With no Shedeur Sanders or Travis Hunter to rely on, Deion Sanders appears to have his work cut out for him heading into the 2025 college football season. Both of his premier pupils have headed for the bright lights of the NFL. And Colorado has yet to sign any major five-star recruits, leaving many to wonder as to whether or not the Buffaloes will be capable of reaching a second consecutive bowl game.
Advertisement
Nevertheless, The Athletic’s national college football insider, Bruce Feldman, is as confident as ever in the capabilities of Coach Prime. Feldman, like many others, was thoroughly impressed by Sanders’ ability to transform the Buffaloes from a one-win team to a nation-wide spectacle in just two calendar years. “They were horrible when he took over,” he recalled.
“First of all, you probably have the most charismatic leader that we’ve ever seen in college football. I think you have a lot of ‘buy in’ from the people around him… I went to some of the conference meetings before his first season… Just to see him, off camera, listen to him talk for like a half hour, I came away saying “Oh, I totally see how can this can work [in Colorado,” he added while praising Coach Prime’s motivational effect.
According to Feldman, the naysayers simply don’t appreciate the unconventional nature of Sanders’ approach. “I just think he’s different and I think, for a lot of people, they don’t know what to make of different, so they scoff at it.”
When looking at Colorado’s win total props for the upcoming season, it doesn’t seem as if oddsmakers got Feldman’s memo. The Buffaloes current win total is sitting at 6.5 wins, yet the over is currently sporting -180 odds.
Simply put, the sportsbooks are expecting the program to regress with the losses of Hunter and Shedeur, while the public is banking on the confidence and consistency of the NFL Hall of Famer. What was once a top 25 ranked roster in the nation has since atrophied, yet the poise and aforementioned charisma of Sanders has seemingly been enough to reassure both fans and analysts alike.
Nevertheless, if Sanders wants to make it a profitable season for Buffs bettors, the program will need to up its recruiting efforts. Most of the headlines that feature Colorado these days also include the name of the latest five-star recruit that they failed to land.
However, it’s also worth noting that, if there was ever a head coach who was capable of getting key players to forsake their prior commitments, it’s the man they call “Prime Time.” Sanders famously managed to convince the aforementioned Hunter to flip his commitment from FSU to Jackson State, which is certainly worth keeping in mind throughout the final months leading up to signing day.
Then again, if the odds on Colorado’s over are indicative of anything, it’s that the majority of Sanders’ fan club stopped doubting him a long time ago.
