The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Boulder going ‘Prime Time’ We’ll see you at CU, coach Sanders

WOODY PAIGE woody.paige@gazette.com

It’s Swagger Time for the Buffaloes.

Are the Buffs back? The Deion Eon is here.

In the Boldest Boulder action in more than 40 years, the University of Colorado has hired charismatic, celebrated, compelling, controversial choice Deion Sanders as football coach.

See you at CU, Prime Time. Sanders arrived in Denver late Saturday night after telling his Jackson State players he was resigning to take the job at Woe R Us Colorado.

Although the CU Board of Regents will meet at 10 a.m. Sunday to approve the appointment, and a press conference with Sanders will follow, the agreement already has been finalized. Sources on both sides told The Gazette Saturday afternoon of the hiring of Sanders, and CU acknowledged it officially Saturday night.

In the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game Saturday Sanders’ Jackson State coasted past Southern University for a 12-0 record. The Tigers will play in the Celebration Bowl.

Who would have thought this after the Buffs finished another disastrous season, failing a third winning season since 2005, prevailing in only one game (over Cal in overtime), firing the coach after five games and giving up 38, 41,49,45, 43, 42, 42, 49, 55, 54 and 63 for a total of, omigosh, 514 points?

Colorado, one of the worst major college programs in the country, and Deion, one of the most heralded professional athletes in forever, have bonded unbelievably.

Trivia Time: Deion Sanders is the only man in history to hit

a Major League home run and make an NFL tackle at old Mile High Stadium.

Will the agreement between Colorado and Sanders be a home run, a touchdown run, a strikeout or a fumble?

Sanders is expected to name Travaris Robinson, cornerbacks coach at Alabama, as the Buffs’ defensive coordinator and Tim Brewster, the Jackson State’s tight ends coach and former Minnesota head coach, as offensive coordinator. The new coach also will bring a few of his assistants and retain CU running backs coach Darian Hagan and linebackers coach Jeff Smart, who both played for the Buffs.

Coach Deion also will be followed by his son Shedeur, the Tigers’ prized quarterback

who threw for 305 yards and four touchdowns Saturday. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Shedeur has completed 70.3% of his passes this year for 3,367 yards and 36 touchdowns.

CU athletic director Rick George has selected his third consecutive Black head coach. Sanders will follow Mel Tucker, who bolted for Michigan State after one year (2019, 5-7 record), and Karl Dorrell, who served from 2020 into this season when he was fired after an 0-5 start and an 8-15 record.

George and his search committee, according to sources, chose Sanders over Tom Herman, a former Houston and Texas head coach who has accepted the Florida Atlantic job, and Bronco Mendenhall — a longtime coach at BYU, then

Virginia.

Sanders has just three seasons of college coaching experience with Jackson State, a predominantly Black college that plays in the Division 1 Football Championship Division. He has been nicknamed “Prime Time,’’ “Coach Prime,’’ “Neon Deion’’ and even “Little Nicky’’ (a reference to Alabama coach Nick Saban). Sanders and Saban do Aflac commercials together with a duck.

Sanders was one of the most prominent two-sport pro athletes after being a Florida State star in three sports — football, baseball and track. He also has been a TV network football analyst, a rap artist, an advertising pitchman, a banquet speaker, owner of a high school academy that went

bankrupt, an autobiographer, a reality show performer and a Pro Football and a College Football Hall of Fame inductee in 2011.

He’s the only athlete to participate in the Super Bowl (twice) and the World Series (once).

In a three-games series at the original Mile High Stadium in 1993, Deion went 6-of-14 with six runs scored and a homer. In five years there, he tackled future Hall of Fame running back Terrell Davis.

George went for broke on Sanders, who had a four-year $1.4 million contract with Jackson State. At Colorado, he reportedly will earn at least $5 million for multiple seasons that could reach $7 mil with bonuses. This dramatic decision could be an incredible

break on the field or break the athletic department bank account, which must pay Dorrell and Sanders.

In 1979 the Buffaloes lured Patriots coach and former Oklahoma coach Chuck Fairbanks to Boulder. The end of the error came two years later. CU then hired Bill Mccartney, who became the Buffs’ all-time best head coach and led the Buffs to their sole national championship.

This time Colorado amazingly got Swag in Sanders.

The deal with Deion is done.

SPORTS

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2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

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The Gazette, Colorado Springs