By Mark Pszonak
I guess becoming one of the top five highest paid head coaches in the country allows you to do whatever you want with your program. That is now very clear in Boulder, Colorado, where Deion Sanders has decided to retire the numbers of Travis Hunter and his son, Shadeur Sanders.
No. 2 & No. 12 — Officially Untouchable. 🦬
Witness Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter have their jersey numbers retired during the Spring Game on April 19th.
🎟️: https://t.co/H4xwlMeXQF pic.twitter.com/xRPe9kazzj
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) April 14, 2025
Not only are the numbers getting retired, but they are getting retired this Saturday, 3.5 months after Colorado lost the Valero Alamo Bowl by 22 points to BYU. I have less of an issue with Hunter, since he obviously won the Heisman Trophy, but when it comes to Shadeur, it makes zero sense. Especially to expedite the process.
In two seasons with the Buffaloes, Shedeur passed for 7,364 yards, 64 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. These are very impressive accomplishments. However, while his personal accomplishments were impressive, he, as the leader of the offense, led his team to a 13-12 record. This part is not impressive at all.
And while his personal accomplishments were impressive, it only resulted in All-Pac-12 honorable mention honors after the 2023 season and first-team All-Big 12 and second-team All-American honors after the 2024 season.
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Which brings me to my next point. While Colorado’s program has been somewhat irrelevant for the last two decades, the Buffaloes actually do have a long and successful history. And during this time, they have only retired four other numbers (No.11-Bobby Anderson, No. 19-Rashaan Salaam, No. 24-Byron White, No. 67-Joe Romig). There are NUMEROUS players more deserving of getting their numbers retired at Colorado before Shedeur. Just to name a couple:
· QB Kordell Stewart (1991-1994) – In his three seasons as a starter he led Colorado to a 28-6-2 record, including a 1994 season when the Buffaloes won the Fiesta Bowl and finished #3 in the final AP Poll. That season he was second-team All-American and first-team All-Big 8 (same as Shedeur).
· LB Alfred Williams (1987-1990) – After a second-team All-American season in 1989, in 1990 he was named first-team All-American and won the Butkus Award as the best linebacker in the country. In 2010 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
· QB Darian Hagan (1988-1991) – Led Colorado to a 28-5-2 record as a starter, won three conference titles and most importantly led the Buffaloes to their only National Championship in 1990. In 1989 he finished 5th in the Heisman voting.
If I’m any of these three players or countless others, I’m waking up this morning very frustrated. If Coach Sanders wasn’t in charge of the program, would Shedeur’s number be getting retired on Saturday? Would it ever be retired?
Someone at Colorado should have said something, but they either weren’t even asked, or nobody had the guts to stand up to Coach Sanders. I guess everyone around Boulder should just be happy that No. 21, Shilo Sanders’ number, isn’t also getting retired on Saturday.
