The No. 23 Colorado Buffaloes will wrap up a massively successful 2024 campaign on Saturday. They’ll do so with a matchup against the No. 17 BYU Cougars at the Valero Alamo Bowl on Saturday. It will be a chance for head coach Deion Sanders to bring Boulder its first Bowl game win since 2004 when the Buffs won the EV1.net Houston Bowl. However, the Bowl also represents the last chance Prime Time will have to coach his sons.
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Deion’s older son, cornerback Shilo Sanders, and his younger son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, will both enter the NFL Draft in 2025. When asked about coaching his kids for the final time on Friday, Sanders was candid about the conflicting emotions he’s been feeling in the build-up to the final game of the year :
“I’ve been trying to shy away from that moment. Because I knew the last home game, it was the last home game, but it wasn’t the last game. But this is it. I got upset with Shilo yesterday and I told him ‘we got 48 hours son, 48 hours.’ (Laughs) It’s gonna be something to behold. I don’t know how I’m going to handle it.”
However, Coach Prime made sure to remind the reporter of the rest of the seniors also playing their last game for the Buffs on Saturday. He said, “Don’t forget Travis”. Travis Hunter is headed for the NFL next year just like the Sanders brothers, and Coach Prime has essentially adopted the Heisman Trophy winner over the last few years.
“I know Travis is gonna trigger me, because he always does. He’s gonna bring tears out of my eyes. I don’t look forward to it, but I do because that means they’re going to another level another chapter of life, and they’re gonna soar.”
Coach Prime on this being the last game coaching his sons:
“I don’t know how i’m gonna handle it. I know Travis is gonna trigger me and make me tear up.” pic.twitter.com/9qwl7ri99h
— DNVR Buffs (@DNVR_Buffs) December 27, 2024
Many enjoyed positing a possible move to the NFL for Coach Prime in recent months and weeks. However, he has recently confirmed that he wants to “finish” his coaching career in Boulder for the Colorado Buffaloes, so this truly was his final time coaching his sons.
Sanders first coached his boys in 2017 at Trinity Christian High School, which Shilo, Shedeur, and his oldest son, Deion Jr., all attended. He also coached Shilo, Shedeur, and Hunter at Jackson State University in 2021-2022, before the quartet moved over to Colorado in 2023.
Shilo Sanders will enter the NFL draft, but there’s no guarantee that the 24-year-old is going to be selected. No doubt he will make it onto an NFL roster at the very least. The best-case scenario is he goes as an early Day Three pick in the 4th or 5th rounds.
Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, meanwhile, should be the top five picks at the 2025 NFL Draft. Shedeur currently has the shortest odds to be the No. 1 pick. Hunter is down in 3rd behind Miami QB Cam Ward. Either way, Hunter is a shoo-in to be the first non-QB selected in April.
