FOX31 Denver

Former CU football players celebrate new hire

Deion Sanders arrives in Colorado (Credit: CU Football)

BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) — Deion Sanders will officially lead the University of Colorado Buffaloes football team and some former players are pretty excited about it.

“It brings excitement. You’ll see donors come back and dollars come back to the program,” Bobby Pesavento, former CU Buffs player said Sunday.

Pesavento was the quarterback in 2000 and 2001. His team, then led by coach Gary Barnett, won the Big 12 championship in 2001.

Pesavento said he thought the last solid head coach at CU was Barnett.

Pesavento said with the new coach brings instant credibility to the CU team and with Sanders in the lead, it’ll help with recruitment.

“There is something special about Boulder when CU football is good,” Pesavento said, “if you can get the transfer portal working quickly, you can get some good players in here you can compete right away.”

Other former players also chimed in on the news.

“There is a lot of pride and tradition with our university’s football program and that has fallen,” Danny Galloway, who played football for CU said.

Galloway said it’s important for the program and university to pay what they do to have Sanders there.

“I think it’s worth it for the program and the school as a whole,” Galloway said.