DON’T LOOK NOW, BUT DEION IS THE REAL “COACH PRIME” AND EYES THE PLAYOFFS
Any of us who thought Sanders couldn’t lead a serious college program are wrong, as he pushes Colorado to a 7-2 record and a possible postseason bid — maybe among four bye teams in the quarterfinals
The sunglasses sparkle again, shining in a storefront that begs us to buy them. Deion Sanders offers renewed verve in a country he can’t stop teasing. Remember when he was a flim-flam man, receiving too much gaudy attention from networks and prominent media? A jester who threatened to banish a college as a victim of his madhouse personality?
Stunningly, here he is with a fresh look in November 2024. He is transforming college football into a hullabaloo that could invite his team to the 12-team playoff tournament. Is it possible he’ll become bigger, demanding we buy more of his merchandise while turning the University of Colorado into a crazier glitterati scene?
Seems we were the slime about Coach Prime. He is making a dazzling impression with his leadership prowess, controlling his destiny for a postseason berth and shouting to the NFL about two of its possible top three draft choices. His offense/defense masterpiece, Travis Hunter, might win the Heisman Trophy and looms as the No. 1 overall pick. His son, Shedeur, might rise as the first quarterback selected and could end up in Las Vegas with his texting partner, Tom Brady.
“I think it was a great decision for him,” Shedeur said of Brady joining Mark Davis as a minority team owner. “You know, he did everything he can on the field, so off the field he’s, I guess, indulging in a lot of different things now, but, they say he’s looking for a quarterback, so we’ll see.”
Hell, might Deion end up coaching Shedeur with the Raiders? Who knows two years after he took over an 1-11 program and has the Buffaloes soaring into the top 15 at 7-2? By beating Utah at home, winning easy games against Kansas and Oklahoma State and surviving BYU for the Big 12 title, can you imagine Sanders landing a bid among four teams receiving first-round byes and advancing to the national quarterfinals?
“We don’t change with the stakes,” Sanders told the media. “You guys change with the stakes. We don’t change with the stakes. What we’re doing right now, we planned on it. Our expectations are our expectations.”
This after he outlawed a Denver Post columnist, Sean Keeler, from asking questions about the program. It was a dirty ploy after Keeler’s references to a bankruptcy claim by Sanders’ son, Shilo — “Deposition Deion” — and shots about the coach being “the Bruce Lee of B.S.” and “a false prophet.” All were true. But this is a new season and, these days, Coach Prime and the Buffaloes are stars again. They’re the best story in a sport that includes free-for-all-ness in the SEC and three Big Ten teams — Oregon, Ohio State and blow-me-down Indiana — that claim to be 1-2-3 in the rankings.
These days, Sanders is touting the present and acknowledging why he brought his quarterback and Hunter to Boulder: booming television money. “You’ve got to give me some kind of credit for knowing this game of football,” he said last week. “I played it for 14 years. I covered it for 20 years. I covered more than some of you guys have covered it. And I know television. I know this game. I know people. I know management. I know what my expectation is. I know how this thing is supposed to look.”
Never mind if he’s converted a below-the-Flatirons campus into a landscape of Prime Passes. Sanders allows SMAC Entertainment, a Los Angeles agency, to decide which celebrities enter his locker room and roam the stadium. Who’s coming next? This is a little larger than Lil Wayne. The faculty members don’t like it, with 102 transfers arriving, but the bosses sure do. Is this really a university experience? “We hope Coach Prime finishes his career here,” athletic director Rick George said. “I think he can do significant things for us long-term. He and I are on the same page about where we want this program to go. It’s not a short-term fix, and we want to set it up to be sustainable for the future. I think what he has done has been incredible.”
First, Sanders had to address a topic he launched days earlier, when he mentioned Texas Tech fans throw tortillas onto the field at Jones AT&T Stadium. Saturday, they heaved more — beer and water bottles and a vape, among other hard items. While Hunter was picking up a tortilla and shoving it in his pants, Sanders was concerned.
“They were throwing everything but my mama at me. When they start throwing the water bottles and those other objects, that’s when you’ve got to alarm the officials, and say, ‘OK now, tortillas are one thing, but water bottles are another thing,’ ’’ he said. “That is getting a little crazy.”
A team can’t make a run for a playoff while ducking what they’re winging in Lubbock. The Texas Tech coach, Joey McGuire, grabbed the house microphone and applied an order to the fans: “Stop throwing stuff on the field.” After the 41-27 loss, he said, “I got a vape brought over to me. I got a water bottle brought over to me. I got a beer bottle brought over to me. It’s great with tortillas and everything like that, but we got really lucky that we didn’t get a 15-yard penalty. When you get to that point, you know, that’s taking it too far.”
Sanders loves Hunter and Shedeur. He knows Hunter is headed toward dual-threat land as an NFL cornerback and receiver. There is no debate about who deserves the Heisman. “Travis gets my vote. Travis is the best player in college football,” he said. “Shedeur is that guy. He's the catalyst. He makes everything go and enables Travis to be Travis. But Travis is doing something we've never seen before.”
The quarterback isn’t bothered by a lack of Heisman talk. “If it's out of us, you've got to think they are not going to give (it to) two players on the same team, me and Trav. I just want Travis to win, of course, and that will be almost like I won because I threw him the ball,” Shedeur said. “Travis is the best player in college football, hands down, and I'm excited for him to win it. That would just make my day.”
For now, he actually signed a tortilla. “They excited to see us in person,” he said. “I think this is the last year me, Travis, Shilo and a lot of players are able to be traveling around and interact with a lot of these college kids or young kids in general. It's kind of cherish the moment, understand it's game by game and show love to the fans because that could have been the last time ever seeing us and we always want to leave a great impression.”
And Deion? He’s not worried about Keeler or other critics. “We thrive on that. We've always been in adverse situation. Everywhere we go. Some of the typing and the pens and the paperwork puts us in an adverse situation,” he said. “It's not one time that I'm not getting a reminder on my phone that someone is putting us in adversity. These young men, they were bread for this man. I'm proud of them, I really am, for what they're doing.”
The question becomes whether stars will make differences when, say the offensive line remains an issue. How many times will Shedeur be sacked? For now, Colorado is a story with a coach who should be called Prime. Over the weekend, we saw hordes of Ole Miss students bombard the field after a victory over Georgia. We saw Utah athletic director Mark Harlan storm a news conference and blame officials after a loss to BYU, saying, “This game was absolutely stolen from us. We were excited about being in the Big 12, but tonight, I am not. We won this game. Someone else stole it from us. I will talk to the commissioner. This was not fair to our team. I’m disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating crew.” And we saw Miami lose, opening the Big Ten swarm that moves to Columbus, where Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers want the Cig Ten.
“What are we, 10-0? … Not bad,” he said.
Who knows what happens the next several weeks?
Every time I walk past the storefront, Deion is smiling wider. Buy his shades.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.