Deion Sanders is as singular a presence in football as you’ll find. Whether you’re talking NFL or college, Coach Prime cuts a unique figure. And even more so in recent months as Sanders continues to battle against his health issues. These have even resulted in him coaching with only one shoe on in a recent game because of discomfort due to blood clots.
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Despite all of those personal issues paired with the fact that he lost his two most important players last offseason—QB Shedeur Sanders and CB/WR Travis Hunter—Coach Prime still has his Colorado Buffaloes competing. Sanders’ outfit is just 2-4 (including a 0-3 mark in the Big 12), but they played the only ranked team they’ve played—BYU—pretty close in a 24-21 loss.
Sanders does everything in his own way. He’s always unorthodox in everything he does and how he does it. The same goes for how he built up his coaching staff in Boulder. While football acumen is important, of course, Deion Sanders put more importance on the kind of person each of his candidates was. He talked about how he built his coaching staff while appearing on former NFL QB David Carr’s podcast this week.
“You guys gon’ like this because you’re Godly men. You had to be a good father. Why would I bring a man in that’s not a good father, and I want him to play the role of father and mentor, and coach to these young men? So if you’re not a good father to yours, how are you gonna be that to them? So one of our criterias is, all our guys got to love fathering men. And if they wanted to bring their kid over, ‘Hey man, bring your kid over.’ He’s cool, I got a room right next to mine.”
It’s just another example of how special Deion Sanders is. How many professional coaches, in any sport, do you hear talking about the character of their coaching staff hires first and foremost? None. Coach Prime puts that stuff above the Xs and Os, and that’s really refreshing to see.
His staff includes a lot of guys with NFL experience. Marshall Faulk, Domata Peko, and Byron Leftwich are a few of the names on the staff. Not to mention that he’s doing all this while on the brink of another major health issue. He gave a major update there on Tuesday.
“I am having a procedure today. Prayerfully, I’ll be right back at practice tomorrow. It is what it is. Found what we found. I have a wonderful team of doctors at UC Health and a team of wonderful trainers here. It has nothing to do with me working at the level and competing … it is hereditary. It is what it is. I trust God with all my heart.”
Whether Deion Sanders should continue to coach at the level he is considering the health issues he has, is a question we’re not going to answer here. That’s a decision for him and his family to make.
But from a football perspective, Sanders’ coaching staff, full of good fathers, needs to start applying those positive traits to their coaching. Because 2-4 (and 0-3 in the conference), with No. 22 Iowa State next on the docket, is not going to cut it. Or at least it hasn’t yet.
