{"id":24716,"date":"2024-11-23T23:57:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T06:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-durango-football-players-reflect-on-colorado-football-experience\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:59:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:59:33","slug":"former-durango-football-players-reflect-on-colorado-football-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-durango-football-players-reflect-on-colorado-football-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Durango football players reflect on Colorado football experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders directs safety Ben Finneseth during the first half of the team's spring NCAA college football game Saturday, April 27, 2024, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/span>(AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When Durango\u2019s Ben Finneseth committed to play football in Boulder at Colorado, there\u2019s no way he could\u2019ve predicted what the Buffaloes\u2019 program would become.<\/p>\n

Colorado combined to go 5-19 in Finneseth\u2019s first two seasons in 2021 and 2022. Now, Finneseth and fellow former Demon Tagert Bardin are a part of a Deion Sanders-led program that is 8-2 overall, bowl-bound and looking for a spot in the College Football Playoffs.<\/p>\n

Bardin finished his Demon career with 473 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. Finneseth, a junior at Colorado, was a senior on the 2020 state championship team. He had 556 yards rushing, eight touchdowns, 18 receptions for 227 receiving yards during his senior year in 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Tagert
Tagert Bardin of Durango High School runs the ball against Harrison High School on Saturday during the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs at DHS in 2022. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file photo)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s been super crazy, going from being 1-11 to being 4-8 and obviously 8-2 now, it\u2019s been a super cool journey,\u201d Finneseth said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot, I\u2019ve said hello and goodbye to a lot of people along the way through all the roster changes. But, everything has happened for a reason and it\u2019s been an absolute blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bardin, a redshirt freshman wide receiver, hasn\u2019t seen the lows Finneseth has since Sanders has been Bardin\u2019s only coach.<\/p>\n

Coming from Durango, Bardin wasn\u2019t used to the media attention the Colorado program has had in his first two years in Boulder. He\u2019s starred in commercials alongside Sanders and has brushed shoulders with celebrities. Bardin remembers after a big win the rapper BigXthaPlug was in the locker room celebrating and did a live performance.<\/p>\n

Bardin credits Sanders with the exposure the program has had. He said he didn\u2019t talk with Sanders much his first few weeks on campus, but as time went on, they developed a relationship. Sanders comments on Bardin\u2019s social media posts and sends him DMs.<\/p>\n

Finneseth also has a strong relationship with Sanders. He said there\u2019s been some absurd things put out in the media about Sanders and that he\u2019s nothing like what you see on camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s eating in the cafeteria meals with us,\u201d Finneseth said about Sanders. \u201cMy relationship with Coach Sanders is a little different. I\u2019m one of his favorite players. So, we\u2019ve had a lot of one-on-one meals. He\u2019s always with the DBs. The media only sees Coach Sanders talking to Travis (Hunter), talking to Shedeur (Sanders) and Shilo (Sanders), because those guys have earned their presence as the front of the team \u2026 Behind the camera, Coach Sanders talks to me more than or just as much as his sons, if not maybe more. We\u2019ve eaten numerous meals together and he\u2019s always coaching me one-on-one and we\u2019ve had a lot of good conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finneseth said he\u2019ll be forever grateful for the opportunities Sanders has given him. Finneseth has also been in commercials with Sanders and when a CEO comes to a game, Sanders makes sure to call Finneseth to make sure he meets the CEO.<\/p>\n

Other than Sanders, star wide receiver\/cornerback Travis Hunter and star quarterback Shedeur Sanders have received a lot of attention for their play. Both players are projected to be picked at the top of the first round in the 2025 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

With Finneseth at safety and Bardin at wide receiver, both players learn from Hunter in practice. Finneseth said covering Hunter has made him a lot better by observing Hunter\u2019s technique and approach to the game.<\/p>\n

Bardin has noticed how while Hunter likes to joke around and have fun off the field, he\u2019s locked in during practices and holds himself and his teammates accountable.<\/p>\n

Both Bardin and Finneseth agree the vibes are a lot better this year compared to last season\u2019s 4-8 record. Finneseth acknowledged last year he was paying attention to the wrong things. He\u2019s shifted his priorities, has eaten better and acted better this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest difference has been the family aspect,\u201d Finneseth said. \u201cLast year we were just 11 solo players on the field at a time and you could definitely tell like no one really enjoyed being around each other in the locker room and no one really cared for the person next to him. That part stopped, especially for someone like me, who is super social \u2026 One of the things that Coach Prime did was put garbage cans in the middle of the tables in the cafeteria that we have to put our phones in. We\u2019re forced to talk to each other and get to know each other on a deeper level while we\u2019re while we\u2019re eating together.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Buffaloes are excited to be 8-2 and going bowling, Bardin said the team is taking it day by day. He said the coaching staff has stressed to the team not to get ahead of themselves and to keep working.<\/p>\n

Both Bardin and Finneseth agreed the ultimate goal for the team is the College Football Playoff. Finneseth wants to become the leader his coaches know he can be. He\u2019s leaning into the special teams captain role and wants to work with the coaches to develop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do need to get a little bit bigger,\u201d Bardin said. \u201cI\u2019m a little undersized and I need to get a little bit faster. But I\u2019m developing. From when I first got here to now, I\u2019ve had meetings with Coach Prime and as well as my position coach, and they\u2019ve even said that I\u2019ve made a remarkable change from when I first got here to where I am now. My routes, my catching and just my ball of knowledge have gotten so much better. But there\u2019s always room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finneseth has seen the program turn around the last few years. Bardin has seen Colorado have its best season in almost a decade. Both hope to be key parts of sustaining Colorado\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Note: This article was written before the Colorado and Kansas matchup.<\/em><\/p>\n

bkelly@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bardin, Ben Finneseth are part of bowl-bound Buffaloes squad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[992,120,950,592,926,28,1870,991,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-college-sports","tag-colorado","tag-durango","tag-durango-high-school","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-football","tag-mens-college-sports","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78644,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24716\/revisions\/78644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24716"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}