Explaining how Deion Sanders mirrors traits of Urban Meyer, Dabo Swinney
Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders has taken the college football landscape by storm since his arrival in Boulder, turning a program that was just 1-11 last season into one that’s gotten off to a 3-1 start with an unimaginable amount of national attention early in the season.
The Buffaloes have already broken television and stadium attendance records this year, and Sanders has also broken the norm of what a college head coach can be with his unique swagger and aura. But according to On3’s Andy Staples, Coach Prime also has traits that resemble other college coaching greats that came before him.
“Here’s the thing about Deion, and this is the part I don’t think the haters of Deion get, Deion is one of the few people who is that level of former player who is willing to do the things you have to do and work the way you have to work to be a good college head coach,” Staples explained. “He’s good at talent acquisition, he’s good at motivation, and he’s good at organization/hiring assistants. Do you know who I just described? Urban Meyer and Dabo Swinney.”
Comparing Sanders to coaches that have a combined five national championships may seem lofty, but very early in his tenure as a head coach at the Power 5 there’s no denying that Coach Prime has checked certain crucial boxes in building a program.
“Urban Meyer and Dabo Swinney, neither of whom were primary playcallers at any stretch before they became head coaches and won national titles because they’re great at getting good players, great at motivating them, and they’re great at hiring assistants,” Staples said.
Colorado’s national attention amongst other things has made Sanders’ offseason hiring go a little under the radar, as he brought in former Alabama associate defensive coordinator and safeties coach Charles Kelly as his defensive and former Kent State head coach Sean Lewis as his offensive coordinator.
“Sean Lewis can turn this into a better head coaching job than what he would have gotten as Kent State’s head coach,” Staples said. “I did a story with Sean last year when they were in that stretch, he was Kent State’s coach and they had a stretch where they had to play at Washington, at Oklahoma, at Georgia. So they were always beat to hell by the time they got to MAC play.”
It’s not often you see a head coach take a job as a coordinator, but is something Sanders was able to pull off and has already benefitted from, as the Buffaloes rank fifth in the nation in passing offense and Deion’s son and quarterback Shedeur Sanders ranks second in the country in total passing yards.
“Everybody knew he was a good coach but you could never sell that hire if you’re a Power 5 program because they were never gonna have the right record for it. If he’s the OC at Colorado and he’s masking their deficiencies while also creating an offense that is functional against decent defenses, yeah everybody notices that,” Staples said.
Whether you like Sanders or not, it’s hard to deny that he’s already excelled in some crucial areas early in his coaching career. And moving forward, it will be interesting to see if he can follow in the footsteps of some of the coaching greats he’s resembled early in his career.