By Mark Pszonak
Deion Sanders has brought more attention and national publicity to Colorado than the Buffs had received during the rest of this century combined. And no matter the current situation, it was a good hire, as it made the program relevant again. But how long is Sanders planning on sticking around?
With every passing news conference and action or non-action, I become more certain that Sanders will leave Boulder after this season. And now I think that’s the way he had it planned from the day he took the job.
It is no mystery that both his son, Shedeur Sanders, and star athlete Travis Hunter, will be heading to the NFL after this season. The possibility of Deion leaving with them has been mentioned by many and shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Deion isn’t meant to be an FBS college coach. I’m not sure if he is meant to be an NFL coach either, but he definitely isn’t interested in doing everything that comes with being an FBS college coach. He doesn’t recruit high school players, he doesn’t want to deal with the media, he doesn’t even want to leave campus to do anything school oriented.
His mentality towards recruiting is the best example of this. By taking a deep dive into the transfer portal, there is no reason to establish relationships with high school coaches, visit schools or do in-home visits. Why? Because transfer portal recruiting takes hours, days and weeks instead of years. And why would he need to establish relationships in and around Colorado when he knows that he will be gone after this season anyway.
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But what if Deion had turned the Buffs into instant winners, would that have changed anything? No, I don’t think it would have. In the current situation he can leave after this season, not worry about exchanging 40 players through the portal or finding the next quarterback. However, if Colorado had turned into a football juggernaut since his arrival, he still would’ve followed his son and Hunter out the door because some NFL owner/GM (looking at you Jerry Jones) would’ve fallen in love with Coach Prime and everything that comes with it.
While NFL owners/GMs won’t be fist-fighting to get in line for Deion after this season, he could still find a role with some team pretty easily. And when he does, then he won’t have to deal with any of the headaches involved with major college coaching again, which was his plan since the day he arrived in Boulder.
