Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig stood in front of his teammates this week and poured out his heart.

Colorado’s senior safety gave an impassioned speech after Thursday’s practice, a video that went viral for his message to the Buffaloes to take advantage of their opportunity.

“This is the best opportunity of our life,” he said in one part of the speech. “There’s a million kids in the world that’s grinding, going to practice every day to get here, and we get here and cry about it.”

The message stemmed from Silmon-Craig’s love for the game, but also his journey to get to this point. Often told he was too small, he started his college career at Jackson State after receiving no offers from power conference schools and doesn’t take for granted that he’s now in Boulder.

“It was just a real situation (at practice), just something that I just had on my heart,” Silmon-Craig told BuffZone at CU’s fall sports media day on Friday. “I feel like it wasn’t just going towards our team, it’s going towards every athlete around the world at this level. A lot of us take it for granted. So I was just really getting stuff off my chest and trying to make my team understand that we have the best opportunity here.”

The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Silmon-Craig has embraced opportunity at every stop.

The Birmingham, Ala., native left home as a junior in high school to move to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and play at Trinity Christian High School. The TCHS staff featured current CU head coach Deion Sanders, as well as Kevin Mathis (CU’s cornerbacks coach) and Andre Hart (CU’s linebackers coach).

By the time Silmon-Craig graduated from high school in 2021, Sanders was the head coach at Jackson State, with Mathis and Hart also on the JSU staff. Power conference schools didn’t want Silmon-Craig, but JSU did, and he became a two-year starter, earning first-team All-SWAC honors in 2022.

When Sanders got the head coaching job at CU in December of 2022, there was no doubt he wanted Silmon-Craig to come with him.

“Honestly, I grew up just thinking as long as I’m a good guy, I know the universe will work for me,” Silmon-Craig said of taking advantage of his opportunities

. “I pray every day, and I just be a good guy. I come in here and work my butt off and be what I’m supposed to be and do what I’m supposed to do all the time.”

That paid off again last year. Silmon-Craig didn’t win a starting job during preseason camp and was on the field for only seven snaps in the 2023 season opener against TCU. Late in that game, however, safety/nickel back Myles Slusher was injured.

Silmon-Craig started 10 of the next 11 games, all at nickel rather than safety, racking up 44 tackles, two tackles for loss and tying for the team lead with three interceptions.

“I ain’t never played nickel before, but put me in there, let me do it and I made it happen for a whole year, just playing out of position honestly,” he said. “That’s just me, just being a good guy and just keeping my head on forward and keeping myself honest and humble.”

Silmon-Craig said proving himself yet again in 2023 “meant everything to me. It’s just another chapter in my story coming up here. So it meant everything to me.”

This year, as Silmon-Craig prepares for his final college season, he’s back in his comfort zone at safety, adding to his already high level of confidence.

“I’m playing where I want to play,” he said. “The defense is built around me a lot of times. I’m not gonna give too much of the scheme, but I’m gonna be doing a lot out there on the field. A lot of games gonna be won or lost on my behalf, so that’s the pressure I like to have on me. So that’s gonna be fun.”

For the fourth year in a row, he’ll be playing next to fellow safety Shilo Sanders.

“We have a whole lot of fun,” Silmon-Craig said. “I mean, we’re both characters in our own way.”

Silmon-Craig is excited about the whole team, though, saying “we have a lot of team chemistry coming in this year.”

Even with that chemistry, though, Silmon-Craig wants his fellow Buffs to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them so they can come together and enjoy success.

“My thought is about winning and doing everything to win,” he said. “So that’s the mentality.”