Deion Sanders — Sizzle Over Substance: Is the 2026 Verdict in Colorado Already In?

Kickoff is tonight. Colorado opens the 2026 season at Georgia Tech at 6 p.m. Mountain on ESPN, and before the first snap I want to get something on the record — not a post-mortem, but an honest look back at what went wrong, and what has to change for Coach Prime to be, at the very least, respectable again.

First, a Confession: I’m a Deion Sanders Fan

Let me be clear about where I’m coming from. I grew up with Deion Sanders in the 1980s and ’90s. Atlanta Falcons. San Francisco 49ers. Dallas Cowboys — my team. Even the Ravens at the end. As a pro football fan, Deion was the man. He’s still the only athlete to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.

Then came the second act on NFL Network. Remember “If you ball, you get the call”? He’d ring up the young players who balled out on Sunday and have a real conversation with them on air. Great television. Great content. Exactly the kind of entertainment we came to expect from Deion Sanders the player, the man, the personality.

So when he became a coach, I was pumped. I didn’t even know he’d been coaching his sons their whole lives. Then he went to Jackson State and went 27-5 with back-to-back SWAC titles and a 12-0 season. I remember watching his staff introduction video on YouTube and leaving a comment: “I want to play for Prime.” That staff was impressive. It wasn’t just sizzle — it looked like substance.

When Colorado hired him, my son and I watched the first game at Buffalo Wild Wings before I went to work. It was an event. That whole first season was an event. But even in Year 1, you could see things unraveling that were a sign of what was to come.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Here’s the resume through three seasons in Boulder, and it’s a roller coaster:

• 2023: 4-8 — started 3-0, then lost 8 of the last 9
• 2024: 9-4 — Travis Hunter wins the Heisman, Shedeur throws for 4,134 yards and 37 TDs, first ranked finish since 2016
• 2025: 3-9, 1-8 in the Big 12 — the worst season of the Prime era

That’s a 16-20 overall record at Colorado. And 2025 wasn’t a near-miss. Colorado lost seven of its final eight, finished No. 112 in total offense and No. 121 in total defense, and fielded a run defense that ranked No. 133 out of 134 FBS teams. Per Sports Reference, the Buffs scored 20.9 points a game (116th) and gave up 30.5 (112th). They cycled through three starting quarterbacks — Kaidon Salter, Julian Lewis, Ryan Staub — and never settled on one.

Stephen A. Smith brought this up on First Take, and he’s right: you can have all the sizzle in the world, but if you can’t run the football and can’t stop the run, you’re going to lose. Those were the two worst-ranked things Colorado did in 2025.

To be fair, Prime has pointed to a real reason. He had bladder cancer surgery in the 2025 offseason and said at Big 12 Media Days that it took him away from the team from May until training camp and that he wasn’t the best version of himself even when he was back. I take that seriously. I’m concerned about his health as a fan. But the record is the record, and the school paid him like the record was going to be different.

“They’re Fighting for Clicks” — The Warning We Laughed Off

Go back to Year 1. After Oregon beat Colorado 42-6, Dan Lanning said his team was fighting for wins while Colorado was fighting for clicks. A lot of us — me included — brushed it off as jealousy. And honestly, some of it was. A lot of people in the coaching profession were afraid of what Deion represented: a wave of ex-players with star power walking into the college game, skipping the traditional coaching ladder, and recruiting like nobody’s business. They were afraid substance would stop being rewarded.

It didn’t turn out that way. And I don’t say “sizzle” as an insult — everybody wants to play for Coach Prime. Doesn’t matter your race, if you’re a college player, you know who Deion Sanders is. There are a lot of good players in this country. So the question is: why couldn’t he fill out a roster with them?

He has to take responsibility for that. Too much sizzle, not enough substance.

The Coaching Tree Problem

Think about how real coaching trees get built. The Shanahan tree. The McVay tree. Those guys were in film rooms cutting tape. Some of them were ball boys. They paid their dues — or when they got the opportunity, they earned the seat.

Deion filled his staff with men who did it on the field. Warren Sapp. Marshall Faulk. Hall of Famers, no question. But they hadn’t cut their teeth as coaches through high school, college, and the pros. And to get career coaches to work for you, you need the demeanor to make other men in your profession want to work with you. Just like Bill Belichick, Deion came into this with too much arrogance, and he never developed those relationships across the coaching fraternity.

Here’s the tell: look at who left this offseason. Per ESPN, Sapp resigned, Faulk left to become head coach at Southern, DC Robert Livingston took a job with the Denver Broncos, and D-line coach Domata Peko went to the Steelers. Pat Shurmur — a respected career coach and one of the few Deion landed — is out as offensive coordinator, replaced by Brennan Marion, who went 7-5 at Sacramento State with his “Go-Go” offense. Chris Marve was promoted to defensive coordinator.

That’s an entirely new coordinator tandem in a make-or-break year. Maybe it’s the reset the program needed. Maybe it’s more churn.

The Belichick Parallel

Deion isn’t the only celebrity coach who found out the college game is different. Bill Belichick took a $10 million-a-year job at North Carolina, promised the “33rd NFL team,” and went 4-8 with five losses by 16 or more points. There were reports of players not liking the atmosphere in Chapel Hill — and the same reports followed Deion in Boulder. Urban Meyer went so far as to say Prime lost the locker room.

The difference? Belichick has the substance and the sizzle — six Super Bowl rings’ worth. It still didn’t matter. The college game punishes you if you don’t recruit, don’t build a staff, and don’t handle the alignment piece. Which brings me to the biggest issue.

Recruiting: When Being Deion Isn’t Enough

Matt McChesney, a former Colorado defensive end (2000-2004) who now runs the Zero to Sixty channel, went on Jason Whitlock’s show — and Whitlock is a famous Deion opponent, so take the venue for what it is. But McChesney’s point was specific. He says he’s tried to help Prime recruit, that he works with a lot of good offensive linemen in the state of Colorado, and that those kids aren’t going to Colorado because nobody in Boulder is recruiting them. He even accused the former head of recruiting of passing on in-state prospects over personal feelings.

What I took from it: Deion believes being Deion Sanders is enough. And the reporting backs that up. According to a USA Today report cited by CBS Sports, Sanders didn’t visit a single high school or home in back-to-back recruiting cycles despite a $200,000 travel budget. For comparison, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule made 486 off-campus visits in one year. Deion’s own words: “I don’t go to nobody’s school or nobody’s house… I’m too old.” He’s said he can’t do what other coaches do because he’s Coach Prime.

Now, a fair question: in the NIL era, how much does a living-room visit even matter? Is it now, “We know who you are — how much are you paying?” Maybe. Deion was the first transfer portal king in 2023, and this year he brought in 41 new scholarship transfers, 16 of them former starters from lower-division programs — the production-over-potential model Indiana rode to a national title. There’s a strategy there, and it’s not crazy.

But if you’re not taking advantage of every avenue — including the offensive linemen in your own backyard — it will hurt you. And if health is the reason he can’t get on a plane, then that’s exactly why he needs coaches who can.

The Salary Question: $10 Million for 3-9

After the 9-4 season, Colorado gave Prime a five-year, $54 million extension: $10 million in 2025, $10 million in 2026, $11 million in 2027 and 2028, $12 million in 2029. That put him in the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the country and made him the highest paid in the Big 12. (Search the latest on his salary here.)

If you go 3-9 making $10 million, we need to talk about a pay cut. I’d say give back at least $5 million. Why? Because $5 million in today’s college football buys you three or four better players — or a real coordinator, or a couple of recruiters who will actually go into living rooms. Who else is going to pay Deion Sanders $10 million a year to coach football right now? Nobody. He’s not a hot commodity on the coaching market, and I can promise you that.

And the buyout numbers explain why the school hasn’t moved. Per Sporting News, Colorado would owe him roughly $26.6 million to fire him without cause before the end of 2026, with three years and $34 million left after this season. Prime, meanwhile, can retire without owing a dime — as long as he doesn’t coach somewhere else. That’s the math that keeps him in Boulder.

Here’s my honest take: Deion is not an excellent X’s-and-O’s coach, and that’s okay. I don’t know that Bobby Bowden was either. Some coaches are CEOs — they know a little offense, a little defense, a little scheme, and they hire people who know more. But a CEO coach has to be great at hiring and great at relationships. That’s the whole job. And a CEO coach making $10 million with a $200,000 recruiting budget he doesn’t use is a tough sell to the alumni.

Alignment: The Word Every Coach Is Using Now

When James Franklin got fired at Penn State and took the Virginia Tech job, what did he talk about? Alignment. Why did Matt Rhule stay at Nebraska instead of leaving? Alignment. LOL — it’s the buzzword, but it’s real.

Look at Indiana. The administration backs the coach. The alumni back the coach. Mark Cuban — I was shocked to learn he’s an IU alum and booster — helped make the NIL money happen. They went into the portal, got Fernando Mendoza at quarterback, and won a national championship.

Now look at Colorado. If I’m the administration, this is the conversation I’m having with Coach Prime: “We’re not going to pay you $10 million a year and not be respectable. So let’s set realistic goals, get on the same page, and figure out why we haven’t been successful.” Because in any relationship, business or otherwise, you have to find that balance. From the outside looking in, Colorado doesn’t have it.

What 2026 Has To Look Like

It might be too late. Nobody wants to be associated with a program that lost seven of its last eight. But if Deion is going to turn this around, here’s the checklist:

1. Hire career coaches and real recruiters. College or NFL, doesn’t matter — but people who’ve climbed the ladder and can get into living rooms.
2. Build the trenches. Offensive linemen and defensive linemen first. Then linebackers. Then at least one corner, one safety, one top receiver, and one top quarterback every two recruiting cycles.
3. Compete for the “best of the rest.” Colorado can’t outbid Texas or Ohio State on NIL. The play is the players the big programs pass on — and there are a lot of them.
4. Get right at quarterback. Julian “JuJu” Lewis went 39-4 as a high school starter. Marion says he has a million-dollar arm. This is his moment, and Colorado’s.
5. Take the pay cut. Show the alumni the money is going into the roster, not the résumé.

The schedule doesn’t do him any favors. Colorado plays three of its first four on the road — Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Baylor — for the first time since 1974. Sporting News calls it a make-or-break year. On First Take this morning, Stephen A. Smith, Harry Douglas, and Kevin Clark previewed the opener, and Stephen A. put it plainly: another bad season could be it for Coach Prime.

Prime’s response at Media Days? “We better win.” He says it’s already turned — we just haven’t seen the fruit yet.

The Verdict: Is It Already In?

Not yet. But the window is closing fast.

Here’s what I’ve learned about Deion Sanders in three years that I didn’t know as a kid watching him high-step into the end zone: I don’t like a whole lot of it. The Louis Vuitton speech to a room full of players he was about to run off. The bravado in front of cameras that should have stayed behind closed doors. The refusal to do the unglamorous parts of the job. In the moment, I said, “Yeah, that’s Deion.” In hindsight, I want more substance. I need more substance.

I still like Deion. I still want him to win. And personally, I’m concerned enough about his health to say: if this is the last ride, go ahead and make it the last ride, bro. But if he’s going to keep going at Colorado, the bar isn’t a national championship. The bar is respectable. Six wins. A bowl game. A roster that looks like it was recruited, not just collected.

At $10 million a year, respectable is the floor — not the ceiling. (Check the record for yourself.)

Tonight in Atlanta, we start finding out.

Your Turn

Am I being too hard on Coach Prime? Too easy? Drop a comment: does Deion take a pay cut, turn it around, or is 2026 the last season? And if you’re tailgating for the Georgia Tech game, tell me what’s on the grill. Every game is a big party.