After a disappointing 1-11 record last season, the Colorado Buffaloes are off to a hot start with new head coach Deion Sanders. However, not everyone has been pleased with the team’s sudden success and constant coverage.
Sanders, who’s nicknamed “Coach Prime,” has become one of the few successful athlete-turned-coaches in the football world. Sanders was the No. 5 pick in the 1989 NFL draft, where he would soon become a two-time Super Bowl champion and be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It wasn’t until 2020 that he began his college coaching career at Jackson State, where he led the Tigers to a 27-5 record over three seasons. However, at the end of the 2022 season, Sanders announced that he would be moving across the country to coach a new team, the Colorado Buffaloes.
“In coaching you either get elevated or you get terminated, ain’t no other way,” Sanders told his players before he transferred. “I have chosen to accept the job elsewhere next year. I am going to finish what we started. We are going to dominate and I will be here until that end and that conclusion and then we are going to move on.”
Sanders immediately made an impact in Colorado. The Buffaloes earned their highest AP ranking since 2016 following their 45-42 week one win against the National Championship runner-ups, Texas Christian University Horned Frogs. They also attracted ESPN College Game Day for the first time since 1996, where they faced rival Colorado State Rams in a thrilling double overtime game, emerging victorious with a score of 43-35.
“We showed that we were resilient, we showed that we would fight,” Sanders said in a post-game interview. “We showed that we had no surrender or give up in us, and that’s a lot for a team that’s fairly new.”
Despite this matchup building considerable tension as a rivalry game, it only grew higher after the Rams’ head coach Jay Norvell spoke out against Sanders. Norvell believed his appearance to be disrespectful, as Sanders is regularly seen wearing a cap and dark sunglasses to not just his games, but the press conferences afterwards.
They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins. There’s a difference. This game ain’t going to be played in Hollywood. It’s going to be played on the grass.
— Dan Lanning
“I sat down with ESPN today,” Norvell told Sports Illustrated. “I don’t care if they hear it in Boulder. I said when I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat off and my glasses off. That’s what my mother taught me.”
This is not the first instance of a coach speaking out against Sanders. Many coaches have grown frustrated over the amount of media surrounding the Buffaloes, believing that the team is receiving more hype than it should. Oregon head football coach Dan Lanning said just that prior to facing the Buffaloes on Saturday, Sep. 23.
“The Cinderella story is over, men,” Lanning said. “They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins. There’s a difference. This game ain’t going to be played in Hollywood. It’s going to be played on the grass.”
The Buffaloes suffered their first loss after a dominating 42-6 Oregon win, falling out of the AP Top 25.
“I don’t say stuff just to say it for a click, contrary to what somebody said,” Sanders said following his loss. “Our confidence offends their insecurity. It is what it is. I signed up for it.”
