I just can’t with Deion man, I just can’t. I want to like him as a coach as I liked him as a player, but he makes it so hard.
People love or hate Deion Sanders, or Coach Prime, for his arrogance and narcissism. Fans of Deion and Colorado love his approach. No home visits for recruits? Fine by them. Reliance on the transfer portal? It’s the new way of recruiting. Loose players in the portal — we didn’t want them anyhow. Add players in the portal? We coming. But man he’s so frustrating.
This latest interview kills me.
Some of these dudes were part of the #wecomin movement and now they are also rans? Which is it?
— Mike Farrell (@mfarrellsports) April 18, 2024
So when Deion arrived at Colorado he said famously “we comin” and that he was “bringing his Louis with him” referring to Louis Vuitton level players. Obviously he meant his sons, Shadeur and Shilo Sanders, and Travis Hunter who have been great players for Colorado. But he also meant portal players. Lots of them. So his portal class from a cycle ago was loaded with more than 50 players as he purged the 1-11 Buffs roster. It was ranked No. 1 in the country by many (not me). What did that get him? A 4-8 record with a 1-8 record in the PAC 12 and last place. But his fans supported him. They didn’t care that David Braun or Alex Golesh inherited 1-11 rosters at Northwestern and South Florida respectively and went to bowl games. Coach Prime has it all figured out, he will get his kids right. 4-8 is three games better than last year. In Prime we trust.
Now that nearly 20 players have left Colorado since the portal opened earlier this week, Coach Prime is doing damage control as you can see by that video. However, many of those players leaving were guys who transferred in last year. His “Louis” so to speak. Now they are also rans? No big loss? It can’t be both.
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The names are all there — Metayer, Tisdale, Manns, Dawson, Harris, Kennedy, Washington, Wallace, Slusher, McCaskill and more were all “Louis” and now they are all gone. And his biggest HS recruit, DB Cormani McClain, is now gone as well.
I don’t overreact to portal losses nor do I overreact to portal gains. The portal is a supplement and can be a massive difference maker as we saw with Florida State. But it’s always about balance. Portal kids who come in are equally likely to leave because that’s who they are by nature. And this is why Coach Prime can’t rely on the portal solely.
He can spin it however he wants. But why not just say “we lost some young men to the portal, we wish them well. Some could have benefitted from staying and others it was best to move on” or something like that. Why get defensive and then flash your ego? Because that’s who he is. And honestly it’s just annoying.
Essentially badmouthing his offensive line last year and now the portal losses this year is no way to ingratiate yourself with future players as well as their families and coaches. And we will hear stories out of many of these kids about the culture at Colorado and perhaps the favoritism.
Just watch. So we will see if Colorado is better off or worse off without last year’s luggage. Time will tell. 7-5 has to be the floor in the Big 12 with all the talk and 8-4 or 9-3 is expected by his fans. But if he falls short, Deion will just have excuses ready and sugarcoat it all and his fans will eat it up.
