Sanders stated in his presser that he wants results immediately from Colorado, and was willing to use transfers to achieve them.

Colorado has long been the laughingstock of the PAC-12 for quite some time now. The Buffs finished with a 1-11 record last season, with their lone win coming against Cal in overtime of Week 5. The Rocky Mountain Rivalry was fizzling out, with Colorado State opting to not put Colorado on their schedule. Then came Prime.

PRIME:

Deion “Prime Time” Sanders began his coaching career after finishing his playing career with the Baltimore Ravens and a middling campaign. At the high school level, he coached at Prime Prep Academy, which he co-founded. He then jumped ship to Triple AAcademy in 2015, and then to Trinity Christian High School in 2017. In 2020, he jumped to the HBCU level, and took control of Jackon State’s beleaguered football team. He finished a Corona-Riddled first season with a 4-3 record, good for second in the HBCU Southwestern Athletic Conference East. They improved to 11-2 in 2021 to become 1st in the East and went undefeated in 2022 at 12-0 to win the East yet again.

Sanders appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated last year with Travis Hunter (Right) and Sheduer Sanders (Left) Photo Credit: Marcus Smith of www.si.com

Sanders finished with a 27-5 all-time record at Jackson State. After Sander’s contract was up, he had an interesting decision to make: stay at Jackson State or make the jump to a coach-hungry Power 5 football landscape.

THE COACHING CAROUSEL:

Teams needed coaches. Nebraska had finally fired Scott Frost after years of futility. Auburn got rid of Bryce Harsin.

From Top Left Across: Ken Dorrell, Seth Littrell, Jeff Scott, Geoff Collins, Herm Edwards, Paul Chryst, Bryce Harsin, and Scott Frost. All were fired before the end of the 2022 College Football Season.

Wisconsin gave Paul Chryst the boot. Herm Edwards was sacked after going in circles at Arizona State. Georgia Tech tossed out Geoff Collins. Jeff Scott was run out of South Florida after starting the USF Bulls off at 1-8, and UNT fired their head coach Seth Littrel after making the conference championship? Not to mention Colorado sacking Karl Dorrel. Universities began to find replacements. Matt Rhule, who was fired as coach of the Carolina Panthers a few days before, was hired by

From Top Left Across: Luke Fickell, Brent Key, Kenny Dillingham, Hugh Freeze, and Matt Rhule.

Nebraska. Auburn attempted to poach Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss but failed and settled for Liberty’s Hugh Freeze instead. Arizona State hired Kenny Dillingham. Brent Key ended up at Georgia Tech, and in a shocking turn of events, Wisconsin hired longtime Cincinnati head coach Lucke Fickell away from the Bearcats. Now we see the four contenders for Deion Sanders. Cincinnati, Colorado, Jackson State, and USF. Cincinnati had the advantage of having been the only team of this bunch to have ever been to the College Football Playoff. They had talent, they were in a big conference (Big 12) and were proven winners. Colorado had the most football tradition out of any of these schools and were the only ones to had ever win a National Championship. They weren’t attracting many recruits, however, but they played in a big conference, the PAC-12. Even that, however, was tainted by USC and UCLA scheduled to leave soon, and Oregon trying to force its way out. However, the conference autobid for the new CFP format the PAC would receive could realistically send the Buffs to playoffs in 2 or 3 years if Prime landed there, though the Big 12 and Cincinnati would also receive one. Jackson State had the history with Sanders, but he had shown throughout his coaching career that he never really respected history, so it was a long shot to go back to Jackson State. USF seemed an unlikely choice, given they played in a small conference with no autobid (American Athletic Conference) and had no football history or winning tradition. However, Sanders was from Florida, and the smaller conference could mean more wins and more prestige, and maybe Sanders would want to work his way up to a Power 5 instead of immediately jumping there. So where would Prime go?

Colorado for the Football Tradition?

Cincinnati for the Winning History?

From Top Left Across: Colorado, Cincinnati, Jackson State, and USF were the teams in contention for Coach Sander’s services.

Jackson State for loyalty?

USF to play close to home?

Prime chose Colorado. Cincinnati went ahead and hired Scott Satterfield from regional rival

Across from Top Left: Scott Satterfield, Alex Golesh. JSU has yet to select a candidate to replace Deion Sanders.

Louisville, and USF selected Alex Golesh, Tennessee’s former offensive coordinator to lead their team, and Jackson State has yet to select their new head coach. So how does this hire affect College Football?

How does this affect PAC-12 Realignment?

This move has helped save the PAC-12, along with the autobid. Prime’s Colorado can hopefully fill the shoes of long time South Conference staple USC, who made them lose a lot of money in TV revenue deals due to their absence. This could attract some bigger schools to their conference, maybe poaching Houston or Texas Tech away from the Big 12 or including smaller schools such as San Diego State or SMU. The autobid makes the conference more appealing to Mountain West school, particularly Fresno State, Boise State, or UNLV.

The PAC-12 needs to expand to survive as a conference, and Coach Prime’s hiring might entice a few schools to apply to join.

How does this affect Jackson State’s football program?

It hurts. The next coach for the Tigers is coming into a situation where all of the top players are transferring to Colorado to be with the coach, and the remaining fans will expect a continuation of their dominance in the HBCU. It just won’t happen. They definitely won’t get 5-star recruits anymore, and they’ll sink back to just being another FCS team.

How does this affect Colorado?

After Prime announced, he was going to ‘Rado, The Buffs received a major boost in recruiting. Not only would the number one recruit of the class of 2022 (Travis Hunter) transfer to Colorado. The Buffaloes have received hundreds of calls from recruits who would have laughed at the idea of Colorado a week ago. 15-year-old Winston Watkins from IMG academy has committed to Colorado, and he’s not the only one.

Dorian Singer led the PAC-12 in Receiving Yardage last year with Arizona. He entered the transfer portal and landed with Colorado after Coach Prime announced he would go there.

The transfer portal has also been kind to Colorado, importing basically the entirety of Jackson State’s roster along with big athletes like Arizona wideout Dorian Singer, who led the Pac-12 in receiving yardage this past season. ESPN now has them ranked as the 21st best recruiting class in the nation. However, Texas A&M had a historic class last year, and they fell apart this season. Will this happen to Colorado? In other news, the Rocky Mountain Showdown (vs Colorado State) might be dead in the water. While they do play in 2023, I can’t imagine that CSU would sign up to have Colorado beat the living tar out of them, year in and year out. Add that to the fact Colorado has a 5-game winning streak in the series, and it’s all but a wrap. Besides possibly being offered money to continue the rivalry, I don’t see a different way to reform the rivalry.

The Rocky Mountain Showdown may close up permanently with Prime’s arrival. The winner each year received the Centennial Cup for winning.

How does this affect diversity in collegiate coaching?

32.3% of coaches in College Football are minorities. That number gets considerably lower when you factor out HBCUs. Deion is part of the 9.3% of coaches that are African American, and his success right now decides whether more jobs will be offered to minority coaches in the future.

Sadly, a very small number of coaches are minority coaches. If Prime succeeds in Colorado, that number could see a sharp tick upward. Data provided by www.zippia.com

While the NFL has the “Rooney Rule” which requires franchises to interview one minority applicant when hiring for a job opening, the NCAA does not require colleges to do the same, meaning hiring committees can make racially motivated decisions when reviewing applicants. If Deion fails at Colorado, hiring committees can use that as an excuse for not interviewing HBCU coaches when considering a new hire. If Deion succeeds, the amount of HBCU coaches that get opportunities at the Power 5 level will dramatically increase. Speaking of Power 5 football, what are players who are already on Colorado’s roster going to do?

“Go ahead and jump in that (transfer) portal and do whatever you’re gonna do, because the more of you that jump in the more room you make.”

-Deion Sanders adressing Colorado’s current Football players

How does this affect players already at Colorado?

In all the yelling about Colorado’s new transfers, new recruits, and criticism of Coach Prime’s decision to “abandon” Jackson State, one thing has been overlooked: the players who are already on Colorado’s team. Sanders addressed the team last Sunday, saying “Go ahead and jump in that (transfer) portal and do whatever you’re gonna do, because the more of you that jump in the more room you make.”. Though it does come across as Sanders telling the players he doesn’t want them, Sanders said that he meant that if they weren’t willing to work hard, that they should leave. Sanders also reiterated to the team that “It ain’t gonna be no more of a mess that these wonderful fans, the student body and some of your parents have put up with for probably two decades now. I’m coming. And when I get here, it’s gonna be changed.”

Sanders stated in his presser that he wants results immediately from Colorado and was willing to use transfers to achieve them.

Sadly, for the Buffs players on the roster before Prime arrived, it is estimated that 88% of them will leave the team due to being driven out by incumbent players. A few of these players may find new landing spots in the transfer portal, but with almost 1,000 players already in the portal, and with nobody on ‘Rado’s 2022 roster sticking out by much, this last 1-11 season will likely have been the last time any of these players will play football ever again.

Will Prime succeed in the Rockies?

Will the transfers stick around if the first season is disappointing?

Will the Buffs win the PAC-12 South?

Nobody knows. But Prime will have to be historically bad to be worse than 1-11.

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