Deion Sanders is a pretty smart guy. Surely, he has figured out that his days as the Colorado head football coach are now numbered. Gone is the hype and hope of the Buffaloes competing for conference championships and playoff berths. Now, Prime Time and his staff are just hoping they can beat in-state rival Colorado State in the Rocky Mountain Showdown this weekend.
Last week, Nebraska proved why Sanders should begin packing his bags. The Cornhuskers dismantled the Buffaloes in all aspects of the game and beat Colorado 28-10. It was Nebraska’s first win over Colorado since 2019. The Buffaloes had won three straight against the Cornhuskers. Now, Buffaloes fans are wondering if they can win another game this season.
What happened to the shiny, happy Colorado football of Prime Time Deion Sanders? It’s really not all that hard to figure out.
Defense Wins Championships
Any coach, anywhere, anytime will tell you that, indeed, defense wins championships. When you are not good on defense, you simply don’t win. Just ask college football’s national champions over the last several years.
Last season, Michigan won the national title. The Wolverines also led the nation in scoring defense, allowing opponents just 9.5 points per game. The two seasons prior, Georgia won consecutive national championships. The Bulldogs were No. 2 in the country in scoring defense in 2022 (12.8 ppg) and they were No. 1 in 2021 (9.5 ppg).
In 2023, Sanders’ Colorado team gave up an average of 34.8 points per game. That’s roughly five touchdowns. In a given season, there might be 15 to 20 teams that average more than five touchdowns per game on offense. Trying to outscore your opponents isn’t a recipe for success. The Buffs showed that last season.
Colorado rose up the national rankings with three straight wins to start the 2023 season. The Buffaloes beat TCU, Nebraska, and Colorado State, but they did give up over 30 points per game. That’s when the wheels started to fall off the Prime Time bus.
The Colorado defense finished last season ranked 121st in scoring defense. They ranked 107th against the run (176.4 ypg), 124th against the pass (276.9 ypg), and 127th in total defense, allowing opponents to gain 453.3 yards per game. For the record, there are 133 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Staff Shortcomings
There’s a saying that coaches, business leaders, and others like to use. It goes something like this: You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with. Take a look at Colorado’s defense. After last year’s debacle, Sanders went out and hired a new defensive coordinator. The job went to Robert Livingston.
Who is Robert Livingston? Well, he has exactly nine years of on-field coaching experience. Yes, eight of those years were spent in the NFL as the Cincinnati Bengals secondary coach. But, Livingston has never been a coordinator at any level. He had zero experience before taking over the Buffaloes defense. After two weeks, his defense is giving up roughly four touchdowns per game. In Week 1, Colorado almost lost to an FCS team, allowing North Dakota State to score 26 points.
On the offensive side of the ball, Coach Prime went with a recognizable name at offensive coordinator – Pat Shurmur. If you don’t know the Shurmur name, Fritz Shurmur, Pat’s uncle, was a long-time NFL assistant and was the Packers defensive coordinator in the ‘90s when they were Super Bowl champions.
Now, name recognition can go a long way, but you know what goes longer? Wins. Those are something that Shurmur found really hard to come by as a head coach in the NFL. He did two stints – three if you count the one game as the Eagles interim head coach in 2015.
Shurmur was the head man in Cleveland in 2011 and 2012. He also spent two years as the New York Giants head coach in 2018 and 2019. Shurmur went 9-23 with both teams for a grand total of 18-46 (19-46 if you count his victory as the Eagles interim coach). That’s not even a 30 percent winning percentage. How did Shurmur’s offense stack up against Nebraska last week?
Marketing Hero, Coach Zero
The word on the Colorado campus was that Coach Prime informed the Colorado marching band that they would no longer be playing “Glory, Glory Colorado” and “Fight CU” after touchdowns and extra points. Supposedly, that was so that Shedeur Sanders’ rap song could be played over the public address system.
Now, Coach Prime says that these reports are false. They likely are, but given Sanders’ past history, the report doesn’t come as a surprise. Sanders loves publicity. He loves the spotlight and everything that comes with it. Coach Prime has built a hype empire. The problem? Hype and marketing the Buffaloes football program doesn’t win games.
When you don’t win games, fan interest subsides. No matter how many rap songs your son puts out, fans are just interested in seeing him throw touchdowns…and win games. So far, Shedeur, Coach Prime, and the rest of the Colorado hype machine have won a grand total of … wait for it … five games.
This Saturday, things won’t get any easier. Last year, the Buffaloes had to go to double overtime to beat Colorado State 43-35 and this time the game is in Fort Collins. Then comes the meat of the Big 12 schedule. Coach Prime is lucky that Colorado’s biggest games will be at home. Kansas State, Utah, and Oklahoma State – all considered favorites to win the conference – all visit Boulder this year. The outcomes of those games, as well as all the others, will determine whether or not and when Coach Prime should pick up his bags and start heading for the door.
