Running backs coach Gary Harrell had barely gotten used to the podium when he suddenly praised the youngest player in the group.
“It's good to see young Micah Welch come in and do what he's doing,” said Harrell, a true forward who continued to impress during the first half of Colorado State's spring football practices. He talked about the new students.
Welch, a 5-foot-9, 205-pound hulking graduate of Baldwin (Ga.) High School, opted to graduate early this spring to attend the University of California, a decision that is paying off.
“It was great,” he said. “It felt great to come out early and get a good start and be able to go ahead and get a feel for everything and strategize. I'm ready to ball out.”
Rated as a three-star recruit, Welch wasn't rated as highly as many of his CU classmates, but he proved this spring to have a nice combination of speed, quickness and power.
“He got off to a slow start because of the information overload and the overload he put on himself as he was trying to get used to college football, but now he's starting to play with more confidence,” Harrell said. “He's a guy we expected to be aggressive on the downhill and looking for the end zone. He's done a good job offensively.”
Welch chose CU over 20 other scholarship offers and said the Buffs, led by head coach Deion Sanders, played a role in his decision.
“When Coach Prime came in, that's when (Colorado) got noticed,” he said. “He came in wanting to make a difference, wanting to do something special. I wanted to be a part of that.”
Welch said he knew he could help after watching the Buffs play last year, when they went 4-8 and were struggling with the worst scoring loss in the country.
“I wanted to come in and help change the program and give them something. I wanted to give them a running back who could do everything out of the backfield,” he said.
So far, he's showing signs of doing just that. The biggest adjustment, he says, is developing patience and learning strategy as a runner. But he still has the powerful style that saw him rush for 3,759 yards and 47 touchdowns in high school.
“At this level you need physical fitness,” he said. “That's always been a part of my style. … I'm trying to show that I can do anything, I can get mad, I can run you over, I can catch you out of the backfield. I can do it all.”
spring game tickets
As of Monday morning, CU had sold more than 18,000 tickets for the April 27 spring game at Folsom Field.
At this time a year ago (about three weeks before the tournament), tickets for CU's spring game were already sold out. The Buffs finished Coach Prime's first spring game with 47,277 fans.
The Buffs still have a long way to go to sell out this year's spring games. However, CU did not announce ticket sales until much later this year. Tickets for the spring game went on sale on February 13th in 2023, but did not go on sale until April 1st this year.
Already, CU's ticket sales are on track to put this year's spring game in the top two most-attended games in CU history. Prior to last year's sold-out event, the record for attendance was 17,800 in 2008.
