The Deion Sanders we’ve come to know and respect is a person of main positivity.
Together with his 1,000-watt smile and reward of gab, Deion can discover the great in something and make the largest doubter a believer. If there have been a hurricane, he would level out how the moisture was good for the grass.
However we noticed a special aspect within the minutes following the third-year Colorado head coach watching as his Buffaloes have been dominated by the College of Houston Cougars, 36-20, at TDECU Stadium. Deion was offended and downright pissed off after his workforce dropped to 1-2 on the season whereas making an attempt to make sense of what occurred in a uncommon Friday evening faculty soccer sport.
At one level throughout the postgame press convention, Deion beat his fist in fast succession on the desk in entrance of him.
“We’ve obtained to do higher,” Deion stated along with his energy voice cracking. “No person may have instructed me that was going to go down like that.”
You’d assume no one needed to inform Deion something. He needed to know. The person recognized extensively within the Black group as Coach Prime needed to see that the expertise wasn’t there and that the Buffaloes could be overmatched towards a fairly good Cougars workforce on this Huge 12 matchup.
However that is all overseas to Prime, who has solely recognized success, whether or not throughout his Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame taking part in profession or throughout his first 4 years of faculty teaching. All the things Deion has ever touched or carried out has improved.
The distinction between this season and his earlier 4 is that the very best two-way faculty soccer participant in historical past, Travis Hunter, is now lining up for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sundays, and his quarterback son, Shedeur Sanders, is now using shotgun within the Cleveland Browns group.
All of the sudden, the Buffaloes can’t catch or defend passes, and the quarterback place that was as soon as manned solely by his son has out of the blue change into a carousel.
We believed the transition would have been extra seamless as a result of the Pied Piper School Soccer switch portal instructed us it could be.
Within the three seasons Deion has been on the helm in Boulder, Colo., he has turned over the roster en masse. The primary couple of occasions, it labored based mostly on the incremental enchancment of the once-afterthought program.
The turnover and lack of continuity have caught up with Deion and the Buffaloes this season. That occurs when your chessboard is stuffed with pawns as a substitute of Queens.
All of the sudden, we hear requires Deion’s tenure to finish quickly at Colorado. We noticed UCLA hearth its second-year Black coach Deshaun Foster, who was off to a 0-3 begin early within the season and simply 15 video games into his tenure.
“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t good in any respect. I take full accountability of the foolishness that went on on the market that we tried to name it soccer. It wasn’t that.”
Colorado soccer Head coach Deion Sanders
May Deion be subsequent?
That’s extremely unlikely. Colorado, the town of Boulder and even the Huge 12 know that Deion and his massive persona and platform are good for everyone.
As an illustration, attendance for the Colorado sport was higher than it has been this season at TDECU Stadium on a Friday evening, which is an evening owned by highschool soccer, particularly on this state. Most seats within the decrease two bowls and plenty of within the highest a part of the stadium have been occupied, with lots of black and gold blended in with all the pink. The attendance was 37,899 for the Deion sport, in comparison with 28,150 two weeks earlier when the Cougars hosted Stephen F. Austin.
People, significantly Black folks, who’ve by no means even been to Boulder and haven’t any allegiance to the Buffaloes, at the moment are followers. The college had 62,953 CU soccer followers on Instagram and 98,560 on X earlier than Coach Prime got here aboard. Now these numbers are 1.17 million and 306.6, respectively.
The rise in financial affect in Boulder has additionally been exponentially higher since Deion’s arrival.
No person desires issues to go as they have been in Boulder earlier than Deion’s arrival.
However Deion must win. To get there, he should stabilize his roster and do a greater job of mixing highschool recruiting with poaching skilled gamers within the switch portal. Solely then will he have the ability to land a expertise like Hunter, the highest defensive again recruit within the nation when he first landed him at Jackson State after which introduced him to Colorado.
Recalibrating this system will stop Deion from having the kind of postgame press convention he had after the loss to UH, when even he needed to up the ante on a reporter’s suggestion that his workforce had struggled in sure areas.
“We’re not struggling. We’re getting our butts kicked,” Deion corrected the questioner. “You don’t should be well mannered with me. You don’t should sugarcoat it. I come from a momma who stored it a buck with me. So, let’s hold it a buck; we’re getting our butts kicked.
“We aren’t profitable on both aspect of the ball as we want to be.”
