BOULDER — Instead of building a band of CU brothers who fight shoulder to shoulder and never give in, Coach Prime hired a bunch of football mercenaries, treated them like children and expected it to work when adversity struck.

That is how the mess of 105-24 happens.

In the wake of two losses by Colorado as wretched as any mess made by all the coaches fired before him, Deion Sanders has sent his reeling Buffaloes to their room and hid them from accountability.

When I asked Tuesday why he has blocked interviews with CU players in the wake of embarrassing, back-to-back defeats against Utah and Arizona, Sanders replied: “You know what, my man, that’s a great question. Let me tell you why.”

Although they get paid to play, Sanders doesn’t think his Buffs can handle the scrutiny.

“I have a fatherly spirit. And I have an overseer spirit. I’m trying to shield my guys from certain things that may harm them,” Prime said. “I know the temperature of the room. I know if they can’t handle this.”

Colorado star offensive tackle Jordan Seaton is 6-foot-5 and 330 pounds. He doesn’t need to be hidden behind a coach’s invisibility cloak. Seaton is smart enough to speak for himself. He and teammates shouldn’t require coddling. It’s an affront to the fine education CU is giving them.

“My job is to protect them and put an umbrella around them until I feel like they’re ready for the attacks and assaults,” Sanders said.

I do not cheer for the Buffs to win football games or assault them when they lose, because the scoreboard doesn’t have the power to meddle with my heart.

But how Sanders fought cancer during the past year has been worthy of a standing ovation from me, you or anybody who regards Prime’s health as far more important than any business he conducts on the football field.

“Football is not my business. Football is my passion, man. It’s like my lady, she’s like my wife. I love her. I do,” countered Prime, taking issue with my health-before-football theory. “It’s more than business to me.”

Apologists for Sanders have suggested the 58-year-old coach deserves a pass for CU’s disappointing 3-6 record, because he was away from the program and preoccupied for months this year while fighting and beating bladder cancer.

There could certainly be some merit to that argument, especially when Sanders admitted that upon his return to the team at the outset of summer camp, he was unfamiliar with many of the new faces on a roster overhauled in the transfer portal.

But after Prime negotiated a new contract at an annual salary of $10.8 million, he was paid to work the football miracles coach Curt Cignetti has performed at Indiana, not to make excuses for inept offensive game plans or a defense that can’t tackle. 

When I asked Sanders if his health issues have contributed to the frustrating underachievement of his Buffs, he didn’t want to hear any of that noise.

“That ain’t got nothing to do with the win-and-loss column,” Prime replied.

“I ain’t playing. I wish the world I could … especially (at) corner right now, we’re short. I wish I could go out and play some corner right now. I’ve got to do a better job in this whole thing. That’s on me.”

After Arizona’s 52-17 shellacking at Folsom Field on Saturday sent everybody home early except the shirtless bruhs in the end-zone bleachers already too far gone to care, Sanders refused to make any players or assistant coaches available for interviews and declared: “Don’t attack the coordinators. Come at me. Don’t attack the players. Come at me.”

Despite the fact Seaton is a pro whose name, image and likeness compensation is estimated to be well over $1 million this season and there’s barely been a peep from newly anointed starting quarterback Julian Lewis since August, Sanders extended the gag order on the young men who represent the Buffs through preparations for this weekend’s game at West Virginia.

Counter to a pledge of transparency in how he intends to fix what ails his team, he refused to reveal whether he had taken away play-calling duty from embattled offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur or significantly changed responsibilities for any member of a CU staff Sanders appears to have hired as buddies first and coaches second.

“I might have already made changes and you don’t know,” said Sanders, playing coy. “I don’t do stuff and blow the whistle and make major announcements. … Some things take place that you might not be privy to.”

Desperate to get back on the college football map, CU surrendered authority to Coach Prime and put him above everything for which a proud university stands.

That worked when quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Travis Hunter were emcees of a three-ring circus. But now that they’re gone to the NFL, there’s more calliope music than substance under the big top in Boulder.

Coach Prime insists that health challenges haven’t dampened his desire or ability to make the Buffs a show that lives up to the hype.

“My heart is in this,” he said.

I don’t doubt that Sanders’ heart is in the right place, but does he have a proven system in place for sustainable success?

The pride and passion of Colorado football has been entrusted to way too many transient football players in Boulder obsessed with individual goals and cashing paychecks while passing through town.

That’s an insult to late, great Buffs legends like coach Bill McCartney and Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam, who bled silver, black and gold.

When everyone’s playing for the bag instead of the brotherhood, the fervor can drain out of the CU fight song.

That’s how stuff like 105-24 happens.

When the going gets tough against foes, the players hired by Sanders are overmatched.  

Instead of messing ’em up, these Buffs get messed up.