We’re only a month and change into the 2023 college football season, but there’s already a dominant storyline and a central place where the story is being told, as well as a vehicle to tell the story through.
The place is the University of Colorado and the story is the rebirth of the Buffalo program, And the conversion has come courtesy of new head coach Deion Sanders, who has brought a bright spotlight to the previously football-sleepy hamlet of Boulder.
Could you expect anything less from a guy who was nicknamed Neon and called himself Prime Time during his Hall of Fame playing days that included a stop in Baltimore with the Ravens?
The narrative that has been crafted is that Sanders has, through just four games, already wrought a miraculous transformation from the team that won just one of 12 games last year.
In the process, the Buffaloes have become the story of the fledgling college campaign. Indeed, their success and that of Sanders is something of a metaphor for what college football has become: namely, an unbridled money grab where every man and school is out for themselves.
Sanders, who now refers to himself as Coach Prime, has never shied from diving headfirst into the pool of self-aggrandizement.
Even on the rare moments where he has theoretically done things for a greater good, there’s always been a side hustle, a benefit for ole Prime Time.
For instance, Sanders, who, before three years ago, had never coached anywhere beyond high school offensive coordinator where he led his sons at their school, took the head coaching job at Jackson State, an historically Black university in Mississippi.
His three seasons in Jackson brought two conference championships and badly needed attention to the Tiger program in particular and Black college football in general.
With his magnetism and charisma, Sanders could have taken Jackson State and HBCU football to heights not seen in decades, something he hinted at doing when he arrived.
Instead, he bolted for the higher profile and higher paying job at Colorado. There’s no harm in a person reaching for a better personal situation, per se.
And since arriving in Boulder, Sanders has reportedly enriched the Colorado coffers there to the tune of an estimated $45 million in earned media, according to Front Office Sports.
But it’s how Sanders has done it that raises a few eyebrows.
For one, Sanders took virtually all of the better players he recruited to Jackson State to Colorado, including his son, quarterback Shadeur, and five-star player Travis Hunter. On top of that, Sanders unapologetically cut loose many of the players who were already in Boulder, NFL style, while adding a college-high 29 players through the transfer portal.
Absent Saturday’s Oregon game where the Buffaloes were humiliated by the Ducks, Sanders has already posted three wins, two more than Colorado won all last year, always reminding anyone who will listen who’s responsible for the upturn.
You can’t help wondering though whether the final Deion Sanders story at Colorado will truly be ready for prime time.
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X, formerly known as Twitter at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.
