“Thank God we’re not going to be in this conference.”

Coach Prime ain’t a big fan of late night college football.

“Who makes these 8 o’clock games? These are the dumbest thing ever,” Sanders said. “Stupidest thing ever invented in life, who wants to stay up until 8 o’clock for a darn game? What about the East Coast? They even care about ratings or anybody watching it?

“What are we supposed to do with the kids all day until 8 o’clock? What are we supposed to do all day until 8 o’clock? What are you supposed to do in the hotel? What are you supposed to do all day?”

And you thought we had it bad, bitching about too many noon starts.

The legend grows

This is adorable.

Wow!  Sixty percent!  If that doesn’t illustrate the difference between a Pac-12 crowd and an SEC one, I don’t know what does.

But, sure, Sanders is awesome.  I wonder what his next feat of strength will be.

(h/t)

*************************************************************************

UPDATE:  This is more like it.

Colorado announces home games against Colorado State and USC have sold out.
Has hiring Deion Sanders already paid for itself?

— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) September 7, 2023

Living well is the best revenge.

Like it or not, it’s already the biggest story of the holiday weekend.

This was finally the big moment of truth for new Colorado football coach Deion Sanders. Right here in the 100-degree heat of Texas after nine months of hype.

And he told you so.

He told everybody.

“Do you believe now?” Sanders asked reporters after his team beat No. 16 TCU Saturday 45-42. “Huh?”

It’s impossible not to after what happened here Saturday in front of a national television audience and a record crowd of 53,294 at Amon G. Carter Stadium. It was Sanders’ first game as Colorado’s coach after he brought in 68 scholarship newcomers to replace most of last year’s team, which finished 1-11. The Buffaloes also were 20½-point underdogs against a team that played in the national title game last season.

Colorado’s already matched their win total from last season.  Sanders has every right to gloat.

Assuming the opener wasn’t just a flash in the pan and the Buffs go on to win, say, five games this season, I’ll be curious to see if his stripping the house to the studs approach to his roster rebuild is emulated elsewhere.  Knowing what I know about college football, my guess is yes.

The bonus will be the first time someone taking that course of action tries to justify it by saying he’s doing it for the kids.  But you know that’s coming, too.

Prime math

This really is bonkers.

Colorado's commitment total in the 247 Sports rankings for 2023 incoming classes looks like someone made an input error pic.twitter.com/TISqI57Hc6

— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) May 17, 2023

Which is not to say Colorado won’t be a fascinating experiment to watch unfold in real time.  If it works, say hello to the new reality of what coaches will do upon taking a new job at an underperforming program.  If it doesn’t, the next coach there is going to have an even bigger mess to clean up.

Today, in chutzpah

“So proud is you @isaiahbolden23 You deserved to be drafted much higher but I’m truly proud of u,” he wrote. “I know how much u want this. I’m ashamed of the 31 other @nfl teams that couldn’t find draft value in ALL of the talented HBCU players & we had 3 more draft worthy players at JSU.” sez the guy who just strip mined his old HBCU team of players to bring along  to his new P5 gig.

Maybe he did that so they’d have a better chance of getting drafted.

“I’m a change agent.”

By my count, Colorado's now lost all 4 QBs who threw >20 passes, 3 of 5 RBs, all 9 players targeted >8 times, 5 of 8 OLs and 7 of 8 DLs with >100 snaps, all 4 LBs with >200 snaps, and 12 of 17 DBs with ANY snaps.

Obviously added like one jillion transfers, too, but GOOD GOD.

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) April 24, 2023

I admit I haven’t been following the Coach Prime Goes To Boulder saga that closely, but with what went down yesterday ($$), I’m on it now.

At Colorado, Monday morning began with second-year linebacker Shakaun Bowser entering the NCAA transfer portal at 8:14 a.m. local time.

Wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig, one of the breakout stars of the Buffaloes’ spring game on Saturday, entered a few minutes later. Backup offensive lineman Jackson Anderson was next. And then safety Tyrin Taylor, a 10-game starter last year.

At noon, it was time for the big roster purge: 11 scholarship players became available in the transfer portal in less than an hour.

By the end of the day, 18 players were in the portal.

Eighteen in a day has to be some sort of record, doesn’t it?  And yesterday was just the exclamation point to Sanders’ effort to completely remake Colorado’s roster seemingly overnight.

… After Monday’s departures, Colorado has now seen 46 scholarship football players enter the transfer portal in 2022-23, with 41 exiting since Sanders took over. No other Power 5 program has lost more than 29 in this cycle.

Colorado had 83 scholarship players at the start of the 2022 season. Only 20 are still on the roster as of Monday night.

Not sure what adjective best describes what’s going on.  Unprecedented?  Sure.  Aggressive?  Absolutely.  And while the article makes clear it’s impossible to say how many left voluntarily and how many were forced out, it’s clear that Sanders is doing some heavy lifting, as he flat out admits.

“We’ve got to make some decisions,” Sanders said. “That’s gonna be on me now. That was on them. Now it’s on me.”

I have no idea how this plays out in ’23.  On the one hand, Colorado finished last season with a 1-11 record and a points differential of minus-349, so it’s not as if Sanders could make things a lot worse with this wholesale roster shuffle.  On the other hand, that’s a shitload of turnover.  Expecting all those new faces to mesh in a relatively short period of time strikes me as overly optimistic.

The other part of this that intrigues me is the dog that didn’t bark aspect of the story.  Let’s face it, Sanders is canning players left and right.  Yet there’s very little outrage or even mild questioning about what’s supposed to be a no-no with um… student-athletes.  All of which leads me to wonder if what he’s done will become a standard template going forward for coaches coming in to resurrect substandard programs.

Actions have consequences, unless you’re Colorado’s AD.

It shouldn’t come as any great surprise that Deion Sanders has told all of Colorado’s existing commitments that there’s no longer any room at the inn for them ($$).  Like it or not, that’s what new coaches do coming in, especially at a school that was in sorry shape under the previous coaching staff.

This, however, is a surprise.

… What bothers at least two former commits, they say, is that Colorado athletic director Rick George called and asked them to remain committed to the program shortly after former coach Karl Dorrell was fired in October.

“I was told by Rick George I was going to have a scholarship regardless of who the coach was going to be,” said Tyrone McDuffie, an offensive lineman from El Paso (Texas) Parkland High. “He called me and my dad and he wanted the 2023 class to stay together. He said I was going to have a chance to be a Colorado Buffalo regardless of who he hired…

“When Coach Dorrell was fired, (George) had said we were going to have our scholarship offers honored,” said Turner, who reportedly pushed away interest from Florida State because he was set on playing at Colorado. “I was surprised when I got the call. It was so late in the recruiting process. I wish I was told earlier.”

Since when is that something within the purview of an AD?  And now that it’s blown up spectacularly, how did George handle it?  About like you’d expect.

McDuffie said he tried to contact George shortly before Sanders was hired at Colorado.

“I don’t know what happened with his phone. I don’t know if he blocked our numbers,” McDuffie said. “But we couldn’t get a hold of him at all. What I appreciate more than anything is honesty. He could’ve told us, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, start looking at other schools now.’ But to say one thing and another happen, it hurts.”

The Athletic contacted George to confirm that he did tell Colorado’s 2023 commits that their scholarship offers would be honored. He issued the following statement: “Any time there’s a coaching transition, many changes occur throughout the program. Every new coaching staff has the opportunity to do what’s best for the team, and despite the unfortunate timing of the current recruiting calendar, difficult decisions were made as timely as possible.”

A real profile in courage, that one.

Today, in over the top

Oh, for Christ’s sake…

“In the course of one afternoon, the most relevant program in the country is Colorado.”@joelklatt is LOVING the new hire of @DeionSanders at his Alma Mater @CUBuffsFootball ⬇️

pic.twitter.com/FH74UpeUSG

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 5, 2022

Relevant obviously doesn’t mean what I think it means.

Today, in no hard feelings

Together, again.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @COACHPRIME (@deionsanders)

“2 goats, 1 duck, no beef.”

Cool.  Now do Nick and Jimbo.

Sometimes, it feels like college football is morphing into pro wrestling.

Leave Nick alone!

Junior, if you don’t mind me saying so, your suck up is showing just a little bit here.

Lay off the 🐐 ⁦@DeionSanders⁩ 😂 https://t.co/UrEL6zVWur

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) May 19, 2022