You want to talk records? Fine. Darian Hagan put up a 28-5-2 mark as CU’s starting quarterback. Kordell Stewart went 27-5-1 as the Buffs’ QB1.

If Shedeur Sanders’ No. 2 jersey is retired for eternity at Folsom Field, then Hagan’s No. 3 and Stewart’s No. 10 better be next.

“It’s just so disrespectful,” former CU great J.J. Flannigan told me by phone Tuesday, “in so many ways.”

For Hunter, CU’s second Heisman Trophy winner, Folsom immortality was fait accompli. Sanders, son of CU coach Deion Sanders and the best pure passer in Buffs QB history, probably would’ve joined him. Eventually.

Welcome to 2025, where “eventually” means “in a few days.” The Buffs are retiring Shedeur’s No. 2 and Travis Hunter’s No. 12 at Saturday’s spring game.

The premise is fine. The timing is bonkers.

For one thing, the younger Sanders and Hunter officially hung up their CU helmets only four-and-a-half months ago at the Alamo Bowl. While the Buffs capped off a 9-4 season, it was, on the whole, a night to forget.

If that seems like a mighty quick turnaround for a jersey retirement, you’re right — the late, great Rashaan Salaam’s No. 19 was honored 23 years after he won the Heisman Trophy. Byron White and Bobby Anderson had to wait a year to see their numbers retired. Joe Romig had to wait two.

And while we’re on the subject of waiting, the Buffs traditionally retire jerseys about as often as the Army hands out Astronaut badges. Before this week, CU had only honored four such players, and only one Buff — Salaam — has been recognized for their efforts between 1973-2023.

One in five decades. Now, two in one weekend?

Factor in the rush, and no wonder several CU football alums are ticked off right now.

“Even if they had come to Coach (Bill McCartney), even if he had NIL, he wouldn’t have done anything like that,” said Flannigan, one of Coach Mac’s best recruits. “I don’t believe Coach Mac would’ve done that.

“I don’t have a problem with Travis (seeing his number retired). He did something that nobody’s ever done. But even then, let him be gone for a few years. You do it before he leaves?”

2 Soon.

Flannigan wore No. 2 for McCartney’s Buffs, and proudly. The Los Angeles native ran for 1,187 pre-bowl yards and 18 pre-bowl touchdowns for CU’s 1989 national runner-up, a team that many swear was better, pound-for-pound, than the ’90 crew that beat Notre Dame for the natty a year later.

CU’s featured a bunch of stellar “2s” over the years. Richard Johnson. Flannigan. Brian Calhoun. James Kidd. Laviska Shenault. But J.J. thinks the man who succeeded him with the number, ex-Buffs cornerback Deon Figures, is still No. 1 when it comes to CU’s all-time No. 2s.

“Put Deon Figures on that list above me,” Flannigan said. “I’d put anybody on that list above me. (CU’s decision) is disrespectful to the accomplishments of Eric Bieniemy, Alfred Williams, guys who haven’t gotten their (jerseys retired), haven’t gotten their due.”

The icons from the Buffs’ greatest era — 1984-2005 — are long past due. And justifiably frustrated. Flannigan was talking to Bieniemy on Monday night after CU announced the double-jersey ceremony.

“And he was like, ‘Come on, now, reel us back in,'” Flannigan said. “He was not pleased. At all.”

Flannigan was so disappointed that he went on Facebook to post that he’d “never show up on that campus again until the athletes that built that program get some semblance of respect from the current coach. We have officially been bought and sold for popularity.

“I don’t know how many people texted me (Tuesday) and said, ‘Man, I’ve been wanting to say that. I’m glad you said it,'” Flannigan recalled.

2 Soon.

Ex-Buffs QB Joel Klatt, who’s had Coach Prime’s back from Day 1, told Fox Sports’ “First Things First”  he’d warned AD Rick George that early jersey retirement wasn’t going to land well with his peers.

Klatt said George told him,  “Listen, (these guys) changed the trajectory of our program. They saved our program, in a lot of ways.”

He’s not wrong. College football is on the cusp of another seismic shift. The game is run by television networks now. Nobody loves Deion the way TV loves Deion. Win or lose.

Flannigan has known George for almost 40 years now. George helped recruit the kids under McCartney, who put CU on the front page again in the late ’80s. Which only leaves him more confused.

“This is not about me being mad at Rick,” Flannigan stressed. “I’m disappointed in the decision.

“Everything I say is said out of love, not hate. Not anger. None of that. It’s said out of love. It means I love my university.”

He’s got nothing against Shedeur or Travis, either. Heck, he’s even planning on taking the 24th off from work to go watch the CU duo get taken in the first round of the NFL Draft.

“I want to see those guys go high (in the draft), and I want to see them go to a team they deserve and where they can thrive and build their brands and their athletic abilities,” Flannigan said. “I’m rooting for those guys. This is not about me not rooting for them.”

It’s about fairness. It’s about where you set the bar and why.

Hagan shined on the biggest stages imaginable, steering the Buffs to two national title games and winning one of them. Stewart threw arguably the single greatest pass in CU history, won a lot, and helped define what the position could be for a generation.

Nobody in black and gold has ever slung the rock around like Shedeur. But CU’s had QBs who left just as rich a legacy. If there’s room for 2, there’s room for 3. And 10.

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Hasselbeck’s son, Matt, said his father died after going into cardiac arrest at his home.

“He was a great husband, father, grandfather, friend, coach, player, coworker, artist, mentor, and storyteller,” Matt Hasselbeck wrote on social media. “Despite being an All-American at Colorado and a Super Bowl Champion with the Raiders, what we are most proud of is the leader he was for our family.”

The elder Hasselbeck was drafted in the second round by New England in 1977 after a standout collegiate career at Colorado. He spent six full seasons with the Patriots and led the team in catches in 1981 with 46, to go along with 808 yards receiving and six TDs.

He was traded to the Los Angeles Raiders early in the 1983 season and helped the team win the Super Bowl. He had two TD catches in the regular season for the Raiders and the 6-foot-7 Hasselbeck blocked an extra point in a 38-9 win in the Super Bowl against Washington.

Hasselbeck then spent the following season with the New York Giants and had a TD catch in a playoff win over San Francisco and finished his career with Minnesota in 1985.

Hasselbeck had 107 catches for 1,542 yards and 18 touchdowns in 123 career regular season games.

Two of Hasselbeck’s sons went on to play quarterback in the NFL, with Matt making three Pro Bowls and starting in a Super Bowl for Seattle following the 2005 season and Tim playing mostly as a backup.

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Wright, a native of Burnsville, Minn., will report to the Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, on an amateur tryout for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign.

Three other Pios players have signed with NHL teams since losing to eventual national champion Western Michigan in the Frozen Four last week. Jack Devine signed with the Florida Panthers, Zeev Buium with the Minnesota Wild and Carter King with the Calgary Flames.

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Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter will have their numbers retired during Saturday’s spring game, the Buffs announced on Monday.

Sanders’ No. 2 and Hunter’s No. 12 will be the fifth and sixth numbers retired in the 135-year history of the program. Both players, who followed coach Deion Sanders from Jackson State to Boulder ahead of the 2023 season, are expected to be top picks in the first round of the upcoming NFL draft.

Shedeur Sanders finished his CU career as the Buffs’ all-time leader in passing touchdowns (134) and QB rating (156.01) as he broke over 100 program records. Coach Prime’s son threw a TD pass in 49 straight games, the longest streak in NCAA Division I history, and capped his CU career in 2024 by winning the Johnny Unitas Award as the top quarterback in college football in addition to being named the Big 12 offensive player of the year.

Meanwhile, Hunter became just the second CU player ever to win the Heisman when he did so in December, joining running back Rashaan Salaam’s feat from 1994.

In addition to the Heisman, the dynamic wideout/cornerback raked in the accolades in ’24 as he also won player of the year honors from the AP and Sporting News; repeated as the Paul Hornung Award presented annually to the nation’s most versatile player; won the Bednarik Award and Lott IMPACT Trophy for his defensive play; and claimed the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver.

Hunter finished his career with 153 catches for 1,989 yards and 20 TDs, and had 67 tackles, seven interceptions, 16 pass-breakups and a forced fumble on defense. He led FBS in snaps in 2023 and ’24, with 2,625 in total despite missing about five games due to injury.

Sanders and Hunter headlined the Buffs’ turnaround over the past couple of seasons under Coach Prime, as CU went from 1-11 in 2022 to 4-8 in 2023 and then 9-4 with a bowl appearance last season.

The other retired numbers in CU history are No. 24 worn by quarterback/halfback Byron White in 1936-37; No. 67 worn by guard/linebacker Joe Romig from 1959-61; No. 11 worn by quarterback/tailback Bobby Anderson from 1967-69; and No. 19 worn by Salaam from 1993-94.

No. 2 and No. 12 will be retired in a ceremony at the beginning of Saturday’s Black & Gold spring game at Folsom Field, which begins at 2:30 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.

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King, the University of Denver captain who had a breakout season to cap off a distinguished college career, signed an entry-level contract Monday with the Calgary Flames. He was one of the most sought-after undrafted free agents after the Pios’ season concluded with a loss to eventual national champion Western Michigan in the semifinals.

The 23-year-old King is a Calgary native and attended development camp with the Flames this past summer.

A two-time national champion, the Pios won 124 games during King’s career. He set career highs with 21 goals and 43 points in 44 games for DU this season, helping to lead the club to the Frozen Four for the third time in his career after winning national titles in 2022 and 2024.

He was part of the most productive line in college hockey this season, centering Jack Devine and Aiden Thompson. Both of his linemates signed this past weekend with the NHL clubs that drafted them — Devine with the Florida Panthers and Thompson with the Chicago Blackhawks.

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The Pioneers hired Tim Bergstraser on Monday to be the men’s basketball program’s next head coach. Bergstraser comes to DU from Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he built the Dragons into a strong Division II program over the last three years.

“At the onset of this search, we prioritized finding a proven high-character winner with head coaching experience that can be a leader for our student-athletes on and off the court with intimate knowledge of the Summit League,” DU vice chancellor for athletics Josh Berlo said in a statement. “We found exactly that in Tim Bergstraser. He has succeeded at a very high level, competing for recruits and living in the Summit League’s footprint.”

At MSUM, Bergstraser led the Dragons to three straight 25-win seasons for the first time in school history, culminating in a 25-9 season in 2024-25 in which they won another conference tournament title and reached the NCAA Division II Sweet 16.

Several of Bergstraser’s players from MSUM will likely follow him to Denver, with a trio of the program’s top contributors in Carson Johnson, Logan Kinsey and Shaun Wysocki entering the portal less than an hour after Bergstraser was announced as the Pioneers’ head coach.

In a statement, Bergstraser said he is “determined to add to the great winning tradition that is already established in this athletic department.”

He played collegiately at St. Cloud State, where the 6-foot-6 center was introduced to coaching as a student assistant in 2013-14. He has also coached as an assistant during his career at Wisconsin-River Falls, MSUM and Quincy University in Illinois.

Bergstraser is the 34th coach in DU history and takes over for Jeff Wulbrun, who coached the Pioneers for four seasons and in 2023-24 and led them to within one win of their first NCAA Tournament appearance via a showing in the Summit League championship game. It was the Division I program’s first conference title game appearance since 2005.

Wulbrun was 53-74 in his tenure. He was put on leave on Feb. 21 and didn’t return to coach. Assistant Shammond Williams served as DU’s interim coach after Wulburn’s exit. The Pioneers finished 11-21 and lost to St. Thomas in the opening round of the Summit League tournament.

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The Pios’ sophomore defenseman confirmed to The Denver Post early Friday evening that he plans on joining the Minnesota Wild soon.

“I think I’m ready to take that next step and play in the NHL and try to make that jump,” Buium told The Post after the 2025 Hobey Baker award ceremony. “I think I’m ready for it.

“I think I’m going to do my best I can to make an impact and do whatever I can to help my team win. At the end of the day, that’s always what I want to do. It doesn’t matter what level I’m at. I want to win. It doesn’t matter where I’m playing or what level. I just want to win — (and) want to help in any way I can.”

The 6-foot, 186-pound Buium was selected by the Minnesota Wild 12th overall in the 2024 NHL draft. He collected 48 points on 13 goals and 35 assists for the 31-12-1 Pios, whose season ended Thursday night at the Enterprise Center with a 3-2 loss in double overtime to Western Michigan.

Buium played 51:41 in the defeat, finishing with two blocks and a shot. The defenseman appeared to suffer a slew foot during a collision along the boards late in the second period but returned to finish the contest.

The San Diego native led all NCAA defensemen in scoring and was named NCHC Player of the Year.

Asked about a specific timeline to report to Minnesota, Buium said, “I don’t know. I think it’s more so between us — me and the team, and I’m going to keep that between us for now.”

Buium, the Pios’ venerated young D-man, was a finalist for the Hobey Baker, presented to the top NCAA Division I hockey player in the country, but lost out Friday to Michigan State’s Isaac Howard.

The Hobey Baker Award, named for the late Princeton hockey player Hobey Baker, has been presented to collegians since 1981. The honor is given to the player who “exhibits strength of character both on and off the ice” and “contributes to the integrity of the team and displays outstanding skills in all phases of the game,” according to the award’s website.

Earlier this month, Buium was named one of three Hobey Hat Trick finalists, along with Howard and Boston College forward Ryan Leonard.

The final round of voting was conducted by a nationwide panel of media, NHL scouts, college hockey coaches and collegiate officials.

Previous winners include Avalanche star Cale Makar, who won it with UMass in 2019; Vegas’ Jack Eichel (Boston University, 2015); Chris Drury (Boston University, 1998); and Paul Kariya (Maine, 1993). Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 overall pick of the San Jose Sharks in 2024, won the award last spring.

DU senior forward Jack Devine was also named one of the top 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker last month. Devine and Buium were announced as first-team All-Americans by the American Hockey Coaches Association on Friday. Both were repeat selections in the West region.

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“I’m just forever proud to be a Pio,” the DU goaltender whispered, eyes puffy and red, a few minutes after his Pioneers fell to Western Michigan in double overtime, 3-2, in a Frozen Four semifinal. “I love this program with everything …

“Yeah. Yeah, I don’t know.”

You know where DU is without Davis on Thursday? Buried between Thomas Hart Benton and Adolphus Busch. A national champion blown out of its title defense with a wave and a whimper.

“It (stinks) to lose, for sure, when you’re expected to win championships,” DU forward Connor Caponi told me matter-of-factly in the Pios’ locker room. “So yeah, heartbreaking for the guys. And really sad that we couldn’t help our goalie out more than we did.”

Davis didn’t just deserve the victory. He deserved a Nobel Prize for grace under fire, a primetime Emmy for sheer guts.

The Broncos outshot DU 12-3 during the first period, 18-5 during the second and 10-5 through the first overtime. In his Pios finale, Davis faced 47 attempts, turning away all but three.

Context: That’s twice as many stops (22) as his WMU counterpart, Hampton Slukynsky, had against Davis’ teammates. It was one-way traffic from the jump. If Davis hadn’t kept DU within shouting distance, the crying in the Pios camp would’ve started a heck of a lot sooner.

“Credit to Matt Davis,” Broncos coach Pat Ferschweiler said, “for holding them in there. We were really pushing in the second period.”

If you’re an NHL front office, how have you not called this guy? Especially after the show he put on at the Enterprise Center? The Avs are happy as clams with Mackenzie Blackwood, who’s 28 and blocks out the sun. But you can never have too much of a good thing.

Matty Davis is a good thing. A special thing. A two-time national champion with the tattoos to prove it.

He deserved another happy ending, another trophy. Instead, his collegiate eligibility ended on a crazy bounce, the way most of them seemed to go against Western. Some 26 seconds into the second extra period, the biscuit bopped off DU defenseman Zeev Buium’s stick, bounded straight to Western Michigan forward Owen Michaels, and wound up kissing twine.

You gotta be bleepin’ me.

“He’s a heck of a goaltender,” Michaels said of Davis. “It’s not too fun playing against him. His resume speaks for itself. He’s a winner. And he keeps it nice and stable back there for their team.”

He’s the kind of netminder you can build a dynasty around. It was the first time Davis had given up more than one goal in an NCAA tourney appearance.

While DU’s offense floundered, Pios captain Carter King rallied the troops between periods. Coach David Carle tweaked their forecheck in the neutral zone to put more heat on the WMU d-men in the third period. The added temperature worked like a charm. And with two goals over the final 13:11 of regulation, thanks to Aidan Thompson’s rebound and Jared Wright’s 5-hole poke, the Pios darn near gave everybody in maroon a carDUvascular episode late.

Without Davis pulling rabbits out of hats over the first 40 minutes, though, the Pios don’t have a snowball’s chance in Aruba. At one point, with 7:45 left in the opening stanza, Matty D even found himself defending the crease without a stick, squatting like an MMA fighter.

“MATTY-DAVIS!” the DU faithful chanted from one corner of the arena.

Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap!

“MATTY-DAVIS!”

Davis spent so much of the opening period standing on his head that, 11 seconds into the second stanza, his mask came off.

“I can’t speak enough about Matty,” Caponi said. “He’s obviously a phenomenal goaltender. And if you’re an NHL team, I don’t see how you’re not all over him. And he’s obviously a gamer. And it’s been an honor to share the ice with Matt. And I wish nothing but the best for him in this future. And he’s gonna have a great career.”

Just turn on the tape. Any tape. But especially the NCAA tape, when the lights burned brightest.

“I mean, I was just trying to do whatever I was called upon to do,” Davis said softly. ” And you know …”

A pause. He trailed off.

“Can you reflect upon the memories,” a reporter asked, “the four years, the titles, the friendships?”

“Yeah,” he said, the hurt surfacing again. “Sorry.”

The moments were a blur. So were the salvos, furious to the last. With 7:43 left in overtime, Davis took a flukey bounce and caressed it off his right pad, his right abdomen, then his right pad again. The biscuit somehow trickled forward, to the point where a prone goalie managed to cradle it between his helmet and his hands.

“How?” I wondered.

“Yeah,” Davis replied. “I mean …  yeah. I was just trying to do whatever I could.”

Another pause. Longer this time.

“Sorry,” Davis said. “I’m not giving you much here.”

It’s OK, man. You gave the Pios plenty.

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1. DU flips the script — almost too well

DU was due. And as a 3-2 loss to Western Michigan ended in heartbreak at the start of a second OT, the Pios deserved better. DU had taken a 3-0 lead into the third period of the Frozen Faceoff vs. Western Michigan last month. And lost in OT, 4-3. The Broncos took a 2-0 cushion into the third period of the Frozen Four semifinal Thursday and should’ve been up more. WMU outshot the Pios 32-8 through the game’s first 40 minutes and probably would’ve had a 4-0 or 5-0 cushion if it weren’t for DU goaltender Matt Davis, who racked a whopping 44 saves through the first OT, and a little Mile High puck luck.

But that’s the thing about champions — they make their own luck. The Pios saved their best for last, as forward Aidan Thompson squibbed a wrister at the WMU goal with 13:11 left, only to charge forward, line up his rebound and fire it past Hampton Slukynsky to get DU on the board.

This time, it was the Pios who put Western on the back foot, grabbing momentum by the thorax and putting the squeeze on with 2:39 left, when a scramble in front of Slukynsky’s crease ended with DU junior forward Jared Wright poking a loose puck through the goalie’s “5” hole to knot the contest and send the traveling Pios fans at the Enterprise Center into delirium.

2. Zeev dinged up, no call

Did a slew foot slay the defending champs? No, but it didn’t help. And was totally missed. With 6:07 left in the second period, star DU defenseman Zeev Buium was facing the boards behind his goal when Western Michigan winger Wyatt Schingoethe skated in behind the D-man, extending his right shin into Buium’s planted lower left leg and sending the latter to the bench with a nasty limp. At game speed, it sure looked like a slew foot. On replays, it absolutely looked like one. But no call was levied against the Broncos, while Buium returned to the ice but never looked quite the same. About 40 seconds later, WMU’s Owen Michaels fired a rope from the right faceoff circle to beat Davis glove-side, giving the Broncos a 2-0 lead with 5:26 left in the second stanza. It was the first time Davis had given up more than one goal in an NCAA tourney start.

3. Pios hung in through early barrage

The crowd at Enterprise was a loudly partisan one for the Broncos during pregame introductions — while the Pios were lustily booed — and Western Michigan seemed to feed on that early. The fired-up Broncos outshot DU 8-2 over the first 13 minutes of the contest and extended that gap to 12-3 at the end of the first period. On the flip side, the Pios hung in there, thanks largely to Davis, who was fortunate when a Zach Nehring laser fired into a wide-open net dinged hard off the crossbar 64 seconds into the game. The veteran netminder made his own luck after that, though, recording five of his dozen first-period stops during a furious Broncos power play.

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“Oh, yeah. Now it’s a whole other level of this,” Carter King, loquacious captain of the DU Pioneers hockey team, reflected recently. “No one wants us to win. I think that’s pretty clear. Especially when you win a lot recently, teams get a little sick of you winning.

“So it’s an honor to have that. And we appreciate almost the increased intensity we get from opponents, so it’s prepared us for going to the tournament this year.”

The really fun part? The way the Pios (31-11-1) have used that hate as jet fuel from the University neighborhood to New Hampshire to the Gateway City, where they’ll begin defense of their national championship at the 2025 Frozen Four against Western Michigan (32-7-1) at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the first of two NCAA national semifinals.

The winner of Thursday’s semi will take on the winner of Penn State-Boston University in the championship game at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

“We’ve talked about it in the sense that we have guys in the room that were a part of the ’22 team (that won the NCAA championship) and the ’23 team that failed to do it,” DU coach David Carle, whose Pios are seeking back-to-back titles and an 11th national crown, said at the start of his squad’s NCAA journey. “But they were able to get back there in ’24. So we have a lot of experience in the room with trying to navigate this season because it’s not an easy season to go through with getting everyone’s best and having that target squarely on your chest.”

Especially when the targets are internal, too. If DU wins out Thursday and Saturday at the Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis, the program will have become the first since 1961 to win three NCAA crowns over a four-year span.

The last team to pull that off? DU, which notched three titles between 1958 and ’61. The only other program that can match that stretch of dominance is Michigan, which won five titles over six years (1951-53, 1955-56).

“There’s no doubt that I think the guys are excited for the opportunity to try and do it,” Carle said. “It’s certainly on our mind. But we’re very focused on just staying in the present and trying to make sure that we’ve grown as much as we can throughout this whole season.”

DU was able to power through the Manchester Regional on the wings of defense, goaltender Matt Davis and a little spite. All of that is still in the lunch pails they’re lugging to the banks of the Mississippi River, as well as a month of egos bruised by the Broncos, who won two of the three head-to-head meetings during the season. And every contest was decided by a single goal. Western Michigan’s most recent win over the Pios was probably the most galling, as the Broncos erased a 3-0 DU lead in the third period and rallied for a 4-3 victory in overtime of the Frozen Faceoff Championship.

So Thursday’s rematch isn’t just a matter of payback. It’s a point of pride.

“It’s the legacy that this program has,” King said. “It’s such an honor to play here and be a captain here. It’s truly so special. The names and just the quality of people that run through this program is unbelievable. The coaches, they pride themselves on recruiting good people. And it shows in our locker room and in the culture we have here.”

Even if no one wants you to win.

No one in Kalamazoo, at any rate.

“I mean, all year this year, it’s been tight,” Davis said. “It’s been hard, and it’s certainly something that is going to be really valuable for us in the tournament here.

“I mean, these one-and-done games, anything can happen. And whether you’re the underdog or not, it doesn’t matter once the puck drops. And, yeah, I think we’ve definitely got a chip on our shoulder here.”

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