At some point, we have to separate Deion Sanders the personality and recruiter from Deion Sanders the head football coach.
Because right now, Colorado isn’t giving us much evidence that Coach Prime is actually a good coach.
The Buffaloes are 2-2 after consecutive losses, including an embarrassing 41-7 loss to Northwestern followed by a 23-13 loss at Baylor. Colorado is averaging only 21.5 points per game despite having plenty of talent on its roster.
And this isn’t just one bad month.
Sanders deserves credit for taking over a Colorado program that went 1-11 before his arrival. He immediately brought attention, talent and excitement back to Boulder. Colorado improved from 4-8 in 2023 to 9-4 in 2024, which looked like the beginning of something special.
Then everything went backward.
Colorado crashed to 3-9 in 2025, including a 1-8 conference record. Now the Buffaloes are 2-2 in 2026 and already staring at many of the same questions.
The roster turnover has also been ridiculous. Colorado brought in 43 transfers this offseason after 64 players departed, yet the program still doesn’t appear to have the stability you’d expect in Year 4.
Then there’s the discipline.
Colorado committed 13 penalties for 112 yards against Weber State, and after the Northwestern disaster, Sanders removed three players from the roster for what he described as conduct detrimental to the team. Sanders himself acknowledged that he hadn’t put his foot down enough the previous season before problems eventually “imploded.”
That’s where the criticism has to fall on the head coach.
Sanders has proven he can recruit. He’s proven he can generate attention. He’s proven he can completely change the relevance of a program.
But can he build a consistent, disciplined winner?
Year 4 is when that question becomes much harder to avoid.
The 9-4 season showed what Colorado can look like when everything clicks. But one great season surrounded by losing football isn’t enough. The Buffaloes have now lost 11 of their last 16 games dating back to the beginning of 2025.
Deion Sanders has unquestionably made Colorado interesting again.
But interesting and good aren’t the same thing.
