DENVER – For Shedeur Sanders, Friday night wasn’t ideal.

Colorado’s senior quarterback takes his work seriously and never likes to waste practice time.

Getting on the field in front of a few thousand fans, however, forced Sanders and the Buffaloes to dial it back a notch.

“You’re not seeing much because we’re not doing some of our route combinations and not putting in some of the packages that we would normally put in and giving Shedeur the usage of the whole field and some things that he wanted to do,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said after the Buffs held a practice at All-City Stadium. “So he got a little frustrated because he wanted to do a few more things, but we can’t do that out here in front of the whole country.”

The time is soon to come that Shedeur and the Buffs can let loose, as the season opener on Aug. 29 against North Dakota State (6 p.m., ESPN) is quickly approaching.

Friday night, however, was about getting in some work in a different environment.

After nearly three weeks of practices behind closed doors on campus in Boulder, CU loaded busses on Friday to work out on the home field of Denver Public Schools squads, located on the campus at Denver South High School.

All 5,000 of the free passes to the event were claimed, although it was estimated that about 3,500 to 4,000 fans were attendance. It wasn’t a packed house, but still a quality turnout for an evening event that was announced just one week earlier.

“This is phenomenal for the university, this is phenomenal for the young men,” Coach Prime said.

It is believed that this is the first time CU has ever conducted a preseason practice off campus, but Coach Prime wanted to shake things up a bit.

“Usually in camp, everybody hits a little lull,” he said. “We try to catch them before they hit that so they can bring some excitement, so they can push through just the whole monotonous of the same old, same old routine. And that’s what this was about today. I think they did a phenomenal job. I’m proud of them.”

Coach Prime reported that there were no injuries sustained during the practice. Star cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter did not participate, but not because of injury.

“Travis is good,” Coach Prime said. “We just wanted to give him some rest. He’s great. He can’t wait to see the sellout crowd in our first game.”

Asked if the event brought back memories of his own high school days, at North Fort Myers (Fla.) High School in the 1980s, Coach Prime joked that it didn’t because All-City Stadium, with its artificial turf and 5,000-seat bleachers, was nicer than what he played on as a prep.

“We had a grass field (at North Fort Myers), and I think we had one side of the bleachers,” he said. “It was nothing like this. And this probably (would have been) the biggest crowd I would have ever played in (front of during) high school. This probably was a state championship type of game, and I never made it that far.

“But I’m glad we got to come deep in the community. … I just wanted to change the atmosphere, come over to Denver. The fan base is phenomenal everywhere around the country but we just wanted to come over and show some love, because we got a tremendous amount of love and appreciation and respect from this part of the city as well.”

Originally Published: August 17, 2024 at 1:24 a.m.