Behind the scenes with Deion Sanders, Colorado's uber-confident football czar

BOULDER, Colo. – Smack dab in the middle of a recent practice, Deion Sanders sprung one of the many surprises in store for his new-and-conceivably-improved Colorado Buffaloes on the trail to the big debut: wind sprints.

Sanders, aka "Coach Prime," is hardly the first coach in the history of football to order up 100-yard gassers. Yet with his sizzle, swagger and scrutiny, he is undoubtedly the first new hire to lead a program with this hot of a spotlight. Colorado opens at noon Saturday at TCU, the first of at least three consecutive national TV games as it comes off a 1-11 finish last season.

There was a distinct purpose with the series of sprints.

"That was just to throw a wrinkle in there for them, to see how they responded,” Sanders told USA TODAY Sports. "You’ve got to try your team like that. Do things to keep them on their toes, that they never know how practice may go.

"Those 100s, that made them reach down and finish strong. That’s what they’re going to have to do when we go to Fort Worth. It’s going to be hot. There’s going to be adversity, and they’re going to have to fight through it.

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"So, any adversity I can give to them, I’m going to give to them all week. There’s going to be some wrinkle every day. Some of it, I don’t even know what it’s going to be. But it’s going to be something to challenge."

The same can be said of this mission for Sanders, 56, who generated major buzz for HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) while winning back-to-back SWAC titles on the FCS level at Jackson State. Now, the Hall of Famer is challenged to revive a sagging program while moving up in the level of competition, coaching at a Power Five school for the first time. This, while he continues to deal with health issues stemming from blood clots that have led to 12 surgeries within the past three years, including the amputation of two toes on his left foot.

About that roster overhaul...

If you know Prime, or just know of him, you expect there is no hint of doubt.

Power Five?

"That kind of stuff, it don’t mean nothing," Sanders said. "To me, football is football. I’ve been at the highest level. It don’t mean nothing, going from there to here. Because I’ve got some kids from Jackson who would have never had an opportunity to play at this level."

Coaching despite the surgeries?

"Because I know my calling," he shot back. "This ain’t going to stop me from doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Ain’t no way … It was, 'If this don’t get right, that’s your life or your leg.'

" ‘Get me right. Because I’ve got to coach. I’ve got to lead these men.’ "

OPINION:You remember Deion Sanders as an athletic freak. Now, he just wants to coach standing up.

Most stunning to the college football landscape, though, is the manner that the legendary Sanders – the NFL’s most electric athlete a generation ago as an all-pro cornerback and kick returner, along with a few years playing Major League Baseball – has christened this new era with an unprecedented roster overhaul.

According to USA TODAY Sports research, only nine scholarship players remain from the 2022 squad after 39 transferred out between the spring and start of fall camp. The Buffaloes have 47 scholarship transfers from four-year colleges – more than any school in major college football – with 68 new scholarship players. This includes 25 who transferred from Power Five schools.

Since an NCAA rule was established in 2021 to liberalize player movement to the point where they don’t have to sit out a season after transferring, no school has taken in more transfers in a single year than Colorado since Sanders’ arrival. Hey, he’s playing by the new rules in trying to jump-start a program that has had just two winning seasons in 17 years.

And with that have come sparks of criticism, including arrows from rival coaches.

"The reason it caught a lot of negativity is because he did it," CU athletic director Rick George told USA TODAY Sports.

MORE:How Deion Sanders built (and stripped) his roster at Colorado, by the numbers

It should also be noted that Sanders happened to recruit the nation’s top-ranked transfer class as it plays a final season in the Pac-12 before moving to the Big 12 in 2024. That’s what can lead to winning big.

The haul includes nine scholarship players who played for Sanders at Jackson State, most notably his son Shedeur, the quarterback, and two-way star Travis Hunter, who was the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruit in 2022. Cornerbacks Omarion Cooper and Travis Jay transferred from Florida State, while receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. (South Florida) and running back Alton McCaskill (Houston) are others considered premium talent.

"Everybody has done it that had to do it," Sanders said. "And the guys who are popping off, what type of team did you inherit? You inherited a bowl team. We didn’t inherit a team that went to a bowl."

Cold-blooded? Yeah.

Sanders reflected on his start at Jackson State, which hadn’t won a SWAC title since 1996 and finished in last place for seven consecutive seasons when he arrived. He wound up with a 27-6 mark there.

"Same thing," Sanders said. "I think they won three or four games the year before."

Then Sanders, a spiritual man, suggested divine intervention. "God calls us to just blow it up and do it all over again," he said.

In one sense, this was predicated by Sanders himself. During his first Colorado team meeting in December, he declared that he was bringing Louis Vuitton luggage with him in the form of Shedeur Sanders and Hunter. He urged CU players to enter the transfer portal to create more spots. He threatened to force some to quit.

Cold-blooded? Undoubtedly, the tough-talk message was clear about the standard Sanders wants to establish. And it didn’t skirt the bottom-line realities of major college football.

"Just change the coaches and come in and win? Nah, it don’t work like that,” Sanders said. “So if you’re going to change the coaches, don’t you think you need to change the players? There are people who don’t look at it logically like that. But you don’t take over a business and don’t change the personnel.”

Perhaps Sanders will never have as many transfers in one given class in future years because stability, he says, will be created at certain positions. Yet progress from the start will be measured in part by the ability to mesh so many new moving parts. It will be a learning curve for Sanders and his talented staff of assistant coaches, too.

"You don’t really know what you’re getting until you got it," Sanders said. "And you’ve got to understand that everybody is in the portal for a reason. Some are good, some are bad. And you’ve got to find out what’s the reason and determine if you can live with that reason."

'We've always won, man'

Before plugging players into roles that bring the X’s and O’s to life, Sanders said the first trait he seeks is passion. 

"You’ve got to find those players who really want it," he said, mindful of the first-class facilities on campus and the picturesque backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. "That’s why we had to turn over the roster the way we did. Because you’ve got to love this. Anything you love, you have the propensity to give to it.

"We don’t want you to have all of this beauty and luxury, and then you don’t love it. It don’t make no sense. So it’s about finding like-minded kids. And that’s not an easy task."

Talk about tough tasks. Can you beat TCU with this team?

"Certainly," Sanders offered. "This team is us. This is what we’ve hand-picked. Yes, we definitely plan on doing that."

In other words, never mind that the Buffaloes are 21-point underdogs to an opponent that advanced to the national championship game in January. If you believe the oddsmakers, a thumping from TCU will begin a pattern for a team projected to finish near the bottom of the Pac-12. Prognosticators have established the over/under for Colorado wins this season at 3 ½ victories.

Sanders bristles when this is mentioned.

"Tell ‘em to bet everything they got on it," Sanders said. “On what we ain’t going to do. And see where that gets them ... It’s easy to talk that trash without putting nothing on it. Everybody can do that when you’re not risking nothing. It’s just something you’re saying that you think is sexy. People don’t do their homework.

“This guy has won all his life," he added, referring to his son Shedeur (another son, Shilo, plays safety for the Buffaloes). "Pee-wee league, we won. High school, we won. State titles. We’ve always won, man. We don’t really lose. It’s only a matter of time."

If that sounds a lot like a promise, Sanders will own it.

"We’ve done it before," he said.

Although Sanders finished with a 4-3 record during his first season at Jackson State, an abbreviated spring season due to the pandemic, his Tigers lost their final three games. A few months later, Shedeur became eligible to join the squad following his transfer, and others, including Hunter and two Jackson State players drafted into the NFL (James Houston and Isaiah Bolden) came into the fold.

"I remember walking off that field, and somebody has a picture of me and Shedeur," Sanders said, reflecting on a 52-43 home loss against Alabama A&M in April 2021. "I was hugging him. I had my hand around him. I said, ‘Son, we will never have this feeling we have right now.' And we never lost at home (during the 2021-22 seasons)."

If that type of history repeats itself as he breaks in at Colorado, Coach Prime would spring a surprise for the ages.