How Deion Sanders became college football’s Jake Paul

Why isn’t Deion Sanders deserving of his hype?

It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to understand how someone like Deion Sanders would come up in a conversation like today’s. For starters, his name has been synonymous with the term “self-absorbed” for over 30 years now (something he, if anything, appears to embrace).

Secondly, he’s been the most familiar face of college football as of late thanks to various outlets busting their humps to keep him in our sights, much of which has been deemed necessary because of his overnight turnaround of the Jackson State Tigers football program.

But wait, didn’t I just say that Deion Sanders doesn’t deserve to be plastered everywhere? If he’s proven himself as an outstanding head coach, why isn’t he entitled to at least some acknowledgment in return? Though these questions are valid, I feel that they are somewhat misinformed.

I am not trying to say that he hasn’t done anything worth getting him noticed. Rather, my point is that the standard he set at Jackson State plays virtually no role in the one he’s aiming for at Colorado, and that is actually the case for a couple of reasons.

What’s the reasoning behind Deion’s JSU years meaning so little?

Reason #1 is that going from JSU to Colorado isn’t exactly like going from Michigan to Michigan State; the Tigers are an HBCU squad that competes at the FCS level while the Buffaloes share the Pac-12 with names like Utah, USC and Oregon. Success at one in no way promises success at the other—but one might not know that when considering the pedestal some have tried to place CU on.

Reason #2 is that regardless of whatever potential Deion could have with the Buffs, none of it has been seen as he hasn’t coached a single game for them yet. That means we have no direct frames of reference to gauge his ceiling, which leaves us only the following things to work with: a handful of strong years in the FCS, an imperfect spring game display, and concerns pertaining to departing players. None of that is especially reassuring.

To make matters worse, Colorado was quite possibly the worst team in the Power 5 last year. It also has a brutal 2023 schedule awaiting it, decked out with big-name opponents in the out-of-conference slate as well as the aforementioned league foes.

In short, it is safe to say that the Buffaloes are far more likely to finish this upcoming season more on the sorry side, and there’s not much that Deion’s big brand can do to change that (at least not as soon as some in the media would like to believe). This all raises another question, though: Why are we talking about this now?