BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Warren Sapp visited the University of Colorado a year ago after new head coach Deion Sanders invited his fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer to check out the Buffaloes' football facilities and give a pep talk or two.

All the walking around Boulder's hilly campus got Sapp's achy hip acting up, so he settled into a hot tub at the Champions Center one day and before long found himself surrounded by the Buffs' defensive linemen.

“They were reaching and grabbing and asking questions,” Sapp recalled recently as the Buffaloes prepared to open their second season under Sanders on Thursday night against FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.

Soaking in the tub and soaking up the attention, Sapp had an epiphany.

“For someone that never wanted to do this, I am really addicted to it right now,” said Sapp, who joined Sanders' staff this season as a graduate assistant. “The babies are really giving me a purpose in life, and I’m enjoying it.”

Sanders called Sapp a terrific addition to his staff.

“Warren Sapp has done more than a phenomenal job,” Sanders said. "Just the connectivity and just understanding the different type players and the layers they have ... You've got to know all those different types of personalities and he's done a great job of understanding the different personalities.

"But this is the first time he's seeing it from the other side. So, it's a learning process not only for us as a staff but for him as a coach. But he's doing a phenomenal job with that defensive line, I promise you.”

Sapp is working alongside first-year Buffs defensive line coach Damione Lewis, who followed Sapp to the University of Miami before spending a decade in the NFL.

“He came behind me at Miami, so he’s one of those guys that was the next Baby Sapp. So, he’s been trying to be me his whole life, so now we're putting it together and see if we can turn them into something that’s better than both of us," Sapp said. "We have a great push-pull relationship. We see the game the same way and just love it.”

With Sapp on staff, Sanders tapped into additional NFL/Miami Hurricanes royalty this month when he had fellow Hall of Famers Ed Reed (on campus) and Ray Lewis (on Zoom) provide both football tips and life lessons to the Buffs.

“It's phenomenal to be able to tap into those resources,” Sanders said.

Like Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, Sapp said connecting with Gen Z players has allowed him to reignite his passion for the game.

“I’ve worked with pros that are getting my phone number and tell me they are coming to Miami, and my house is a mile-and-a- half from where they work out and they’ll never call,” Sapp said. "These kids call me at 5:30 in the morning, ‘Coach, you wanna come watch tape with me?’ It’s crazy. I’m like, ‘Yeah, give me a purpose to get off the couch!’

"So trust me, I was on my couch watching MSNBC, so I’m loving this. I am loving this.”

Senior defensive lineman Shane Cokes was thrilled last year when he got to pepper Sapp with questions on the two occassions Sapp visited campus, and now he’s tapping into that knowledge and experience on a daily basis.

“It’s crazy,” Cokes said, “because it’s like this is Warren Sapp, No. 99, Hall of Fame player. And you see him every day, so it’s like regular now, which is weird when you think about it, to be with somebody of that capacity, that level, every day. But it’s just so great to soak up the wisdom from him, go up and watch the tape with him, have him correct you on the field, off the field.

"There’s no better place to be.”

Sapp agrees.

New-look Big 12 ready to embark on a season of big expectations, enormous pressure to win

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — All the talk is over in the Big 12. The preseason hype has hit and settled.

Now it's time for the new-look conference, where longtime members Oklahoma and Texas have been replaced by Arizona State, Arizona, Utah and Colorado in the latest round of college football musical chairs, to prove its worth on the field.

The newcomers don't exactly have it easy out of the gate.

Start with the Sun Devils, who open Saturday with perennially bowl-bound Wyoming, which won nine games a year ago. The Cowboys' season ended with a win over Toledo in the Arizona Bowl, which the No. 21 Wildcats call home.

Arizona, meanwhile, gets a softer opening against New Mexico, then plays Northern Arizona the following week. But things get rough in a hurry with a trip to No. 18 Kansas State for a nonconference matchup against a new conference rival.

No. 12 Utah opens against Southern Utah before it, like Arizona, gets a nonconference game against a Big 12 foe. In the Utes' case, it's Baylor, which is trying to bounce back from a three-win season but won 12 games just a few years ago.

Then there is Colorado, which might attract the most attention of any newcomer not just because of their play — the Buffaloes won four games in their last season in the Pac-12 — but because of their high-profile coach. Deion Sanders is confident that they will be vastly improved this season, and they have a chance to prove it right away against North Dakota State.

The Bison may play at the Football Championship Subdivision level, but they've won fewer than 11 games only once in the past 12 years. During that stretch, they've beaten Big 12 schools Kansas State and Iowa State along with No. 13 Iowa of the Big Ten.

“They're good. They're really darned good,” Sanders said recently, “and I'm mad at (athletic director) Rick (George) right now for putting them on the schedule, to open up with them. Like, can you give me a layup or something? Those guys are wonderful."

The Bison played in five of the previous six FCS title games before losing in the semifinals last season.

“Their staff has always been amongst the best. Many people have matriculated from that staff to go to higher levels. Those kids play their butts off. They play tough. They don’t make many mistakes. They’re accustomed to winning,” Sanders said. “They don’t give a darned about being at home or on the road. That doesn’t faze them whatsoever.”

The quartet of newcomers — though Colorado is in fact returning the league after 13 years in the Pac 12 — aren't the only ones who face a challenge right away. TCU hits the road to face Stanford, which is now a member of the ACC, while West Virginia has perhaps the toughest task when it welcomes No. 8 Penn State to town Saturday night.

“I think the Penn State game is huge for us,” said Mountaineers coach Neal Brown, whose job was starting to come into question before they won nine games last season. “That's a regional rivalry, which I know that you're very entrenched in traditions. It's not a rivalry that's gone West Virginia's way very often. So that's a great opportunity for us.”

It's also a great opportunity for the Big 12 to beat one of the best programs in the expanded Big Ten.

“You're correct,” Brown said, “it's a big game for our league, and this new Big 12, without a couple schools that have been part of the Big 12 for a long time in that first weekend on a marquee stage, to show what kind of football we play in this league.”

There will be other chances for marquee nonconference wins, of course. Take next week: Iowa State plays No. 25 Iowa, No. 22 Kansas heads to Illinois and Colorado visits Nebraska in games against Big Ten foes; Arkansas visits No. 17 Oklahoma State and Mississippi State visits Arizona State in Big 12-SEC showdowns; and Cincinnati plays ACC rival Pittsburgh.

Yet there is something meaningful about winning in Week 1, both for West Virginia and the Big 12 as a conference.

“Whether it’s West Virginia or any other program in the Big 12 gets those kind of marquee wins, our brand will continue to grow,” Brown said, “and we’ve got to make some noise in the playoff. I think Commissioner (Brett) Yormark spoke about this: We’re the most competitive league. I would say we’re the deepest football league in the entire country. But we’ve got to go. TCU had a nice run (in 2022), but we’ve got to have more wins in the playoff once we get in.”

QB starters Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix lead list of NFL rookies to watch in 2024

Three rookie quarterbacks drafted in the first round are set to start on opening day with Chicago's Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels of Washington and Bo Nix for Denver.

If that sounds familiar, it is. Happened last year with three of the first four picks — Carolina's Bryce Young, Houston's C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson of Indianapolis.

Quarterbacks could easily dominate the list of rookies to watch in 2024 because six went among the top 12 picks in the draft. But there are a couple of worthy receivers in Arizona's Marvin Harrison Jr., the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison, and Malik Nabers of the New York Giants.

It could have been — and might still be — four rookie QB starters from the first round.

J.J. McCarthy, who led Michigan to the national championship, was looking good with Minnesota before a season-ending knee injury sustained in his preseason debut.

Drake Maye wasn't expected to start for New England, but rookie coach Jerod Mayo acknowledged the former North Carolina QB outplayed veteran Jacoby Brissett in the preseason.

Caleb Williams

There was never much question that Williams would start for the Bears, who launched their second attempt in just four seasons to find a franchise QB by taking the former Southern California star with the No. 1 pick and trading Justin Fields.

“Straight off the bat, he’s just a leader,” seventh-year receiver D.J. Moore said. “He took control of the huddle. His arm talent was amazing. I think that’s what stood out to everybody. And him trying to make all those throws this offseason in OTAs was like, ‘Dang, he really just made that.’ Or ‘he just did that on the run.’ It was amazing to see.”

Jayden Daniels

The decisions came last week on Daniels, the second overall pick, and Nix, who went 12th.

There wasn't much surprise in new Washington coach Dan Quinn giving Daniels the chance over Marcus Mariota, who was the No. 2 overall pick by Tennessee in 2015 but is on his fourth team since leaving the Titans following the 2019 season.

“He went through the whole thing,” Quinn said. “He didn’t miss a beat. He hit all the targets we put in front of him. He’s ready, and he’s earned the right to do that.”

Bo Nix

Denver's Sean Payton, who decided to move on from Russell Wilson before the end of his only season with the former Seattle star, went with Nix over veterans Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson.

Nix, who started an NCAA QB-record 61 times at Auburn and Oregon, led the Broncos to scores on six of the seven drives in the preseason. Now he's first up to try to end an eight-year playoff drought since winning Super Bowl 50.

“You saw in every game he played (at Oregon) a dirty pocket, a quick plant step, ball out accurately. And for some guys that’s hard to do, they need a full stride and a clean pocket,” Payton said. “He became a tough sack because the ball is out. Now, you have to go be able to process very quickly, too. You saw that on film.”

Drake Maye

Taken after Williams and Daniels, Maye figured to be the only one of the three not to start the opener. That's still the consensus, even after Brissett injured a shoulder in the preseason finale.

Mayo said Brissett could have kept playing if it had been in the regular season, and while the coach said Maye had played better, he added that the decision was more complicated than that.

For his part, Maye is saying the right things.

“You’ve got to be ready. You’re one snap away if I’m the backup,” Maye said. “Jacoby has done a great job. He’s a great player and a great teammate. He’s been repping with the ones all summer, so I’m excited for him.”

Marvin Harrison Jr.

The first non-quarterback drafted this year — at fourth overall — entered the NFL with a pedigree few could match.

Not only was Harrison a two-time All-American at Ohio State, his dad was a Super Bowl champion, three-time All-Pro and member of the NFL's 2000s All-Decade Team and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

If he wants to take some pressure off, the younger Harrison can look at his dad's career stats and see that his first 1,000-yard season didn't come until Year 4.

“I’m my own person,” Harrison said. “But he was more of a smaller receiver when I was watching him grow up. I use my size a little bit more. I think I’ve made it to this point on my own path, and I’m going to continue to work hard and see where it takes me.”

Malik Nabers

The former LSU receiver went sixth overall as the Giants tried to add some clout to one of the NFL's worst passing offenses from 2023 in what could be a make-or-break year for QB Daniel Jones.

New York tried this three years ago with Kadarius Toney, the 20th overall pick in the first round in 2021, but he didn't even make it through a second injury-filled season before a trade to Kansas City. The Chiefs just waived Toney in their final cuts.

Nabers can be the first deep threat playmaker for the Giants since Odell Beckham Jr. — if he stays healthy.

“He’s going to be a game-changer the first day he steps out there,” backup quarterback Drew Lock said. “People are going to have to worry about him, teams are going to have to worry about him. That’s going to help everybody on this team. He’s been impressive.”