Deion Sanders has a patience problem, so are we sure Coach Prime is long for Colorado?
I was scrolling X (formally Twitter) Monday when On3’s own Hayes Fawcett broke another decommitment from Colorado.
It was the third such departure from either the Buffs’ 2024 or 2025 classes, and it got me thinking hard about Deion Sanders, time and future.
Maybe it was just the Hootie and the Blowfish song in my head, or maybe it’s because Coach Prime has a real patience problem and doesn’t seem long for CU.
“Time, why you punish me?”
We’re not even 12 months into the Deion Sanders experiment at Colorado and we’ve already hit every stage of the life-cycle.
A stunning introduction and a dispiriting decline. The hype fizzled as fast as it came. When the dust settled, the Buff finished the 2023 season 4-8, losers of six straight to end the year.
Considering Colorado was 1-11 a year ago, 4-8 should be seen as a success. Only it can’t because Coach Prime and his disciples moved their own goalposts by refusing to “settle for mediocrity” and fast-track the program as some national contender.
It was Sanders who challenged a reporter with, “DO YOU BELIEVE?” after Colorado beat a TCU team that ended up missing a bowl game this season. Weeks later, many of Deion’s biggest supporters in the media made some of the worst bad-faith excuses as to why the Buffs got blasted by Oregon.
Sanders even said, “You better get me right now. This is the worst we gonna be. You better get me right now.”
Colorado won just a single game the rest of the season.
To which I will repeat: Coach Prime has a real-time issue on his hands. You can’t quick-fix a rebuild.
Is this the worst Colorado will be under Deion Sanders? Maybe. But a lot more bad looks likely to come, and that reality is running headfirst at a head coach who clearly has a patience problem.
During CU’s losing streak, Sanders demoted his offensive coordinator — and best staff hire — because? With four games to go, he tossed his offensive line — one in which he built via the transfer portal — under the bus. There was always going to be questions if Sanders — one of the greatest athletes of my lifetime — could stomach losses pilling up as a coach.
Well.
When Sanders arrived at Colorado last December, he promised he was “coming” and “bringing something special.”
He foreshadowed a bulldozing to come, but it turns out, Sanders’ roster reckoning — some 70 new scholarship players between the portal and recruiting — was mostly just a deck shuffling. Outside of Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, he didn’t bring a bunch of Louis luggage with him.
He didn’t even land a three-piece Samsonite set with all of Colorado’s transfers.
Colorado’s roster remains in very poor shape. It lacks depth on both lines of scrimmage. They’re small. And what’s alarming is Sanders seems to content to simply double-down on this roster-building philosophy by hammering the transfer portal again as the program transitions to the Big 12 next season.
Deion Sanders, the sun with everything orbiting around him, was billed as this Pied Piper for top prospects. He got Travis Hunter to Jackson State. He flipped Dylan Edwards from Notre Dame and Cormani McClain from Miami.
And yet on the aggregate, Deion Sanders appears completely disinterested in traditional recruiting. For a man who “Ain’t Hard 2 Find,” he’s been noticeably absent on the recruiting trail since coming to Boulder. When the contract period opens Friday, it’s unlikely Coach Prime even visits prospects or high schools like Nick Saban or Kirby Smart. And that’s a problem.
Have you seen Colorado’s 2024 class? It ranks 45th nationally, per On3, with just 10 commitments. The Early Signing Period is in three weeks. The Buffs don’t even have three OL commitments.
Unlike a year ago, Sanders can’t torch a roster again and bring in 60 new players. Most of the guys Sanders “recruited” in have burned their one-time transfer. Colorado will certainly be active in the portal, and Sanders recently said the Buffs are “ready to start go pick up that grocery” and “ready to start cooking.”
If Deion Sanders is long for Colorado, he’s shopping down the wrong aisle.
The only way Colorado is truly going to turn around its program is if Sanders recruits, invests and develops high school prospects. But that takes time. And energy and laborious work.
Maybe he’s up for it. But his comments and actions elsewhere (like bizarrely hiring his buddy Warren Sapp, who has zero college coaching experience) suggest he has a different strategy.
It won’t work if he truly wants to turn Colorado into a winner, though. A Band-Aid roster will only lead to more bleeding. Check Colorado’s 2024 schedule and tell me there’s more than 3-4 wins there again. Rebuilds are hard. They’re painful. They take time.
All the promises Sanders made — “We plan on winning, and we don’t have time to procrastinate” — will only come to fruition with time and patience.
Are we sure he’s up for it?
“Time, why you punish me?”