There’s a college football game kicking off the season in Atlanta on Thursday night that means a lot for the future of the University of Colorado program and their Hall-of-Fame coach. We may start to get the answer to a oft-asked question: “Is Deion Sanders, the football coach, more hat than cattle?
The (pretty much every season) new-look CU Buffs will unveil a new offense – and a new attitude, we’re told – when they face Georgia Tech in both teams’ season opener. For Sanders, it will be a chance to start to wash away the stench of a 3-9 campaign from a year ago, and instead forge a new image as a guy who isn’t just about his brand, but as a coach who can really lead a successful program.
Another bad showing this season, and Sanders’ future as a head football coach will be very much in doubt. Last year’s 3-9 train wreck remains fresh in the minds of Buff Nation. While it’s very unlikely he’ll ever get fired, the questions about his ability to do the job will multiply tenfold… which won’t be good news for the program moving forward.
The problem? Deion arrived in Boulder with the wrong outlook. He arrived promoting his brand and came in overly impressed with his own playing résumé. He was quick to let everyone know that he knew everything there was to know about the game of football, because he played at the highest level. Problem was – and perhaps still is – that he didn’t know what he didn’t know… but every single person who becomes a head coach for the first time finds that out right away.
Has he learned that yet?
For guys who are capable of leaving their egos at the door and enter into the coaching profession with their eyes and ears wide open, coaching becomes a never-ending learning experience. Nick Saban and Bill Belichick didn’t start out their careers as head coaches as former players who were impressed with themselves and their “brand.” They had to be grunts at first, gradually accumulating the kind of football knowledge that you don’t get from just playing in the league. And they learned how to pass what they’d learned on to players who weren’t necessarily bound for the NFL.
There’s a reason why great players – and Deion was most certainly a great player – don’t typically make great coaches. Most times, skills and abilities that came naturally to guys like him as a player don’t exist in the players he’s now in charge of teaching. Great coaches were typically grinders, overachievers as players. Guys that had to squeeze every bit of talent and energy they had inside them just to make a roster. For every Mike Ditka or Steve Spurrier who’ve done well as head coaches, there are dozens of Magic Johnsons and Wayne Gretzkys, all-time great athletes who couldn’t cut it on the sidelines. Which category does Deion fall into?
The record sits at 16-21 after three seasons in Boulder. There are plenty of those who were on the Deion hype train when he first arrived and who celebrated the accomplishments of 2024 – when the Buffs went 8-4 and produced a Heisman Trophy winner – who are now questioning if he can actually do the job.
So starting Thursday night in Atlanta, Deion Sanders will be trying to buck that trend. To that end, he’s brought in much better assistant coaches for this go ‘round than he’s had previously. Many are seasoned college coaches who know better how to relate to players who don’t have first-round draft-pick talent. How successful they are will be key to CU’s success – or lack of it – this season.
If Sanders has figured out that he needs to leave his considerable ego at home, let his coaches coach, and have players that listen, then the group of players he’s assembled this season just might help him turn things around in Boulder… which could allow him and his veteran staff to start to build something.
If he hasn’t, if he goes into this season still thinking that he knows everything there is to know about the game, then nothing’s going to change… he’ll have a new staff again next year, and the brand he’s so proud of will have taken an even bigger hit.
Strike 3: What does this season mean for Deion Sanders’ coaching future? Mile High Sports.
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