BOULDER • André Hart was out to lunch with Deion Sanders when he made the decision to be the next head coach at Colorado.

“We were talking about how cold it was and remote and how we don’t know anything,” Hart recalled earlier this month.

Then Sanders picked up the phone and called Buffs athletic director Rick George, uttering the now-famous phrase in Boulder — “We coming.”

Once Sanders put his phone down, a surprised Hart asked, “Where are we going?”

The answer was, obviously, Colorado and what made the decision so unsurprising was the fact that it was surprising.

“In all of our coaching adventures, we’ve went where no one has expected us to go,” Hart said. “We’ve done things that no one has expected us to do in programs that people have said may have fallen off.”

Since Sanders’ first time on campus on that Saturday night in early December when the whole crew toured the CU facilities, Hart, the Buffs’ new linebackers coach, and cornerbacks coach Kevin Mathis have been there every step of the way.

Those two have been with “Coach Prime” since their days coaching youth football in the Dallas area many years ago, and they were in the room when Sanders was introduced for the first time at the Arrow Touchdown Club at Folsom Field. Until they get their own head coaching jobs, they’ll continue to be key parts of whatever Sanders is doing.

Their paths to being so important in Sanders’ life are very different, though.

Mathis first met Sanders when they were teammates on the Dallas Cowboys. Mathis was an undrafted free agent out of Texas A&m-commerce, but Sanders quickly took him under his wing and helped him become someone whose NFL career lasted 10 seasons.

“There was something about me, just the way he saw practice and the way I handled myself on the field, that made him pour into me,” Mathis said. “It just continued everywhere I went, he’s always been a mentor of mine. I think like he does, so I’m really an extension of him, especially in coaching, because he taught me the majority of things that I know at that position.

Mathis has been coaching with Sanders for over a decade now, dating back to the Prime Prep Academy and they eventually met Hart, who they both quickly gravitated to.

“He was all ears, he wanted to learn, not only about football, but how to be a mentor,” Mathis said of Hart. “He really understood what we was trying to do in the community. He just came in and we loved him up. He’s been so great teaching our kids, whether it be at the high school all the way up to Jackson State. ”

Hart was upfront with Sanders from the moment he met him. He has his own personal aspirations and knows how valuable Sanders can be in getting him where he wants to go.

“When you are mentored by somebody, I always like to tell them where I want to go,” Hart said. “I told him I wanted to be a head coach. Since that day, he’s brought me along and took me everywhere that he’s been. I’m appreciative of that. He’s opened doors and I’ve been able to get into places that I might not have been able to get in myself. ”

For now, Hart’s a key piece of what they’re trying to do in Boulder.

He’s one of the main recruiters on staff and has quickly realized how much potential the program has. Just like a lot of people who move to Colorado for the first time, he still can’t get over the view of Boulder coming from Denver on U.S. 36.

“This is a gold mine up here,” Hart said. “What you guys have is so beautiful. It doesn’t take much to sell this place once we get ‘ em here.”

There’s just one thing Hart hasn’t liked about his time in Colorado so far.

“We’ve gotta talk about these housing prices,” Hart said with a laugh.