Coach Prime is Coach Prime.
Not the second coming of such-and-such. Not the new, updated version of (insert name here). Not following in the footsteps of that other guy, at that other place, back then.
Deion Sanders’ explosion onto the college football scene with Colorado is already upon us, and while he has yet to coach a single game at the FBS level, it is pretty obvious a fresh era has started when 50 players have exited the building and 42 others have been brought in.
It is like nothing we’ve seen before, and it is difficult to know what to make of it or how to approach it. The clue is in the wording itself. Forget about bothering to try to put any kind of expert spin onto what’s going to go down.
Just enjoy the show.
That won’t stop the prognosticators of course, because college football fanatics love a juicy argument. Nothing gets people predicting and opinionizing like a camera-loving coach who’s unafraid to call his shot.
Deion Sanders and Joel Klatt talk recruiting and culture at Colorado
Joel Klatt sat down with Deion Sanders and discussed what culture means to them and what type of culture Sanders is going to build at Colorado.
“I don’t want a sip,” Sanders said in the first episode of “The Joel Klatt Show: Big Noon Conversations,” a summer podcast series from the FOX Sports college football analyst. “I want it all. And I want it now. And I feel like we’re assembling the type of young men and the staff to have it all.”
You want to believe him, but there is not a lot of precedent to work with here. Never have we seen a situation where a stratospherically high-profile head coach comes into a Power 5 program, encourages most of the roster to leave, and brings in his own guys, all before a single snap has been taken.
There are, of course, weighty reasons why things could be a struggle. Colorado is coming off of a 1-11 campaign in 2022. Those 11 defeats last year were by an average of 29 points.
Furthermore, given the roster’s current makeup, this is essentially an expansion team and expansion teams invariably experience troubles, given the inherent disadvantage of the group not having played together before.
But this is Coach Prime, supporters will say, and this is where the cult of personality comes into play. Sanders was able to get a Jackson State group to play high-level football quickly and there is no question he has the charisma to elevate the vibe in pretty much any locker room.
Yet who knows? I mean, seriously? Who has the inside track on this? Who is able to categorically say what buzz and excitement and national attention is worth in terms of points? Who can say for sure that this is an experiment that is going to work, or that it is doomed to fail? We haven’t seen it before. We just don’t know.
And that, of course, is the best part about it. Not only does this have the unique selling point of Coach Prime, it is also a super-sized exercise in experimentation.
Players want to play for Sanders, that’s why they’ve come from all over to suit up in a Buffaloes uniform that was previously a byword for disappointment, but has now made black feel like the new crimson.
Is that enough?
We don’t know the answer, but we will get to see it play out in real time. The first game of the season is a mouthwatering one, a visit to national championship finalist TCU on Sept. 2 (12 p.m. ET on FOX). A week later brings Nebraska to town for the home opener (12 p.m. ET on FOX).
“I want that, I embrace that, I envision that, I expect that,” Sanders added, when asked about playing on network television. “Why wouldn’t I want that for our kids? They want to be seen, they want to be heard, they want the lights.”
Joel Klatt and Deion Sanders discuss his first game against TCU
Joel Klatt and Deion Sanders talked about the Week 1 matchup between the Colorado Buffaloes and the TCU Horned Frogs.
Again, enjoy the show. It is the best way to approach it. No one is an expert in this. Those who have watched Sanders’ career and who know him personally will always back Coach Prime to deliver the goods, but that’s based off gut feeling, nothing else.
There is just one thing we know. It is going to be fun. It is going to be a show. It is going to be college football with an almighty, high-octane twist, a dash of Hollywood and irrepressible flair, all made possible by the current realities of transfer flexibility.
Colorado, yes, Colorado, is suddenly the college football program everyone wants to point their eyes, thoughts and remote control toward.
Sanders won’t be quiet, first, because he’s never quiet, and second, because just as vital as his X’s and O’s are his roles as drum beater, cheerleader, spokesman, statesman and advertiser-in-chief for Colorado, whose board of regents shelled out all that money for the face of their program to be empirically changed.
There is talent on this squad, with Sanders’ son, Shedeur Sanders, bringing a highly touted QB reputation with him, and cornerback Travis Hunter being so sought after that he reportedly turned down NIL offers that would have landed him up to $1.5 million.
There are also plenty of Pac-12 teams relishing the opportunity to bring the flashy, new-look program back down to size.
If things begin strongly and there is some early buzz, phew, it is going to be a whirlwind. Yet you can forget about Colorado being a team whose interest level is predicated on what its record looks like and whether national title aspirations remain intact.
It’s not like that here, not this year anyway. Colorado will be must-see TV no matter what, fascinating (and with off-the-charts hype) if they’re 6-0, unmissable for a somewhat different reason if they’re 2-4.
Don’t bother with comparisons. There aren’t any. If you’re putting money down, on either success or failure, take it for what it is – a gamble.
For it is Coach Prime’s show. We are all spectators, and fortunate to be so.
