Coach Prime Should Look to Jonathan Smith, Beavers for the Blueprint of a Rebuild.

Coach Prime should look at Jonathan Smith as the blueprint for a Pac-12 rebuild (Getty/AP Images)

By STEVEN VAUGHAN, 750 THE GAME

There is a lot happening in Boulder, Colorado. As of this writing, 46 Colorado players from last season are in the transfer portal. At least 19 since Saturday’s spring game have entered the portal.

That is a lot of turnover.

But even with the turnover, the team everyone wants to talk about is Colorado. Their spring game was on ESPN and sold out the stadium. Coach Prime gets headlines on social media and is the topic of talk shows everywhere.

Pac-12 Network analyst Nigel Burton joined John Canzano on 750 The Game and said despite the buzz in Boulder, year one could be tough for Coach Prime.

“I don’t think they’re going to have a really good year. ,” Burton said when talking about their schedule, “It couldn’t be really much worse.”

Colorado opens the season with a true road game at TCU, last year’s CFP National runners-up. That is followed by a home game vs Nebraska in a former Big 12 rivalry and then a current in-state rivalry showdown with Colorado State. Coach Prime debuts in Pac-12 play with a road visit to Autzen Stadium to take on the Oregon Ducks, and then hosts Lincoln Riley and USC featuring the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Caleb Williams.

Burton is excited for the Buffaloes this fall but says the biggest test is going to be the following season.

“The biggest jump is year one to two,” Burton told Canzano. “Colorado is going to get blown out a lot [this year] and it’s not going to be Deion Sanders’ fault. Between year one and year two, now we don’t want to get blown out by anybody. But we’re still going to lose games. But can we keep them close?

“Then in year three, we’re going to beat those teams. It’s going to be close. It’s going to be a lot of down-to-the-wire games.”

Burton says Coach Prime ought to take a lesson from Jonathan Smith in how to rebuild a program in the Pac-12 Conference.

“The blueprint is what you see in Corvallis. Cause that’s what happened there,” Burton said. “They got their teeth kicked in the first year. And then the second year they started winning some of those games. ”

Burton added by year four, Smith’s Beavers had it all come together.

“Then they started dumping on people. And so, that’s kind of the way if you do it right. That’s how it goes.”

Catch the whole interview with Nigel Burton by listening to the podcast below. And hear John Canzano deliver the Bald Faced Truth afternoons 3-6 p.m. exclusively in Portland on 750 The Game.