By Scott Salomon
Prime Time will turn into Slime Time at the University of Colorado.
While most NCAA coaches talk about establishing a culture in their locker room and building chemistry between the players, Deion Sanders, AKA “Coach Prime” has gone on record with the fact that he does not even care if his players like each other, he just wants to win.
Coming off a dismal season, that might be easier said than done.
But, then again, It’s hard to have continuity and harmony when you toss 50 scholarship players off of your team and replace them with kids from the transfer portal. Of the 85 scholarship student-athletes on the roster, almost 75 of them played football at another school last year.
“I don’t care about culture. I don’t even care if they like each other, I want to win,” Sanders stated at the Buffaloes’ annual media day Friday. “I have been on some teams where the quarterback didn’t like the receiver but they darn sure made harmony when the ball was snapped. And we’re not like that, trust me, these kids are very fond of one another.”
Sanders knows a thing or two about winning. He won in college at Florida State, played in a World Series with the Atlanta Braves, and earned Super Bowl rings with San Francisco and Dallas. He even won two SWAC titles as the head coach at Jackson State.
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But this is not a championship-pedigree team that Sanders inherited in Boulder. Colorado went 1-11 last season and Slime Time flipped the roster after the Spring game.
He made his feelings known right away and put the players on notice that they were being run out of town.
“We got a few positions already taken care of because I’m bringing my own luggage with me,” Sanders told the Buffaloes in a meeting with players released on social media Sunday. “And it’s Louis (Vuitton), OK?”
He then asked his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders to stand up and introduced him to the Colorado audience.
“This is your quarterback.”
Coach Sanders took advantage of an NCAA rule that allows first-year coaches to cut players from the active roster, but they still must remain on scholarship at the university.
This greatly upset veteran coaches like Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi.
“That’s not the way it’s meant to be,” Narduzzi said. “That’s not what the rule intended to be. It was not to overhaul your roster. We’ll see how it works out but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country.”
Narduzzi was far from finished on the subject.
“I grew up in a profession that you can’t tell a guy that he has to leave based on athletic ability,” Narduzzi said in May. “I think he’ll be shocked that he probably had some pretty good football players in that room. The reflection is on one guy right now but when you look at it overall − those kids that have moms and dads and brothers and sisters and goals in life − I don’t know how many of those 70 that left really wanted to leave or they were kicked in the butt to get out.”
Going into his ninth season as the head coach at Pittsburgh, Narduzzi kept his squad intact and taught them how to come together as a team.
“When I got to Pitt back in 2015, I didn’t kick anybody off. Zero. Those are your guys. When you become a head coach you inherit that team, and you coach that team. If someone wants to leave, that’s great. You don’t kick them out. I disagree with that whole process. That’s not why I got in the game.”
There are coaches that are actually rooting for Coach Prime to lose and it has become readily apparent that Colorado might not win a game until mid-season.
“Have you seen their schedule?” a Pac-12 assistant coach asked a reporter from Athlon Sports. “There is a good chance that they do not win a P5 game until October. That is the Coach Prime show I want to see, when you are 1-5 and not beating SWAC teams with FBS transfers.”
The Buffs open up at last season’s Fiesta Bowl Champion TCU Horned Frogs. That will be the first test for Coach Prime and his official welcome to Power 5 football.
In the last two seasons, Colorado needed a road map to find the end zone, but this season they are confident that Shedeur Sanders will lead them to the promised land. He and two-way player Travis Hunter were among the bunch that transferred from Jackson State.
Many people thought that the “Louis” comment was way out of line. The quarterback defended his coach, father.
“It’s not a hard message, because here’s the thing: A lot of people are used to being lied to. The players coming in, they’re coming to play — they’re not coming to sit,” the quarterback said shortly after the initial meeting with the original CU players. “So if you’ve been here, you’re chilling, you’re thinking your spot’s good, that’s not the case. You’ve got guys wanting to play with top talent, each and every position. Nowadays, a lot of people are scared of the truth, and they don’t like hearing that.”
At the Pac-12 media day in Las Vegas, the quarterback spoke highly of his coaches’ abilities to get them ready to make the jump to the Power 5.
“If they know my dad and they know Coach Prime and the rest of the staff they know that they are not playing around,” Sanders said. “They know he has the gold (NFL Hall of Fame) jacket. They know what he is all about. Everyone that is at Colorado is going to play together and respect each other.”
The quarterback thinks that the jump from the SWAC to the Pac-12 will be easier than most people anticipate. He also believes that he has enough weapons to take the Buffs from pretender to contender, faster than the media and fans believe.
“It’s hard to name everybody, but it’s different I have so many options, like which car do I want to drive today,” Shedeur stated. “I’m just real excited to get this started.”
Shedeur said that he is ready for the challenge and the big jump to major college football.
“I have been here before, same thing, but on a different level. I just have to be myself and do what I did at Jackson, here at Colorado,” Sanders said. “Everyone’s opinion doesn’t matter, we don’t pay it no mind. If they feel we can’t do this, it just means that it is going to be that much better.”
The Sanders family will soon learn that they are not getting ready to play games against Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, or Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
After opening the season at TCU, the Buffs will come home to face a rejuvenated Nebraska squad, and then they play host to in-state rival Colorado State. Then they travel to Eugene to face Oregon before coming home to get destroyed by Caleb Williams and the University of Southern California.
Hunter, the number one recruit in the United States in 2022 flipped his commitment from Sanders’ alma mater, Florida State, and switched to little-known Jackson State just before National Letters of Intent were to be signed. That was perhaps the biggest flip in recruiting history.
While playing cornerback, Hunter is a pure shutdown weapon, just like his head coach was back in the day.
He is also an elite receiver who excels at the wide-out position. A native of Savannah (Ga.), Hunter initially committed to Florida State back in March 2020, a few months after Mike Norvell was hired.
Hunter had 19 tackles and two interceptions — one of which was returned for a touchdown — during his freshman campaign with Jackson State. He also added 18 catches for 190 yards and four touchdowns — one of which was the game-tying, last-second touchdown that sent the Celebration Bowl to overtime.
It was only logical for Hunter to follow his quarterback and his head coach to Boulder.
“I’m officially a Buffalo,” Hunter said at the time before his 100,000 fans that subscribe to his YouTube channel. “Anyways, y’all know what time is going on, y’all know what time it is, man: Prime Time. And I’m part of that Louis (Vuitton) bag.”
