As much as it hurts to admit, things don’t feel the same in Boulder anymore. Back in the first year of the Coach Prime era, the Colorado Buffaloes locker room felt less like a football team and more like a reality TV show that everyone actually wanted to binge, even though they lost 2/3 of the games in 2024. The Buffs had talent and character for days and weeks. Deion Sanders’ firstborn had to work OT every day, filming every single moment for his YouTube channel, Well Off Media.

On a recent episode of the GaniKaliv Speaking podcast, the host threw the nostalgia question at Bucky.

“How was that first year at Colorado, like all the glitz, the glamour? Your channel going through? I know you made M’s on that channel. I know YouTube, I know you would do it, boy,” the host said.

Bucky admitted that even when they were losing tough, close games, there was a special bond holding them together.

“Like everybody was legit characters, and it was like a big-a** family. Yeah, even the first year when we was getting our heads beaten, last year too, but even the first year when our heads were getting beaten, we still had Shedeur Sanders and Jimmy Horn. You still had Travis Hunter, so it was still close games. I don’t know, I miss them some days,” Bucky confessed.

These days, Bucky still walks through the same locker room, but the inside jokes feel thinner, the greetings more polite than personal. Name recall takes longer than handshake speed; everyone has a story from another school, another coach, another city. He doesn’t say he dislikes the new guys, but you can feel the distance between “teammates” and “chosen family.”

Bucky was not talking about trophies or headlines. He meant the feeling inside that first Colorado locker room, where the same faces showed up every day, and the bond felt real. With Shedeur, Travis, and Jimmy around, the group had a kind of comfort that doesn’t travel with a transfer‑class roster.

The host didn’t hold back, dropping a heavy truth: “I really bet you do, in more ways than one.” It was a subtle dig at how the team’s performance and locker room had completely changed within less than one season of Shedeur and Travis’ exit. Bucky just laughed it off, but everyone listening knew it was true.

Bucky doesn’t slam the new players by name, but he doesn’t paint them as brothers, either. When he talks about the old room, his voice warms; when he talks about the new one, it flattens into something clinical. To an outsider, it sounds less like he’s mad at them and more like he’s resigned to the fact that the easy kinship is gone.

Even though the Buffs did not win many games, people across America still watched them in big numbers. At one point, they were among the most‑watched college teams in the country, with millions of fans tuning in every week.

That changed fast when Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter left for the NFL. Their faces and stories were gone, and so was the special energy that made the team feel different. Today, the current roster does not have a single player with that same kind of fame or big‑stage personality.

It’s understandable the reason behind Bucky’s laugh. The well-off media are rarely rolling these days, or at least how it used to be. To get things going for them, Sanders brought in 40+ transfers, one of the highest totals in the Power Four. However, the locker room today feels more like a corporate office full of strangers trying to learn each other’s names. That explains why Bucky sounds more distant from the environment now.

Bucky opens up about his dad not being around

Speaking on Mr. Organik’s YouTube channel, Deion Sanders Jr. explained that he always lived with his mother, Carolyn Chambers, and his older sister on the other side of town. However, he made it clear that Deion Sanders was still very active in his life. “He always showed up to everything, every game,” Sanders Jr. said, while also shutting down the idea that his father was absent.

Deion Sanders Jr. is the first son of Deion Sanders from his marriage to Carolyn Chambers. The couple had two children together before their marriage ended in the late 1990s. Carolyn filed for divorce in 1997, saying they had grown apart over time. Unlike Sanders’ later divorce, this one stayed mostly out of the public spotlight.

At the time, Deion Sanders was one of the biggest stars in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. But behind the scenes, he was struggling badly with the breakup of his family. Sanders later admitted that period left him emotionally broken and feeling like he had “no will to live.” He hated being away from his children and said he hit “rock bottom” during those years.

Even though Deion Jr. did not grow up living with his father, he still says Deion Sanders was a good and caring parent. He admitted his childhood was not always easy because many people thought he had a perfect life because of his famous last name. Still, according to Deion Jr., his father always showed up during the important moments. Even today, Carolyn Chambers still speaks positively about Deion Sanders, even after that ugly divorce.