CU football

South Florida.

Thamel reported that Sanders and his staff have also done some recruiting this week.

According to Thamel, Sanders has made a call to a “prominent player in the NCAA transfer portal” to recruit him to CU and that a member of the Jackson State staff called to “check in on a Colorado recruit’s commitment.”

When CU athletic director Rick George announced the firing of former head coach Karl Dorrell on Oct. 2, he said, “Over the next few months, you’ll read a lot of things on social media. We all do.

When you hear from me on our next head coach, that’s when you’ll know. Between now and then I won’t be commenting on the specifics of the search.”

George has stayed true to that, declining to comment on any rumors.

Throughout the process, many names have been rumored to be in the mix, including Illinois defensive coordinator Ryan Walters, former Virginia and BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall and former Texas and Houston coach Tom Herman (who was hired at Florida Atlantic on Thursday).

This week, however, the focus has been on Sanders, especially since Monday when he publicly confirmed reports that he has received a job offer from CU.

“They’re not the only ones, but the report is true,” Sanders said during the SWAC championship game press conference. “I’m not going to sit here and tell all my business, but they’re not the only ones. I would be a liar if I told you they didn’t (offer).”

CU’S offer, if a report is true, would be record-shattering

at CU.

“This is not making a (body shaming) conversation open to talk about,” Scholl said. “There have been articles that have done that. And people have come forward and have had positive conversations. It’s been great. This wasn’t creating a positive conversation of change. It was just creating a conversation of a vendetta of some sort.”

Scholl has devoted time the past few weeks to gathering testimonials from current and former CU runners in defense of Wetmore, Burroughs and Anderson. She turned over 15 in all, 13 from women’s runners, to CU athletic director Rick George as well as the leader of the investigative team.

Wetmore has spent 28 years at CU, the past 26 as the head cross country and track and field coach. His Buff squads have won eight cross country NCAA team titles (five men, three women) and 21 individual national titles (cross country and track). Former CU runners often have turned to Wetmore and Burroughs to continue coaching them as professionals, none more prominently than former Buffs All-americans Jenny Simpson and Emma Coburn, who in 2016 became the first American women to win Olympic medals in their respective events (both won bronze; Simpson in the 1,500 and Coburn in the steeplechase).

Honors and accolades, of course, do not make a coach or a program immune to missteps. Yet Simpson, still a volunteer coach with the Buffs, believes all anyone needs to know regarding the character of Wetmore and Burroughs is how most former Buffs runners thrive in their pro careers, whether they are Olympians or weekend warriors.

“I’m not naive. I know on the same team, different athletes have different experiences and some people leave hurt,” Simpson said. “But, describing the conditions on the team as ‘toxic’ is just grossly inaccurate. Even more so, the picture (Intile) is painting of coaches Mark and Heather, and the team nutritionist, Laura. It’s really unfortunate.

“So many runners leave Mark and Heather’s program at CU and go on for the Buffs.

Justin Adams of CBS4TV in Denver reported Friday that multiple sources have indicated CU has offered a starting salary of more than $5 million per season to Sanders, who is 26-5 in his three seasons at Jackson State — his only three seasons as a college coach.

Adams, a former CU football player, reported that the offer includes several incentives that could “significantly” boost Sanders’ annual salary with the Buffs.

Dorrell, who signed a five-year, $18 million deal when hired in 2020, is currently the highest-paid coach in CU history, with a base/supplemental salary of $3.6 million this season. He was set to make $3.8 million in 2023 and $4 million in 2024.

As of Friday evening, nothing was confirmed, but the weekend could be very interesting for Buff Nation.

to chase even bigger and more challenging running dreams. And then achieve them. The Olympians are often the first to come to mind but there are dozens more who graduated with enough strength and love for the sport to take on the marathon, trail running, ultra running, join local running clubs, and have continued to enjoy running as they become professionals in something else. That’s evidence of a broad positive impact that Mark and Heather have had on the students who come through their cross country program.”

For now, all Wetmore, Burroughs and Anderson — who was staunchly defended by Wetmore and Simpson in their respective interviews with Buffzone — can do is wait until the independent investigation is complete. Envisioning the CU running programs without Wetmore sounds implausible, yet asked if he is concerned at all about his job status, Wetmore replied: “I don’t know. I’ll have to see what they’ve heard from other people. Maybe they’ll unearth something about me that I don’t even know.”

Wetmore added, “It was uplifting, I have to admit,” to hear how his former runners are coming to his defense. He readily admits there are demands within his program, but they are demands in tune with operating an elite athletics program. And they are demands that, in his experience, the vast majority of athletes within the CU program are eager to embrace.

“We’re told that we’re here to compete for and win championships,” Wetmore said. “That’s the phrase. ‘Compete for and win championships.’ Which I’m in favor of. I like it. That’s what I’m trying to do in my trade. Trying to be elite. Successful. But maybe that’s not what the University of Colorado really wants. Maybe they need to rethink that and have a different goal. It isn’t oppressive. People have fun. People have pleasant memories. Hundreds of people have gone through the program and had a wonderful time. A few hundred people were at a reunion last fall. It isn’t oppressive. But maybe the small few who find it so will end up dictating a new role for athletics at CU.”