Before he was "Coach Prime", Deion Sanders was one of the best athletes in the world. Growing up in the 90s, if you didn't have a Deion Sanders jersey, action figure, or bandanna in your wardrobe, you probably weren't a sports fan at all. Who didn't high-step their way into the end zone during a pickup game of football at least a time or two? Sanders was that dude back in the day, and it's no surprise he's had a wild amount of success in his post-playing career. Sanders was one of the most entertaining talking heads for a time on the NFL Network before he became a college football coach in 2020 at Jackson State.
Now the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes program, Sanders is making an early mark and in a big way. It's fair to say that the Colorado football program is the biggest story in sports right now thanks to Coach Prime. ESPN's College Gameday is returning to Boulder for the first time since 1996. The Buffs are 2-0 to start the college football season with a win against a top-10 TCU program in Week 1 and a blowout victory over longtime rival Nebraska in Week 2.
Very quickly, Deion Sanders is doing for the CU Buffs program what Peyton Manning did rather quickly for the Denver Broncos in 2012. He is turning a struggling but proud program into a household name once again.
The Denver Broncos obviously had a very rich tradition prior to Manning's arrival in 2012, but they had been in a Super Bowl drought. Although they had a contender in 2005, the Broncos really hadn't competed -- legitimately -- a whole lot after John Elway retired and the best year the team had (besides 2005) was arguably the year before Manning arrived, which was the "Tebow" year.
Peyton Manning was a living legend in the NFL when he arrived in Denver, and even with some question marks about injuries coming into that 2012 season, he had a certain level of gravitas about him that you just knew things had changed -- for the better -- in Denver.
You get that same vibe with Deion in Colorado. He's taken a program that has been -- let's just be honest about it -- irrelevant for the last couple of decades and brought it into a place of national prominence once again. He's got not one but two Heisman contenders on his roster, one of which is his own son (Shedeur) and the other of which is an absolute unicorn in modern football, Travis Hunter.
Just like Peyton Manning choosing the Denver Broncos over a variety of other options was an absolute gift from the football gods, so was Coach Prime choosing the CU Buffs program. Think about it -- he could have gone just about anywhere else he would have wanted. Just like you may cringe at the thought of Manning choosing any other team, you cringe now at the thought of Deion Sanders choosing anywhere besides Boulder (if you're a CU fan, of course).
Manning made the Denver Broncos a destination franchise, which resulted in players like DeMarcus Ware and Emmanuel Sanders choosing the Broncos over other teams. Deion Sanders is having a similar impact at CU where players across the country -- whether they are in high school or playing at other colleges -- are going to want to come and play for him.
Most importantly, though, Manning made the Denver Broncos legitimate contenders. It wasn't just pomp and circumstance as we saw last season with a big-name QB like Russell Wilson coming to Denver and poor results, but Manning and the Broncos were Super Bowl contenders instantly. I'm not sure Deion Sanders and CU will be winning the National Championship this year, but who knows?
As for now, the Buffs look like contenders under Coach Prime. Future contenders at the very least. It's clear that, like Manning, Sanders is more than just talk. He can talk the talk, but he can walk the walk just as well.