College Football

Deion Sanders told us Colorado was coming. Here's why you should have listened

Published Sep. 4, 2023 10:10 a.m. ET

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RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

The Colorado Buffaloes shocked many with their 45-42 win against No. 17 TCU on Saturday. But they did not shock me, nor viewers and listeners of FOX Sports' "Number One College Football Show."

On Dec. 12, 2022, I wrote that Shedeur Sanders was my favorite to win the Heisman Memorial Trophy — just ahead of reigning Heisman-winner Caleb Williams.

On Jan. 10, 2023, I ranked Colorado No. 21 in my Way-Too-Early Top 25. By preseason, I had the Buffaloes at No. 20.

None of those decisions were taken lightly, and none of those decisions were made without analysis.

While some have maligned me, those who have read and listened know better. They know that Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders employed the same plan to flip Colorado into a team capable of knocking off the national title runner-up that he employed to build Jackson State into a nationally ranked FCS program and HBCU powerhouse.

Because folks absolutely love it when I rank things, here are 10 reasons I was all-in on Colorado before everyone else was.

1. He had buy-in from athletic director Rick George

In many respects, George had put himself in position to lure a coach of Prime's caliber through his work and bad luck. The bad luck being that Colorado was 5-19 over the previous two seasons.

But he'd also shown he and the CU athletic department were ready for the Prime experience. They'd hired two Black head coaches before him and are the only predominantly white university in history to hire three Black head coaches in a row: Mel Tucker, Karl Dorrell and Prime.

George famously signed Prime to a contract he couldn't immediately pay, but he held faith that his athletic department, Prime and donors would fulfill his obligation. He was rewarded with season-ticket sellouts and unprecedented attention for the program, and he was the first to take advantage of a collapsing Pac-12 with a move back to the Big 12, which goes into effect next year. 

[Is Deion Sanders' smashing Colorado debut the start of something big?]

2. USC and TCU laid down the blueprint

Lincoln Riley took over a 4-8 USC, overhauled the roster, brought in a talented QB and surrounded himself with coaches who know ball. The first-year result was an 11-win season with a spot in the Pac-12 title game and in a New Year's Six Bowl.

Sonny Dykes took over a 5-7 Texas Christian program, overhauled the roster, brought in a talented QB and surrounded himself with coaches who know ball. The first-year result was a 12-win team that beat 13-0 Big Ten champion Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl and finished as the national title runner-up.

If those men can do it, why not one of America's greatest athletes, best-marketing coaches and a man who has built his lifestyle around one thing: He is the best at what he does, regardless of what it is — playing, talking on TV, coaching.

RJ Young reacts to Deion Sanders, Colorado's upset victory over No. 17 TCU | No. 1 CFB Show

3. Sean Lewis' offense was productive at Kent State

During the 2020 season, Sean Lewis' Kent State team led the nation in total offense at 606.5 yards per game and scoring offense at 49.8 points per game. The Buffaloes put up not just 45 points, but 541 yards, against TCU.

He also took the Golden Flashes bowling in 2019 and 2021. 

His Kent State offense produced highly coveted UCLA quarterback transfer Collin Schlee and Penn State wideout Dante Cephas. It was also the kind of offense that not only moves with tempo but prioritizes putting the ball in the best players' hands as often as possible. Most of the time, that's the quarterback, and Shedeur Sanders is such a quarterback.

[Prime’s roster revamp has overshadowed Colorado’s coaching upgrade]

4. Charles Kelly is one of the best recruiters in the sport

Charles Kelly has been a part of two national title-winning teams working for Nick Saban at Alabama. He also was the first member of the CU staff who hadn't seen Hunter play to evaluate him as a Heisman-caliber player. 

"Guys can play both positions, especially when you're wired the right way, and Travis is definitely wired that way," Kelly said during the offseason.

The idea that a man who helped mold some of the best defensive backs in the sport at Alabama believed from the jump that Hunter could be an elite player at both corner and wideout was more than enough for me to believe the same.

Kelly was also recently cited as the best recruiter in the country by 247 Sports. That prowess paid off almost immediately when the Buffaloes landed five-star cornerback Cormani McClain, who was the No. 1 player at his position.

5. The 40-40-20 rule

Because Prime began his career two years into the advent of the transfer portal and one year before the advent of name, image and likeness regulation by the NCAA, he did not walk in with traditional thoughts about how a roster should be constructed. Conventional wisdom is that a coach must recruit talented high school players, develop those players, and then hope to see the fruits of his labors in three years' time.

But Prime has never been on a conventional timeline. He's been on his own, and that means having no time to waste. At Jackson State, he built the program with 40% graduate transfers, 40% undergraduate transfers, and 20% high school recruits — the 40-40-20 rule. 

With that formula, he went 23-3 in his final two years at JSU, with two conference titles and two appearances in the HBCU national title game. At Colorado, not only did he use the same roster management strategy, but he had the resources of a Power 5 institution and 22 more scholarships to work with.

The result heading into the Buffaloes' game against the Horned Frogs was that he had 15 grad transfers his two-deep depth chart.

Transfer Jimmy Horn Jr. (South Florida) and grad transfer Xavier Weaver (also South Florida) combined for 90 catches and 1,269 yards last year. Each enjoyed a 100-yard receiving performance against TCU.

Dylan Edwards, perhaps the most highly touted of the true freshmen at Colorado, led a three-running back rotation with 159 yards and four TDs — including the game-winning score.

After Colorado's win on Saturday, it's never been easier for Prime to recruit, and it wasn't that hard for him to recruit before.

Remember, he's the man who became the first to convince a five-star player to sign with an FCS program. 

6. He shipped out what he couldn't use, and he kept the rest — three gems from the Karl Dorrell era

Yeah, everybody knows now that he brought his own luggage to Colorado's house. What they fail to see is that he went through the estate and found three jewels, too. 

Prime kept five players from Dorrell's 1-11 team, and three are starters this season: Sophomore center Van Wells, junior left tackle Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan and junior safety Trevor Woods. 

Colorado has a veteran offensive line.

While even the most ardent detractors of Prime's program agreed that CU is talented at most skill positions, not many believed the Buffaloes would keep Shedeur Sanders upright long enough to operate the offense.

But those folks didn't pay attention, either. Four of the five starters on Prime's offensive line are upperclassmen, and three are grad transfers. Those five starters — Christian-Lichhtenhan, Wells, Jack Bailey, Savion Washington and Landon Bebee — combined for 83 games played and 69 starts before the 2023 season began.

7. Travis Hunter stands for "Trust (in) HIM"

Champ Bailey caught 47 passes for 744 yards and made three INTs at Georgia in 1998. Hunter can do better.

Now that many have seen Hunter become the first player in the 21st century to notch an interception, a 100-yard receiving effort and score a TD, they're seeing what folks like myself and my viewers have known since Prime first spoke with me in February 2022 at Jackson State after signing the No. 1 player in his class regardless of position.

Hunter is the best two-player the sport has seen since Michigan's Charles Woodson and quite possibly the best-conditioned athlete the sport has ever seen. It's not that he played more than 120 snaps — the equivalent of four football games for a regular starter — but that he still had enough energy to dance in the locker room following CU's momentous victory.

Many will ask if he can play as many snaps per game for the rest of the season. Not enough are marveling at just what he did on Saturday and how we're unlikely to see another performance like it.

It's the reason I also said Hunter will enter as a Heisman favorite, and might even be the favorite if not for his quarterback.

[Deion Sanders' contagious swagger has Colorado players believing they can be great]

8. Nothing about Shedeur Sanders changed, he's just the boss level on your game

When it comes to evaluating quarterbacks, Riley famously told FOX Sports host Colin Cowherd that arm talent doesn't matter as much as winning does.

If the quarterback is a winner — his teams win way more than they lose — usually, the guy can play quarterback well, too. After the win against TCU, Shedeur Sanders is 71-8 as a starter, and he has never been a part of a losing football team — from youth ball all the way to Power 5 ball.

Where Sanders goes, winning follows. 

Then there's this: At Jackson State, he threw for 3,732, 40 TDs and six INTs in 2022.  Here's a list of the QBs who threw for at least 3,500 yards and 40 TDs, and fewer than seven INTs in 2022: 

1. 2022 Heisman winner and USC QB Caleb Williams

2. No. 2 overall NFL Draft selection, fourth-place Heisman finisher and former Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud.

3. Shedeur Sanders.

That's the list. 

"But RJ, Sanders is stepping up in competition from FCS to FBS. You can run it up against inferior competition at the FCS level."  

I don't know. Can you? 

Let's check the stats: "Siri, which FCS quarterbacks threw for at least 3,500 yards and 40 TDs, and fewer than seven INTs in 2022?"

1. Shedeur Sanders. 

That's the list. 

Still, there is a narrative that FCS — let alone HBCU — football players can't immediately compete at the Power 5 level. Not only did Sanders compete, he did what no other Colorado quarterback has done — pass for 510 yards — on the road, against a top-25 opponent, in his first Power 5 outing.

Hunter, starting safety Shilo Sanders, and running back Sy'veon Wilkerson are also HBCU products. 

9. Prime was NIL before it was cool

He won the 1988 Jim Thorpe Award and was voted unanimous All-American — as a doggone walk-on.

Because he took a signing bonus to play in the New York Yankees' farm system, he was made ineligible for a scholarship at Florida State. So he played the last year on the Yankees' dime.

The Yankees paid for his last season of college. If anyone knows how to get the players their worth, it's Prime. And in this era of college football, many players are trying to get exactly that.

10. Everywhere Prime goes, he gives everything he's got

Prime does not brook B.S. with folks that can't help him win, and he keeps receipts like the Count of Monte Cristo does — and like I do. He is fueled as much by those who love him as those who doubt him.

He pours what he has left into the task at hand. He had toes amputated rather than miss a game last season. He will himself out of the hospital after being diagnosed with a life-threatening event because his son, Shedeur, told him he didn't think he could play if his father wasn't on the sideline. 

He elected to have surgery last July rather than risk having surgery during the season. And he expects all around him to work as hard as he does.

What does the Colorado Buffaloes' win over the TCU Horned Frogs mean for both teams? | No. 1 CFB Show

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The Number One College Football Show." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube.

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