Colorado Football: Deion Sanders will boom or bust via anonymous Pac-12 head coach

Nobody really knows what to expect from new Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders, but it will either be really good or really bad according to an anonymous Pac-12 head coach. 

One of the most fascinating storylines heading into the 2023 college football season is whether Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders can succeed.

Whether the Buffaloes can win in the short term or the long term is two different questions. The roster turnover has been talked about a lot. Tons of Colorado football players have left via the transfer portal and plenty have been added too.

Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter were two pretty strong additions. The Buffaloes have also started to recruit at a much higher level and that includes the 2023 class which features a number of four-star recruits and five-star Cormani McClain.

The 50 incoming transfers are still a staggering number. Add to that 21 expect recruits and that’s more than 80 percent of the roster that has been turned over. Maybe it will turn out to be the right move. Or maybe it will be a total disaster.

That’s the opinion at least of one anonymous Pac-12 head coach who had this to say about Deion Sanders tenure as Colorado football head coach:

"“It feels like a lose-lose for Colorado with Prime. Either he’s gonna be really good really fast and leave for another gig, which, looking at that roster doesn’t seem possible,” the coach said, via Athlon Sports. “The alternative is that they’re gonna be bad, and they’ll end up firing him in a big circus.”“Jackson State was so good because they could get FBS-level guys and beat on FCS rosters. That won’t happen here. They’re not a good roster right now. How does he handle losing big? We haven’t seen that.”"

What to expect from Deion Sanders at Colorado?

Colorado football fans and Sanders will find out quickly if the massive turnover was a good idea. TCU is on the schedule for the first week of the season, followed by Nebraska the next.

Matt Rhule has turned over the Nebraska roster plenty too, but not nearly as much as Sanders who brought in more than double the transfer that the Huskers did.

Maybe it was the right thing to do. The Buffaloes won one game a year ago. Nebraska won four and could have won 6-8 if they didn’t lose close games more frequently than any other team in recent college football history.

The problem for Colorado football is that the head coach is right: Even if Coach Prime wins with Colorado football, it will be short-lived because it’s a stepping stone. He has no intention of staying in Boulder long-term.

Maybe getting the program back on the map is all that’s needed and his replacement can keep it going (if he wins at all). Or, as the head coach hinted at, it could be a disaster, and wind up fired.

I’m sure Colorado realized if Prime won he wouldn’t stay there forever. But from the school’s perspective, it’s already been a huge success. Look at the spring game. Colorado football fans haven’t been this excited for a long time.

So that’s a good thing. We’ll see how long that excitement lasts and if the wins start coming, will Prime take the first chance to move on?

It’s hard to disagree with what the Pac-12 coach said and he’s right in that Deion Sanders is essentially the ultimate boom-or-bust head coach.