The 2025 College Football season will truly be a challenging year for Deion Sanders as it’s the first time he will be coaching a team without Shedeur Sanders and Heisman winner Travis Hunter. With two top players missing, Coach Prime has a big job in his hands to ensure that there isn’t a drop-off in quality. Now that he has led the team to a bowl game, the same will be expected again, maybe more.
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Getting the new cohort ready as early as possible is a smart way to kick off the rebuild. Deion Sanders has, therefore, wasted no time, already laying the foundation for the new season by setting clear expectations for his players.
As a CFB player, it is essential to be on the field as much as possible because of how crucial it is for development. But there are two ways to achieve this. For starters, you can be in a team where you have a guaranteed starting position, as you are the creme de la creme of the cohort.
Alternatively, you can be in a team where there are quality players all around you, and you have to fight for your spot. As per Deion Sanders, the locker room at Colorado follows the latter scenario.
Coach Prime made this clear to his 2025 players during their recent introductory session that no one’s spot in the squad is guaranteed, as selections will be based on merit. He even urged the players to inform their parents about this policy rather than mislead them if they end up losing their place on the team.
This is truly a headache for a CFB coach as parents love to micromanage the progress of their children. For them, seeing their ward’s prospects being stalled without due reason would be a heart-burner.
Being a father himself, Prime knows a lot about this. So, the Buffs coach has decided to invite his player’s parents to practice, ensuring that they know why their son isn’t getting game time.
“I’m going to invite your parents to practice so they can see what you do… So quit lying to your parents. I hate when parents call coaches, man. that’s like it’s High School level. Quit having parents call coaches and complain to coaches. Have the parents fly in and watch them practice, sit them in the meeting room and just let them be with their kid all day.”
No player in College Football would prefer to be in a team where his position as a starter is a question mark. Hearing a statement like this from your coach may make some players think of switching teams.
While the Buffs HC acknowledged this fear, he reiterated that meritocracy will remain the pathway to the Buffs’ first team. So if the players consistently get a 3/5 in training, it’s unlikely they’ll see much game time. But if they always give their best, these players will see the field much more than the others, as confirmed by Coach Prime.
“We don’t play favourites. Whoever is the best player, that’s who is going to play… You get threes (out of 5), you ain’t not starting. If you get fours and fives, you got a good opportunity that you going to start.”
It’s good to see Coach Prime setting up the new season’s foundation with utmost transparency. This year is also the start of a new cycle for him with no Shedeur and Travis.
With Deion most likely accepting the lucrative contract extension deal on his table, it’s likely that he will oversee one more cycle at Colorado before leaving for the NFL.
If this is what Deion has in his mind, the former NFL star has a lot of time on his hands to conquer CFB silverware. And for that to happen, he has to build a strong core, which he seems to be doing very well already!
