. And have you seen his championship ring?

4. John Matocha, quarterback, Colorado School of Mines

Performance: RMAC champion. Sportsmanship: Dude showed up for an interview recently wearing a shirt that read in big white letters: “OFFENSIVE LINES, BECAUSE QUARTERBACKS NEED HEROES, TOO.” Achievement: Reigning winner of the Harlon Hill Award, the Heisman Trophy of Division II athletics. 2022-23 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Overall Team Member of the Year for Division II, the first Mines student to ever win the award and only the third Division II football player to do so. Sported a reported 3.64 GPA going into the fall. In computer science.

Look, if you want to die on Ralphie’s hill, have at it. It’s a heck of a story. But know this: Deion Sanders wasn’t the only sports figure in greater Denver who brought the goods in prime time this year. He was just the loudest.

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