RJ Young
FOX Sports National College Football Analyst
Deion Sanders had an idea that threatened to vitalize a sport that has lacked verve and has grown impatient with showing nerve, especially in the spring. He wanted to change all of that.
At a moment when the traditional spring game looks very much like a relic and the incentive to play them, even as a glorified flag football game, is waning, Coach Prime said he’d like his Colorado Buffaloes to play a worthwhile opponent at Folsom Field, and he wanted to do it this April.
He is not the first person to have this idea, but he is one of the few with the audacity and credibility to say so as a sitting Power 4 head coach who expects to play for championships. Within hours of issuing his proclamation, Syracuse coach Fran Brown picked up what Prime was putting down and made it clear that his team would be willing to spend three days in Boulder. The idea was to have joint practices that would culminate in a spring game scheduled to be nationally televised on Saturday.
But before the two programs could meet, they needed to submit a waiver to the NCAA requesting to practice together. At the time of submission, both parties were confident a request like this would be granted. But the NCAA’s Football Oversight Committee denied their request on grounds of its late timing, a perceived recruiting advantage, and the potential impact on the academic achievement of their respective athletes.
Each one of these reasons is petty and nonsensical. Athletes miss class for games. The recruiting advantage is negligible, especially given the impact of NIL on that process, and the timing was early enough for both universities and athletic departments to make this unique venture a reality.
So, why, really, did the oversight committee deny this request?
“We should have just told Coach [Bill] Belichick and Bill O’Brien to come up with it,” Brown said in an interview earlier this month. “You know … they weren’t about to allow Coach Prime and Fran Brown to be the first two guys to do it. Over their dead bodies.”
The remarks from Brown were taken as “playful” or “joking” by many, but in a recent interview with Sanders, the third-year Colorado head coach made it clear that Brown’s comments should not be taken lightly, and that he fully intends to play a spring game, likely against Syracuse, next year.
“Yeah, we’re gonna get it done,” Sanders told FOX Sports. “And we would have got it done. And I concur with Fran, we would have got it done if we wouldn’t have said it first.
Sanders continued.
“We should’ve allowed other guys to say it first, and it probably would have floated. But when you’ve got two unapologetic African-American men, it’s kind of hard to put them out front because you don’t know what they’re gonna do. You don’t know what they’re gonna say because you know you can’t control them. But you don’t have to control us because we’re here for the game.”
It was a hit. It hurt. And yet there is Coach Prime, trying to find a way to turn a negative response into a chance to adapt and take advantage.
“We’re going to lose spring games, man, and everybody’s taking a beat,” Sanders said. “We’re taking a hit right now ticket-wise because after that high, you could potentially have that [spring game], and then you hear that it’s not going to happen. It’s a tremendous low. So now, what do people want? I have to find a way to be near them, touch them, feel them, to make them feel like they’re part of the program.”
**** **** ****
There’s a dispenser of California Almonds that stays active on Coach Prime’s desk, the kind that a man who is as activated as he is can make great use of. Sanders believes that he was called to a place like the University of Colorado to make a difference and utilize his unique skill set to turn the program around.
“I’m a people guy” Sanders said. “I don’t see a tremendous wrong. I see where I can make this right. I reiterate that God always sends me to turbulent situations, turbulent people, turbulent neighborhoods, so that I could bring peace and serenity and joy, love and unity, and that’s what I’ve always done, even in my own career.”
Check the receipts.
Sanders won two SWAC titles at Jackson State, made two appearances in the Celebration Bowl, brought national television to Jackson, Mississippi, for a spring game of an HBCU, and left with a record of 27-6 after going 11-2 and 12-1 in back-to-back years.
Then, in short order, he used his prodigious football acumen, marketing ingenuity and understanding of people to not just turn a two-win Colorado team in 2022 into a nine-win team in 2024, but also develop a Heisman Trophy winner and perhaps two first-round selections at Colorado.
Giants concerned about drafting Shedeur Sanders with ‘shadow’ of Deion
After that success, Sanders’ name was linked with jobs in the NFL, notably the Dallas Cowboys, an organization he played for from 1995-99 and won a Super Bowl with. Yet in the end, Coach Prime made the decision to stay at Colorado.
There were those who doubted he would remain in Boulder after his sons, Shedeur and Shilo, as well as prize pupil Travis Hunter, finished their time in college and are off to pursue their NFL dreams. He admitted to being surprised by the number of people who doubted he’d remain at Colorado.
“I don’t know why it’s a surprise,” Sanders said. “I’ve been telling people all along, I ain’t going nowhere. I guess you believe me now. I ain’t going nowhere. I just wanted to get some coaches taken care of, as well as people behind the curtain that a lot of people may not think about.
And he did take care of those folks. In addition to defensive coordinator Robert Livingston earning a two-year extension, Coach Prime added Marshall Faulk to a staff that features Byron Leftwich and Warren Sapp, giving the Buffaloes three Pro Football Hall of Fame players on their staff. Sanders also enriches his players’ lives with guest speakers that run the gamut of celebrities, from Champ Bailey to Denzel Washington. The latter told the team to send him tickets to the national title game.
“I just wanted to make sure everybody was straightened out – and then they took care of me,” Sanders said.
The University of Colorado showed their appreciation for what Sanders provides by rewarding him with a contract extension that will see him earn in excess of $10 million annually, making him the highest-paid Black coach in college football history.
Deion Sanders signs massive five-year extension with Colorado
Sanders is just the second Black coach in college football history to leave a head-coaching job at an HBCU for an FBS program. The first was Willie Jeffries, who became the first Black coach at the Division-I or FBS level, being named the head coach at Wichita State in 1979.
That’s how long it took, 43 years, for someone else with Black or African American on their driver’s license to make the leap from HBCU to FBS.
But just like he attempted to set a new precedent by playing an opponent in a spring football game, Sanders did the same when it comes to coaches making the move from an HBCU to the FBS level.
Former Ohio State great Eddie George made the leap earlier this year from Tennessee State to Bowling Green. George, who was the recipient of the 1995 Heisman Trophy, saw what Sanders was doing at Jackson State and believed he could do the same for the TSU Tigers.
In the past four months, former college and NFL greats Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson have become head coaches at HBCUs and, if they have success at that level, should join Prime and George at the FBS level, too.
This deserves to be celebrated.
While many revel in the success of George, Vick, Jackson and their programs, Sanders is still working to make the unprecedented expected at Colorado. In 2025, he will coach a team that does not have one of his children playing on it for the first time, but his expectations remain the same.
“I want to win it all,” Sanders said. “I mean, this city, this state, this institution has been good to not only me, but they’ve been good to my kids, my family, my friends and loved ones, and we welcome America into our house. So I want to win it all for them. I feel like I owe them that, and I’m going to give it my all.”
The 57-year-old Sanders, who is utterly unique, believes he can bring a national title to Boulder. You’ve followed along to this point. So let me ask you: Do you still doubt he can do it?
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.
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