How bright is the future for Deion Sanders, Colorado?
The future might not be so bright that Deion has to wear shades.
It's been a strange week for the Hall of Fame cornerback and his college football program. Which is fitting; it's been a strange year.
The Colorado Buffaloes, in Deion's first season as head coach, took the entire football world by storm with a 3-0 start. Then the tsunami arrived, courtesy of a 1-8 finish.
There were those (hand raised) who got swept up in the early-season onslaught. (I still think he'd be a better head coach than more than a few current ones.) There were those who reveled in the implosion of Coach Prime's programs, in part because they resented the early-season celebration.
Now, it's unclear where things are going. A recent item from TheAthletic.com paints a gloomy picture regarding the program's prospects, both as to returning talent and potential recruits. There are concerns with the quality of the offensive and defensive lines, the mirror-image backbones of any football team.
Another transfer portal opens on Monday. But Deion wants volunteers, not paid participants.
As noted by TheAthletic.com, Deion said this week that Colorado is "not an ATM," and that "[w]e want players that want us."
Players want — and deserve — some form of compensation, even if it doesn't yet come from the schools. The fact that the September sparkle has faded to December doldrums won't make many kids bolt to Boulder.
Deion also is facing potential coaching-staff departures, to go along with three high-profile de-commitments this week. For the incoming class of 2025, Colorado currently has a grand total of zero players who have said they'll enroll there.
Through it all, Deion was named SI's Sportsperson of the Year this week. Which caused some to wonder whether, for example, the voting closed on September 20 or the selection was made by artificial intelligence. Even though the significance of the honor has faded in commensurate fashion with the recent tarnish to the brand, it's a strange other-side-of-the-coin at a time when it seems to be, for Deion, heads they win and tails he loses.
One thing that needs to change, quite frankly, is the mini-personality cult that has popped up around the program. It was bizarre, to say the least, to hear reporters fawn over Deion after piss-poor clock management robbed Colorado of a chance to beat USC. Deion quickly became bigger than the program. He presumably thought it would help the program. Or maybe he thought it would help him.
It ultimately has done neither. Although he gets to say he was picked the sportsperson of the year by a publication that hasn't moved the needle very much in several years, there isn't much else Deion can put on the mantle to remember his first year at Colorado. And it shifts the question of whether he'll leave after two or three years for a bigger and better school to whether, if the losses continue to pile up, he'll be asked to go.
