The stars on the field for Colorado need no introduction. You know the names – Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, Shilo Sanders, etc. The stars off the field, both in the locker room and in the community, may not be as well known.

Enter Camden Dempsey, junior long snapper and “The Governor” of the Colorado football team, as appointed by his head coach Deion Sanders. So far this year, he is also the man who is bringing all Buffs together both on and off the field.

“I really want to highlight our guys, stuff that they’re doing on and off the field,” Dempsey said. “So I’m trying to keep track of what guys are doing whether it comes to NIL, whether it comes to what they’re doing in the community, I want to be able to highlight that. So at least in terms of my role, nothing’s changed on the field but when it comes to the locker room I’m chatting with guys more, trying to bring the two sides of the locker room closer together. And I think that’s something that I’m really excited for in terms of being able to build a bridge between the two sides of the locker room.”

Dempsey has started posting videos on his YouTube channel giving updates on the program and has defended Deion Sanders multiple times this offseason as the Buffs’ head coach and his sons have been involved in a few social media beefs.

More importantly, Dempsey is very involved in the community and is helping get his teammates involved in some of that philanthropy as well. He is an Eagle Scout who is also on the board of the Robbie’s Hope Foundation, which helps bring awareness to mental health and teen suicide prevention.

“I think guys are feeling a lot more empowered to share what they’re doing,” Dempsey said. “They want to go out and do stuff now in the community, which I think is really cool, and they feel like they’ve got a way to actually have a voice. So it’s something that I’m really excited to be able to represent the guys that, you know, they do so much work on the field. I’m special teams, but I’ve got a really close connection with everyone on offense and defense and it’s really been cool to be able to unite the two rooms and also unite the two generations of Buffs that we’ve got. We’ve got old guys like myself, an OB, but we also have new guys and even newer guys that are coming in. So that’s been the best part.”

The long snapper, who is in competition with two others for the starting job during fall camp, is arguably even more of an “Original Buff” than the ten others who remain from the pre-Sanders era. Dempsey’s grandfather has been a Colorado season ticket holder for nearly 60 years and was president of the Denver Buff Club. As a whole, Dempsey’s family has 11 degrees from the university.

Now, Dempsey is a favorite amongst the Colorado coaching staff and his teammates. That popularity has bled over into his day-to-day life where the Lakewood native has become somewhat of a big man on campus.

“It’s awesome. He is [the governor],” starting linebacker Trevor Woods said. “We’re both business majors, so you walk around Leeds [Business School] and you see him talking with everybody. If I’m walking through Leeds, I’ll see Camden walking with a group of five people following him around. He’s the coolest guy on campus.”

Dempsey, along with the rest of the Buffs, knows that the feel-good stories won’t last very long into the season if the Buffs aren’t winning football games. After all, Deion Sanders said that last season was about establishing hope, and Year 2 was about expectation. With fall camp in full swing, the Buffs have fully turned their focus to that goal on the field.

“I think last year was all about trying to come together and build unity,” Dempsey said. "You had two sides of the locker room that had different coaching mentalities and it took a while to get into that. This year, everyone knows that we’re there for a purpose. I mean, we’ve got 12 games and everyone knows that we need to be laser focused on that Big 12 championship and the national championship.”

When asked if those two landmarks were the bar for these Buffs, Dempsey responded with no hesitation.

“I don’t think we’d set it any lower.”