Coach Prime sends a passionate message for Colorado during spring practice

The Colorado Buffaloes will look differently on the field in the upcoming season, but their sideline will still feature a familiar face. After rumors that coach Deion Sanders will leave the program and head to the NFL, where he could coach his son Shedeur, he has constantly shut those down and recently sent a passionate message to his team.

During the Buffaloes' spring practice, Coach Prime addresed his team. On Saturday, Reach The People Media posted highlights of the practice, including Sanders' speech.

“I’mma work hard on this place," Sanders said (Timestamp: 1:05). "That should be a way of life. There’s winners, there’s losers. How do you wanna be defined? ... We all want winners. Ain’t nobody want to coach the losers, and you don’t want to be coached by losers. We understand? Let’s win today. Let’s compete and let’s win today.”

The Buffaloes are looking to build on a successful nine-win season last year, where they finished fourth in the Big 12 and were good enough to be invited to the Alamo Bowl against BYU.

They will have to do it with a vastly different roster this year, as QB Shedeur Sanders and WR Travis Hunter are now off pursuing their NFL dreams. There are new QBs on the roster and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur is excited about the prospect of the competition brewing for the spot.

"Kaidon Salter has one year left. He's out there doing a heck of a job," Shurmur said. "And then Julian 'JuJu' Lewis is phenomenal as a he's a young talent and he's very natural in what he does."

Kaidon Salter is a winter transfer portal acquisition from the Liberty Flames. He is known for his arm strength and great ability for game management. Last season, he threw 1,886 yards on 56.1% completion, with 15 touchdowns and just six interceptions.

His standout performances were against East Carolina, where he threw for 223 yards, four touchdowns and just one interception, and against Kennesaw State, where he had 206 yards, three touchdowns and one pick.

Julian Lewis is the other key player. The incoming freshman threw for over 10,000 yards and 144 passing touchdowns over his high school career. One question mark is whether he can handle the speed and physicality of college football right away or will he benefit by sitting behind Salter for a year to aid his development.

Also coming back is the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the school’s history, Robert Livingston, eager to build on last year's breakthrough performance.

Colorado is looking ahead to the spring transfer portal

The Buffaloes still have a couple of holes on their roster, and they will look to address them in this upcoming transfer portal. The spring portal will last for 10 days, (April 16-25).

Colorado still has a few holes to plug on their roster, especially their rushing game. Last year’s leading rusher, Isaiah Augustave, is no longer with the team, and the team’s lack of depth in the running back position has been laid bare, with Micah Welch and Dallan Hayden the two best the team currently has on their roster.

Welch had 210 rushing yards with four touchdowns last season, while Hayden had 201 with one touchdown. However, they both dealt with injuries at different times during the season. Behind the two of them, there is not much depth and they would suffer whenever one of Welch and Hayden goes down with an injury.

Last season, the Buffaloes ranked fourth in the nation in passing but struggled greatly with rushing, ranking only 134th. New running backs coach Marshall Faulk is now tasked with improving this rushing attack, and the Buffaloes may have a couple of options ready for them when the portal opens.

Georgia Tech's Anthony Carrie, USC's A'Marion Peterson and Duke's Al Wooten II have all announced their intention to enter the portal. All three are three-star recruits and they could be viable options for Colorado.