BOULDER, Colo. \u2014 Warren Sapp strictly enforces Colorado players being in straight lines while stretching at practice. Marshall Faulk harps over and over on proper footwork.<\/p>\n
These two Hall of Fame players turned coaches are sticklers for the little things. That’s on orders from the third member of their gold-coat club: Deion Sanders.<\/p>\n
Sapp and Faulk are part of a Buffaloes coaching staff that boasts 160 years of total NFL experience (playing, coaching or covering). The crew runs a no-nonsense, tight-knit operation, which came in handy when Sanders was away and fighting bladder cancer. The coaching staff keeps reaffirming what Sanders always stresses \u2014 paying attention to the details.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the little things that will make us great,\u201d explained Sapp, who is the defensive pass-rush specialist for the Buffaloes this season. \u201cIt\u2019s the tedious repetition of the little things, over and over and over again. That\u2019s what we do.<\/p>\n
“He (Sanders) has so much other things on his plate. I figured I’d handle the little things. … We really don\u2019t ask much of them, except, let\u2019s go to work and that’s what we’re going to do.\u201d <\/p>\n
In addition to Sapp and Faulk, the list of coaches that Sanders has assembled with NFL experience includes offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, defensive coordinator Robert Livingston, receivers coach Jason Phillips, defensive passing game coordinator\/cornerbacks coach Kevin Mathis, defensive line coach Domata Peko, and offensive line coaches George Hegamin and Andre Gurode.<\/p>\n
Combined \u2014 and, of course, counting Sanders \u2014 that\u2019s 27 Pro Bowls, five Super Bowl titles, an NFL MVP (Faulk), three Pro Football Hall of Famers (Sanders, Faulk, Sapp), two NFL defensive player of the year honors (Sapp, Sanders) and an NFL offensive player of the year recipient (Faulk, three times).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
NFL broadcasters Marshall Faulk, left, and Deion Sanders before an NFL football game between the Oakland Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. Credit: AP\/Ben Margot<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a whole bunch of guys that\u2019s been there and done that, and played in the league, it\u2019s definitely a blessing for us,\u201d Peko said. \u201cEveryone kind of checks their egos at the door, and we all just try to collaborate together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Buffaloes may be adding more experience, too. Sanders said at Big 12 media day last month he\u2019s trying to bring in ex-NFL QB Byron Leftwich and former Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer to the staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith those two added, that\u2019s 204 years of NFL experience,\u201d Sanders said, \u201cand I want those years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faulk and Sapp were both in Canton, Ohio, last weekend for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. There, they hung out with the greats of the game, with Sapp recording personal video messages from past players to show his impressionable Buffaloes. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just soak it up from them, and I bring it back to the babies, because just hearing it from me, they hear me all the time,\u201d said Sapp, who had 96 1\/2 sacks over his 13-year-career. \u201cBut when John Randle was on (the video), and I can see their eyes pop up I got a whole new message. … I’m going to give them everything I got.”<\/p>\n
For Faulk, being in Canton just reaffirmed his passion for football \u2014 and coaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally sold popcorn in the Superdome because I couldn\u2019t afford a ticket to watch the sorriest team in the ’80s \u2014 the Saints,” cracked Faulk, whose Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 by hosting Georgia Tech. \u201cI just love football and to be around the guys (in Canton) who gave me the opportunity to play this game and left the game in my hands, there\u2019s nothing like it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was the first time I\u2019d been there and wanted to be somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Namely, working with his fleet of running backs.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Micah Welch was in the lunch room when he heard about the hiring of Faulk in February. Welch went home that night and pulled up some highlight footage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n
Faulk was dazzling on the field, a dual threat out of the backfield who spent his 12 seasons in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts and the St. Louis Rams. He rushed for 12,279 yards and 100 TDs, while also catching 767 passes for 6,875 yards and 36 scores.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s teaching his tailbacks the little things like footwork \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m a stickler for footwork,\u201d Faulk said \u2014 along with how they receive a handoff from their QB.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, go be creative,\u201d Faulk said. \u201cBut we all start with the canvas and the paint brush the same way before we go make art.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Faulk, it was an easy decision to join Sanders in Boulder. They\u2019ve been longtime friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing here not just to win games on the field, but to win the game off the field, which is to make sure that these young men in life become what they want to become,\u201d the 52-year-old Faulk said. \u201cThat\u2019s the important part.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOULDER, Colo. \u2014 Warren Sapp strictly enforces Colorado players being in straight lines while stretching at practice. Marshall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1976,1607,399,3686,1820,398,396,397,99,9815],"class_list":{"0":"post-61482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis-colts","12":"tag-los-angeles-rams","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-football","15":"tag-ncaafootball","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-wires-bot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}