The Deion Sanders experiment in Colorado might be backfiring for the program. The NFL icon sure has brought some much-needed attention to the Buffaloes. But on the field, they still have miles to cover. Former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton had a warning for Coach Prime.
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“Now, as far as your overall record in interconference play, whether it’s the Pac-12 or the Big 12, Deion Sanders over the three years is 9- 18,” he said on 4th & 1 with Cam Newton. “Unacceptable. I don’t need to say he knows that that’s unacceptable.
“I’m not holding him accountable to a standard that he knows, and everybody knows. We expect Coach Prime to win. That’s the expectation that he set for himself. But if he doesn’t win, yes, it would be a bad look for his coaching record.”
After three seasons in Boulder, Sanders is 16-21 overall; two of those three seasons were losing ones. The 3-9 record from 2025 will haunt the current team unless they start adding respectable wins this season. How he does that with a brand-new team yet another time in his career is a mystery, since he failed the last time.
Colorado’s 2024 seniors going pro in 2025 and leaving the program next year played a big role in the losses. Inexperienced players couldn’t deliver what was needed, and the pressure overwhelmed the team. The 2026 Colorado defense is entirely new, as none of last year’s full-time starters returned, after the unit gave up 425.7 yards per game.
As the standard lowered, many players lost hope after last season. More than 40 players filed out of the program in the 2026 transfer portal. High school recruiting has been even worse: the 2026 class is ranked 69th in the country by Rivals, while the 2025 class sat at No. 35 last year. That rank won’t improve if Colorado doesn’t win, because the Deion Sanders factor is not enough to draw elite players to Boulder.
“Winning at Colorado is different because you trying to recruit in Miami to get somebody over there in that frigid cold,” Newton remarked.
Colorado’s 2023 class also sat at No. 35, the year Deion Sanders took the reins. He has his work cut out to make the program this relevant once again.
Colorado sold 23,987 season tickets in 2025, but only 78.3% of those previous buyers renewed for 2026, per The Denver Post’s BuffZone. When this report was published, only 20,411 tickets were sold. Not many were buying into the Deion Sanders hype anymore
The Buffaloes were ranked 15th out of 16 teams in the Big 12 preseason media poll, ahead of only Iowa State. Entering the 2026 season, the Buffaloes were unranked, as expected.
Sanders not taking responsibility is bugging former LSU player Breiden Fehoko.
“You can’t say, ‘Well, this is what God had planned for me.” ‘No, that isn’t,’ Fehoko said on his show on August 29. “That’s just you being a bad coach. Take accountability for that. You can’t turn every criticism, like I said, into something of a storyline and a narrative of, ‘Oh, this is in God’s work for me. I got players leaving the program.”
This is an essential year for Deion Sanders’ legacy as a head coach. Last year was also troublesome because of his fight with cancer, which had kept him away from camp for a long time. A 3-9 record shouldn’t be excused, but given his condition, he wasn’t exactly in the best capacity to run the team. How he fares this season might have a domino effect on his current contract with Colorado.
Coach Prime’s five-year contract runs through 2029, which will earn him $54 million. He is set to make $10 million this year, $11 million in 2027 and 2028, and $12 million in 2029. If Colorado fires him before the end of this year, the program will have to pay him $25.5 million. It’s a steep price, but if nothing works, the top brass might have to part with the money anyway.