I was an early admirer of Deion Sanders’ success on and off the field in his coaching career, but I have consistently been loud in my criticism of his style of coaching. From the start, I’ve maintained that his over-reliance on the transfer portal in the FBS—without sufficient high-level game planning on offense and defense—would not translate the way it did during his time in the SWAC at Jackson State. Now, three years into his tenure at Colorado, we see that it is demonstrably true, and even his biggest supporters can’t dispute this.
Anybody who witnessed the dominance of Deion Sanders at JSU and truly analyzed it through a critical lens, outside of his celebrity and the pageantry, could see where Colorado was heading once Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter departed. Deion relies on overwhelming, high-level talent to overcome what are often poor decisions on his front: mistakes like being too conservative in his decision-making, keeping timeouts in his pocket, and inconsistent game preparation. These are shortcomings we saw from his staff at Jackson State, and they have been consistently visible at Colorado.
The Utah game isn’t even the biggest example of this reality. Yes, Colorado had perhaps the worst first half of any Power Four team this season, going down 43-0, but the bigger showcase of this coaching deficiency came against Georgia Tech.
Consider the context: Georgia Tech is currently rolling, sitting at number eight in the AP Top 25 with an 8-0 record. Colorado, a team that has struggled to execute all season, was actually in a position to win that game. They had the ball in their hands as the clock wound down in the fourth quarter. But poor clock management ultimately precluded Colorado from beating a genuinely good team —a victory that could have dramatically changed their season.
In the aftermath of the Georgia Tech game, and even into the Delaware game, you saw the scramble: the constant, often desperate, changes they tried to implement to stabilize themselves.
It doesn’t shock me that when you lose generational talents—Travis Hunter, who adeptly played wide receiver and defensive back making game-changing plays on both sides, and Shedeur Sanders, who was literally a coach on the field with a knack for making the right decision even without sufficient offensive line protection—there would be a drop-off. You also lose a speedy, adept receiver like Jimmy Horn, who was so essential to Shedeur’s connection with the offense. But the drop-off shouldn't be this drastic, especially for a “program builder.”
What consistently precludes Coach Prime's success is his hubris about his talent. Deion and his staff genuinely seem to believe they have the better team and the better talent every time they step onto the field. At JSU, that was often true; they overwhelmed teams with transfers, recruits, and two of the highest-weighted recruits to ever attend an HBCU (Shedeur and Travis).
But at the FBS level, there is no such dearth of talent. You are not going to have the best weapons on the field every single Saturday. The way you win is by knowing how to use the players you have to game plan—to unlock them on offense, to score the ball, and to scheme on defense to stop the opponent's great players.
The Celebration Bowl losses at Jackson State were evidence of this flawed formula. In 2021 against Buddy Pough, JSU went up early on talent, but once Buddy made necessary adjustments, it was over. In 2022, facing an NCCU team with just as much talent on both sides of the ball and the best quarterback in the country, Deion lost an overtime shootout. Davius Richard was better than Shedeur Sanders that year; he was a more prolific athlete and a master at using his legs to make plays.
Now we are here in Colorado, a team struggling at 3-5 after losing their Heisman-caliber athlete and one of the best quarterbacks in college football. You cannot out-talent these Power Five teams. You have to out-coach them.
I acknowledge this again: Deion is a Hall of Fame football mind who knows more football than I do. But he is stubborn. He is going after high-profile transfers instead of developing the high school players within his system, and he refuses to implement the real, deal-breaking game planning required to win when you get past the obvious top-tier talent on Colorado’s roster. The execution simply is not there.
They should not have made this huge of a drop-off after Shedeur and Travis dipped. Their current record proves beyond a doubt that those two players were holding Colorado’s entire operation back, and frankly, the offensive line STILL looks horrible.
I do believe that Colorado will have a shakeback game against Arizona, as they'll be playing at home with a Bowl Game in mind. But we're in year three of this Prime experience. Deion is Teflon in Colorado. I don't think they'd fire him even if he lost every game for the rest of this season. But at what point will changes happen that can put him and his team in the best positions to win?
The clock is ticking.
