There is much more to Deion Sanders than his talk. Much more. Take the big talk and lay it aside.
Deion was a talker as a player. And you had to listen because he backed it up.
I want to focus on Deion as a coach. This is a guy who possesses a 28-6 record since taking the Jackson State job in 2020. Not surprisingly, he is an amazing recruiter. People are drawn to ‘Prime Time.’
Sanders is now in Colorado. Year one. This was a program that won just one game a year ago and was thought of as one of the worst in the nation. Not anymore. His Buffalos’ team was a 21-point underdog against No. 17 TCU. Proving again that Deion is more than a talker, Colorado went on the road and beat last year’s national championship runner-up by a 45-42 count.
Sanders’ roster has 87 new players, an unheard-of amount. Colorado basically has a new team. It is supposed to take time for a team to reach it’s potential. Sanders not only had his team ready to play, but prepared and unfazed when it lost the lead twice in the fourth quarter. Colorado was supposed to get dusted by TCU.
Deion Sanders
Sanders’ two stars from Jackson State, his son and quarterback, Shedeur, and his dynamic two-way star, Travis Hunter, looked like future pros. Shedeur threw for 510 yards, the most passing yards by a player in his FBS debut over the past 25 years and four touchdowns. Hunter, the former overall No. 1 prospect in the country, had 11 catches for 119 yards as a receiver and a gigantic interception near the goal line as a defensive back to save the game.
Afterwards, Deion was being Deion. Talk. Reminding everyone that no one thought his team would win. His pregame speech found social media. The speech reiterated to his players that the only thing that mattered was them, not the opponent and not the “non-believers, the haters, the doubters.”
All of a sudden, Colorado is a 2.5-point favorite on Saturday at home against rebuilding Nebraska. All of a sudden, a winning season is in the cards.
One thing is clear. Sanders knows what he’s doing. It was apparent through his three years turning Jackson State into a two-time SWAC champion and it was obvious on Saturday. He didn’t win all those games by accident and his team didn’t pull off the biggest surprise in Week 1 by a fluke.
Colorado and Sanders will have to be taken seriously. This season and for as long as Prime Time stays in Colorado. Yes, he is a talker. But there is clearly action behind his words.
