Coach Prime Under Fire: Is It Okay for a Football Coach to Say This About His Own Team?
The 2023 University of Colorado Buffaloes have got to be the most talked-about 4-4 team in college football history.
The relatively nondescript football program (which won all of one game last year) became the toast of the college football world almost overnight, all thanks to the ballyhooed hiring of NFL legend and former Jackson State football coach, Deion Sanders.
Sanders immediately made waves as a neophyte football coach with his trademark braggadocio and coaching style.
Of course, the man known as “Prime Time” in his playing days has the gift of gab, and was turning heads as much for what he was saying and doing off the field, as he was on the field.
All of that extra attention, however, obviously paints a rather large target on Sanders’ back — the kind of target that national champion teams are used to, not teams that won one game last year.
So there’s obviously some glee among college football traditionalists as Colorado has stumbled to a 4-4 record, with legitimate concerns that they may miss bowl eligibility.
Those gleeful critics were handed quite the verbal gift from Sanders when the coach took to the podium following his team’s 28-16 loss to the UCLA Bruins on Saturday.
Now, in a nutshell, there’s no shame in losing to a ranked UCLA team in Los Angeles.
But the way in which Colorado lost, with its star quarterback, and Deion’s son, Shadeur Sanders being hammered (The Bruins sacked Sanders a whopping seven times, and were constantly applying pressure to Sanders when he wasn’t being sacked) behind a small and slow offensive line, was something people did want to dissect after the game.
Instead of getting into any X’s and O’s about maybe changing to a more zone-oriented running scheme, Sanders offered a more simple solution when asked about how he will keep his son upright and healthy as the Colorado quarterback:
Wisiduehehebebf pic.twitter.com/HlbzvdLKP7
— Chris Scorch (@ChrisScorch) October 29, 2023
“The big picture, you’re going to go get a new line,” Sanders said. “That’s the picture, and I’mma paint it perfectly.”
The implication seems to be that, not unlike when Sanders first arrived in Colorado with a bevy of his own players (Sanders had a number of his Jackson State stars, including Shadeur, transfer to Colorado with him, and told a number of players from the previous Colorado coaching regime to hit the bricks), he would improve his team’s offensive line by bringing in new offensive linemen.
That 10-second clip quickly went viral and people were pretty divided over his remarks.
One NFL-focused X account blasted Sanders’ remarks, saying, “What the hell is this from Deion Sanders, saying in the big picture Colorado will get new lineman.
“Instead, he should do what his job says and actually COACH these young kids, not knocking them down, saying he will get rid of them.”
One X user also referenced the fact that most of the offensive line, which actually performed decently during the one-win campaign, was dumped by Sanders when he arrived. (That factoid is disputable, as a number of those talented offensive linemen were either graduating or already planning to leave before Sanders’ hire.)
Some also pointed out the questionable wisdom of blasting the young men who are responsible for protecting your son from vicious pass rushers.
Others on social media felt that Sanders was well within his right to lambaste his team, particularly given the honest-to-goodness bad performance from his linemen in Saturday’s loss.
Those people largely cited things like accountability, tough love and the simple fact that the Colorado offensive line has not been playing well this year (thus justifying a wholesale replacement.)
But there is one last, interesting thread to emerge from this latest Deion Sanders scandal — Is the hurricane of controversy surrounding “Coach Prime” just a matter of an all-time NFL great trying to bring some of the NFL to the NCAA?
Many have posited that one of the key reasons that Sanders has ruffled feathers is because he has eschewed college football “tradition” for a more pro-style approach to college football team building.
Things like bringing over a bunch of one’s own players, a relative rarity in college, are more commonplace at the pro level where things like free agency allow more frequent player movement.
Given all that, Sanders’ remarks about his offensive line certainly scream “professional football.”
In the NFL, where players are paid handsomely, there’s no time to handhold or develop. You, as a player, need to get better on your own time, otherwise you’ll be unceremoniously replaced by a free agent.
What’s the difference between that mentality and Sanders doing something similar with college transfers?
Coach Sanders, his son, and the rest of that Buffaloes team will look to get back to a winning record when they host the 16th-ranked Oregon State Beavers on Saturday.
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