It’s all surface nonsense, a constant drone of nattering noise that means next to nothing. Unless you’re hanging around Boulder and drafting with the rest of the B-list in tow.
Or you’re ESPN cashing the advertising check.
This is what we’ve been sold: Deion Sanders is a change agent redefining college football as coach at Colorado.
This is reality: there’s nothing tangible or foundational, just a mishmash program with more than 120 different scholarship players since the beginning of the 2023 season. A team that hasn’t beaten an FBS opponent since the first week of last October ― yet somehow sucks the oxygen from nearly every prime time television window.
If we learned anything from Colorado’s too close (and too ugly) 31-26 defeat of FCS North Dakota State Thursday night ― an ugly loss of a win in a sport fueled by rankings and perception ― it’s that slow and steady wins the race. And flash and dash only shines so long.
The figment of hope, this discombobulated team thrown together in a matter of months and sold ― by who else, ‘Coach Prime’ ― as a legitimate threat to win (take your pick) the Pac-12 and Big 12, is nothing more than Exhibit A of how not to build a college football team.
It’s not transformational or inspirational. Not a blueprint of future success in the new era of the transfer portal, or a roadmap to navigating the great unknown of name, image and likeness.
It’s just bad football.
A team full of players who weren’t recruited by FBS schools, who grew up in the North Dakota State program for the last three, four and five years, rolled into town and bullied the Buffs for nearly three quarters. Meanwhile, the team that began last season with 82 of 85 different scholarship players and then followed that with another offseason roster purge that added 42 new scholarship players, struggled to find answers.
But for star quarterback Shedeur Sanders and wideout/cornerback Travis Hunter ― far and away the two best players on the field ― the Prime Experiment would’ve lost for the ninth time in 10 games. Sanders, a projected top 10 pick in the 2025 NFL draft, is so talented and so unflappable, he alone is worth at least three or four wins.
The same four wins Colorado managed in 2023, and the same four wins the Buffs will more than likely find in 2024. It’s not hard to see where this ride ends.
Shedeur Sanders leaves for the NFL, and Deion rides off into the shadow of the Flatirons, a cratered program in his wake.
But it shouldn’t be like this. Deion Sanders has the dynamic personality and charisma to recruit at a high level, and build a roster for the long haul. He’s a rare unicorn, a former player who knows the game and how to coach it, and a man with the ability to align an entire university behind him and the product.
He’s the type of undeniable force that could build a program and change a sport, using his platform and persona to convince college presidents in the Big 12 and other Power Four leagues to guarantee annual non-conference games against HBCUs, saving (and strengthening) the 21 schools that desperately need funding from million dollar payday games.
Instead, we’re served a steady diet of insurance and fast food commercials, and boring bravado about NIL money and branding yourself. And very little about winning and transformational change.
Look, teams are a reflection of their coach, and since the day Sanders strutted on campus and told the roster to hit the road (see: transfer portal) because he was bringing Gucci with him, this devolving experiment has been eroding from the top down. The last sign of a program in free fall is a coach who blames the media.
The mean media is the reason Colorado’s two wins in the last 10 games are against arguably the worst Power Four team (Arizona State), and an FCS school (NDSU). The mean media is the reason Colorado gave up 56 sacks in 2023, and still couldn’t protect Shedeur Sanders against an undersized FCS defensive line.
The mean media is the reason Colorado, without Shedeur Sanders and Hunter, wouldn’t win another game this season.
And there’s Deion, the man who has done just about everything right in his football career before this side road to Boulder. He was an All-American at Florida State, a Hall of Fame cornerback in the NFL, and a program builder ― yes, a program builder ― and championship coach at HBCU Jackson State.
This is the same man who convinced heavyweight sponsors Wal-Mart, Proctor and Gamble and American Airlines to contribute monetarily to the turnaround at Jackson State, including a high-end locker room and football facility. He’s a sponsor’s dream: doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t curse.
He’s everything you could want in a college football coach, yet can’t get out of his own way. He’s too concerned about the ancillary instead of zeroing on the primary.
In Parlance of Prime himself, he’s Gucci when he should be Samsonite.
Instead, it’s just bad football.