Deion Sanders now has proof. His experiment at Colorado has worked. He showed it Saturday night when his Colorado football team beat Cincinnati, 34-23, giving the Buffaloes the minimum number of wins this season to become eligible for a postseason bowl game at 6-2.
This milestone comes just two seasons after he arrived to revive the worst college football team in America in December 2022.
‘That’s not the end goal for us,’ Sanders said afterward. ‘That’s the beginning.’
It still validates a rebuilding strategy that had never been seen before in major college football.
∎ As head coach, he overhauled the roster with an unprecedented influx of 51 scholarship transfer players in 2023, retaining just nine returning scholarship players last year out of a roster limit of 85.
∎ Then he flipped the roster again with 39 new scholarship transfers after his team finished 4-8.
∎ He even retooled his coaching staff this year after his top two assistant coaches left for other jobs.
Now, after just 20 games of testing, he has undeniable evidence that it produced the preliminary result he wanted – a bowl game, with even bigger accomplishments still possible this season, including a Big 12 Conference championship.
‘We want so much more,’ Sanders said.
What else did Deion Sanders say?
The latest win at sold-out Folsom Field in Boulder again was led by his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, along with Travis Hunter, the two-way star. Shedeur set a school record with 15 consecutive completions to start the game before finishing 25-of-30 passing for 323 yards and two touchdowns. Hunter caught nine of those passes for a career-high 153 yards and both of those touchdowns. Hunter also recorded two tackles and four pass breakups on defense in his first full game since he injured his shoulder two weeks ago.
‘Travis is the best college football player in the country,’ Deion Sanders said. ‘We all know that. Why are we even deliberating over that?’
By that definition, Hunter should win the Heisman Trophy. And he might. But Shedeur doesn’t get nearly the same buzz as a top candidate for the award despite being considered the top NFL prospect at quarterback.
‘I just want Travis to win it, of course,’ Shedeur Sanders said. ‘That will be almost like I won, because I threw him the ball.’
Deion Sanders urges voters not to rank his team
‘Coach Prime’ has his own theory about why his son isn’t getting more consideration for the Heisman.
‘They don’t even mention him for the Heisman,’ Deion Sanders said of Shedeur. ‘He’s not even mentioned? Oh my bad, he’s my son. That’s why.’
This us-against-the-world mindset is part of what drives the turnaround, too. It’s also why Deion Sanders urged voters not to rank the Buffs in the Top 25 after this win. He’d rather his team feel like a disrespected underdog starving for more.
‘We don’t even want to be ranked,’ he said. ‘Don’t rank us, please. We don’t like that. We’d rather be in the back in the dark, you know, just chilling.’
How big of a deal is bowl eligibility for Colorado?
Before his arrival, Colorado was 1-11 in 2022, including 10 games in which the Buffs got beat by at least 23 points. This will be only their third bowl game since 2007, including the pandemic year of 2020, when the Buffs got drubbed in the Alamo Bowl and finished 4-2.
‘It’s big for us because it’s big for the fans,’ Shedeur Sanders said. He also said the Buffs are ‘nowhere close’ to their peak.
‘It’s just a great badge of honor for now, but we’ve got bigger aspirations,’ he said.
By gaining bowl eligibility, Deion Sanders fulfilled a preseason promise to get his team to a bowl game to honor their 99-year-old superfan, Peggy Coppom. Sanders said she is battling COVID but was energetic on the phone after the game when she was called in front of the team.
‘We told her she is going to a bowl; now we want to make sure she goes to the best possible bowl,’ Sanders said.
Can Colorado make a run for the Big 12 title?
BYU (8-0) and Iowa State (7-0) are still undefeated, but the Buffs are one game behind them with a 4-1 record in league play. They have an off weekend next week before a Nov. 9 game at Texas Tech (5-3).
Colorado still has problems to overcome down the stretch. Shedeur Sanders said he was ‘banged up’ afterward and was looking forward to healing during the off weekend. His team also got a little sloppy at the end and let Cincinnati cut Colorado’s lead to 31-23 with less than four minutes left after trailing Colorado 31-14 in the third quarter.
Two unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties in the fourth quarter also soured Sanders’ mood a bit afterward.
‘We shouldn’t have let that game get that close,’ he said.
Quarterback recruit visits Colorado again
The Buffs still only allowed one quarterback sack for the second straight game. A year ago, Colorado allowed the second-most sacks in the nation with 56, leading Shedeur to finish the season with a fractured back. Deion Sanders brought in a new offensive line to replace the old one.
‘We’re making progress,’ said offensive lineman Justin Mayers, a transfer from Texas-El Paso. ‘The goal is to limit the number to zero as an o-line and make a substantial difference from last year.’
Colorado already has and now enters the final month of the regular season on a roll. On Saturday, Sanders also had an eye toward next year. One of the top quarterback recruits in the nation, Julian ‘JuJu’ Lewis, attended the game on a recruiting visit. Lewis has committed to play at Southern California next year, but Sanders is trying to change his mind to replace Shedeur after he leaves for the NFL.
It didn’t hurt that Lewis got to see the Buffs become bowl-eligible in front of a sold-out crowd (53,202) on national television (ESPN). And it might get even better from there.
‘That’s just the beginning of what we desire around here,’ Sanders said.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com