San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is just like most other college football fans; like them, he's been mesmerized by the success of Colorado football under head coach Deion Sanders.
“Yeah, it’s been fun to watch, really cool,” Shanahan said of the Buffaloes, per Cam Inman of the Mercury News.
“You never know how it’s going to work out. Then with him going there and the whole transfer rules, which I don’t even understand and hope never have to, you don’t know how it’s going to work but you want to watch, everyone being such a fan of him growing up and how cool he is now.”
Of course, Shanahan was already very much familiar with Sanders long before the latter became head coach of Colorado football. Apart from the fact that Shanahan grew up during the 90s when Sanders was among the biggest sports stars, his father, Mike Shanahan, also used to be part of the coaching staff of the Niners when the former NFL star was with San Francisco in 1994.
Kyle Shanahan also revealed that what got him truly hooked with the Buffaloes this season was when he saw a tape of Colorado football's game against the TCU Horned Frogs, whom Sanders' squad defeated earlier this month on the road to the tune of a 45-42 score.
“Really, what made it real was just watching their first game. That was the week before we started (the season) and I was just hanging out at the house and I got to watch them vs. TCU. To watch how their team played was the coolest thing. Everyone knows how cool Deion is. But we always talk about the ‘silent tape’ and how a team looks. To watch those dudes come out and battle, and how hard they played and the confidence they had, that’s what made it so fun to watch.
Both Shanahan's 49ers and Sanders' Colorado football squad are undefeated so far in their respective 2023 campaigns. The 49ers are 2-0 after beating the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Rams, while the Buffaloes are 3-0 after their wins over TCU, Nebraska Cornhuskers, and Colorado State Rams.