By Scott Salomon
There was a question posed by Mike Farrell earlier today as to whether, we, the media owe Deion Sanders an apology. I can only speak on behalf of myself and say absolutely not. Deion was a superior athlete back in the day, but he will prove to be an average coach with a bad defense and no ground game.
I have nothing personal against Deion, whom I went to Florida State with in the summer of 1985. We were both incoming freshman. I actually like Deion.
I just don’t like how he left Jackson State, nor do I like how he arrived in Boulder.
When he was at Jackson State, I thought he was going to revolutionize the SWAC and make HBCU’s better overall as he promised. That is part of what he sold us when he took the JSU job.
Deion did not hang around long enough for that to happen. He took the money, the Power 5 job, his best players, and left for Colorado.
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Now, the Associated Press is rewarding this one three-point victory with a spot in the Week One poll.
The Associated Press poll voters voted to put Colorado in their Top 25 as they slid in at number 22. This is after one week of football. In their pre-season poll, Colorado was not even in the “also receiving votes” section of the poll. They received no votes for 49 spots in the preseason poll and now they are No. 22.
Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
There is no secret, Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter turned in two of the best performances in NCAA history. They both deserve to be in the Heisman talk after week one.
Hunter playing 129 snaps and going both ways is an incredible feat in and of itself.
However, that does not discount the fact that Colorado is only 1-0. They went into Fort Worth and played a very pedestrian TCU team that lost eight defensive starters from their national finalist team of a season ago. This was not the team that played Georgia in the National Championship Game. This was much different.
TCU looked lost on defense and Shedeur Sanders and Hunter ate them alive. Like I said, they are both great players and will have a bright future. However, once the Pac-12 schedule begins, and they face better talent, Hunter will not be able to sustain being on the field for every offensive and defensive play.
The passing game was firing on all cylinders. No doubt.
Unfortunately, the Buffaloes’ running game was deplorable. They rushed 34 times for 55 yards. They averaged a paltry 1.6 yards per carry. The longest carry was good for 10 yards. That ground game will not cut it against a quality defense. You cannot win in the Pac-12 with those types of statistics.
This team will rely on Shedeur Sanders and Hunter week in and week out. Teams are going to watch the TCU film and figure out how to slow them down. Shedeur Sanders cannot throw the ball 47 times a game and keep winning without a ground game.
Let’s also not forget that Deion cast away the 2022 Colorado roster and hit the transfer portal hard. He also raided his Jackson State team to take all of their stars with him to Boulder. Essentially, this is not a first-year coach winning with the former coaches players and making them better.
This is a group of free agents rallying around an egotistical coach who is doing things his way with a new roster. This is tantamount to the old George Steinbrenner New York Yankee teams that would buy the best players on the free agent market and win a bunch of World Series titles.
Colorado might even win again this weekend when they host Nebraska. Two games do not make a season. Colorado also hired Deion to win games.
When they start their Pac-12 schedule, Deion Sanders and company will not make as big a splash as they did on Saturday afternoon on Fox.
Pardon me if I do not fawn over Coach Prime and think his team is for real.
