Ready for Prime Time
The Deion Sanders Experiment is complete.
Saturday’s Nebraska-Colorado game was set for a 10:05am kickoff in Boulder, much too early for football unless there are lawn chairs, flag belts and eight-year-olds involved. But by the time I arrived at the tailgate lot on Colorado’s campus around 7:30am, the Coors Light, Bloody Marys and good times were flowing.
In Nebraska circles, dating back to the Big 8/Big 12 rivalry days, Colorado fans have a reputation of being combative and unwelcoming. And some Buffs fans did play that role on Saturday — I heard a few familiar and obscene anti-Husker chants and even saw a black and gold “HUCK THE FUSKERS” shirt roaming the parking lot. Felt like old times!
(I will say this about Colorado fans: the weather was beautiful. It was a flawless 84 degree day, not a cloud in sight. Folsom Field sits proudly under the Rockies and the glorious high Colorado sky, proving that God does not award scenery based on merit.)
But there was something a little off about the fan dynamic on Saturday. The Colorado fans’ vitriol felt muted and obligatory, almost distracted, like when you’re trying to have a conversation with someone while they’re doing the Wordle. This was the first home game of the Deion Sanders Era and that’s what really mattered. The Huskers were merely the necessary opponent, the Washington Generals of the day.
Colorado had been college football’s laughing stock in 2022, replacing Kansas on the bottom rung of the Power 5 ladder. Their 1-11 awfulness provided an opportunity, though; the Buffaloes were so bad that the administration could afford to hand the keys to someone who would set the whole thing on fire and start from scratch.
And so a football spaceship landed in Boulder last December, dropping off Deion Sanders and his suitcases packed with charm, transfers and expectations. He brought in 86 (86!) new players; only 10 scholarship players from 2022 remain on Colorado’s roster.
Many of us viewed the Sanders hire as a grand football experiment, a test case to see if the new rules facilitating player portability and NIL money could be exploited by the right coach in the right situation.
On Saturday, in full view of (another) national Fox TV audience, Sanders showed that the experiment is already complete, and it is a resounding success.
It doesn’t matter what Colorado does the rest of the way in 2023. Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes are relevant and respected again, a regular part of the national college football conversation. For the first time in decades you will be aware of who Colorado is playing every single week this season.
Committed football fans —the kind who show up at tailgates at dawn to drink light beer and eat 7-11 doughnuts — ultimately just want the things that Deion Sanders has brought to Boulder. They want the games to matter again, for their team to be relevant and respected.
Sanders has already completed that mission in Colorado.
If I sound a bit jealous, it’s because I am. Sanders took eight months to achieve what Nebraska has spent two decades chasing. While other coaches preach hard work, commitment, delayed gratification and other old school platitudes, Deion Sanders put Colorado on his back and jumped the line, slapping together a remarkably excellent new roster using the transfer portal, social media and sheer will.
It’s only September but it’s clear Sanders’ Buffaloes will be headed to a cool bowl game at the end of the season; the only question is which flower/fruit/lawn implement will be in the name.
Meanwhile, Husker fans are doing our annual September exercise of squinting at the schedule until six bowl-eligible wins magically appear. We’re not rebuilding, we’re retooling, just like last year and the year before that and the year before that.
Six months ago Colorado fans didn’t know Travis Hunter from the Crocodile Hunter, or Shedeur from Shakira. They did not earn and do not deserve this.
But “earning” and “deserving” are words that don’t mean what they used to in college football. Maybe paying dues is for suckers.
Deion Sanders’ system will work in Boulder as long as he wants it to work, perhaps until a more prestigious SEC school gives him a call. And then Sanders will be gone. He is the charming cowboy who blows into town, slapping backs, kissing babies and buying drinks, and then one day suddenly moves on to the next town with his posse in tow.
But that’s a problem for another day. Deion Sanders is most certainly not a permanent fixture in Boulder, but for now, Colorado fans have him. Whether you own or rent you can enjoy the view just the same.
Let me know what you think in the comments or at fauxpelini@gmail.com. Or on Twitter, I still have that.
"It’s only September but it’s clear Sanders’ Buffaloes will be headed to a cool bowl game at the end of the season; the only question is which flower/fruit/lawn implement will be in the name."
Oops. Glad to see this experiment fail, to be honest. In addition to Colorado fans being jerks and their school jumping ship for the Big 12 at the worst possible moment, Sanders is a loudmouth jerk and his clearing the roster is one more (huge!) step toward killing college football - which is or at least was the greatest sports thing in the whole, wide world.
A pox.
It’s very strange that two games into his career and the thing everybody seems to be focusing on is where Prime will be coaching next. Two weeks ago it was all about how things were going to be a disaster this year. Been interesting watching the college football world try and cope with Deion.