PRESS BOX: Deion Sanders has a prime effect on college football

Kyler Gilliam, Contributing Writer

Deion Sanders, also known as Coach Prime, and the Colorado Buffaloes have been the center of the sports world for the past two months. 

Sanders has led an unprecedented turnaround of the University of Colorado’s football program as the team’s head coach.

Sanders’ popularity and polarity has brought intense media attention to college football. College football has always been in the background compared to the National Football League. 

He has brought new life into college football and his impact on the sport cannot be overstated. More people are paying attention to college football simply because of Sanders, and the college football world should appreciate that.

Sanders’ work in Boulder has been amazing, but he still has his critics.

After a hall of fame career in the NFL and career in television, Sanders picked up coaching in Texas in 2015, coaching his sons’ high school football team. 

He moved onto Jackson State University, a historically Black university, or HBCU, in 2020, according to BetMGM. 

Sanders brought a spotlight to HBCU football that has not been seen before.

Shows like “College Gameday” and “60 Minutes” were on location in Jackson, Mississippi to cover Sanders and his team.

After three seasons at Jackson State and a 27-6 overall record, Sanders accepted a job at the Power Five level at Colorado in December 2022, according to CBS Sports. 

When he accepted the job, Colorado was ranked the worst team in the country, according to ESPN. There was little national attention on Colorado, but Sanders changed that quickly.

A video surfaced of the first team meeting after Sanders was hired saying that he was bringing his own “luggage,” meaning he already had players in mind to bring onto Colorado’s roster for the 2023 season. 

His idea was to overturn the roster through the transfer portal, bringing in players across the country who already had college football experience, according to the video. 

Sanders did just that, intaking 51 total transfers in the 2023 cycle, which was the most in the country by a fair amount and was only ranked No.1 in the nation, according to 247 Sports.

He also took in 17 incoming freshmen, 57 players transferred out of Colorado, leaving only 10 total scholarship players from the previous season, according to USA Today.  

Sanders essentially created a new team for the 2023 season. The college football world has never seen the amount of roster turnover that Colorado and Sanders have done.

It left a large amount of intrigue for their upcoming season. Their first test came with the national champion runner-up No. 17 Texas Christian University.

The Horned Frogs were a 20.5-point favorite at home against the Buffaloes, according to Fox Sports. Colorado then shocked the world with a 45-42 victory on the road, according to ESPN. 

That victory was the second most watched game of opening week, only behind Louisiana State and Florida State, averaging 7.6 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch. 

The Buffaloes were the featured game on FOX with Big Noon Kickoff in attendance, which is the marquee college football show for the network. 

Colorado would then gain more attention with a game against Nebraska, which they won handily 36-14, according to ESPN. 

That game would average 8.73 million viewers and was the most watched Pacific-12 regular season game on Fox ever, according to USA Today.

Those two victories pushed the hype of Colorado and Sanders through the roof. Every show was covering them. The next game on the Buffaloes’ schedule was a rivalry game against Colorado State. 

In a media interview, CSU’s head coach Jay Norvell talked about how he sees the tendency of Coach Prime wearing glasses and hats in interviews as disrespectful, inferring that he was raised right and Sanders was not, according to ESPN. 

Shows such as First Take, The Pat McAfee Show, Undisputed and ESPN College Gameday were in Boulder to cover Sanders. 

The game was a double overtime thriller which saw the Buffaloes edge the Rams 43-35, according to ESPN. 

The game averaged 9.3 million viewers and was the fifth most watched regular season college game for ESPN. It was the second largest viewership for a late-night sports broadcast since 2019, according to Sports Media Watch.   

The hype continued to rise for the Buffaloes, entering Pac-12 conference play against Oregon; it measured up to be their toughest obstacle so far. The outside noise of national media got to head coach of Oregon Dan Lanning.

During the game, Lanning’s pregame speech was put onto ESPN’s broadcast claiming that Colorado and Sanders were playing for clicks and the Ducks were playing for wins and the Ducks would then beat Colorado 42-6.

This game would still break records, it was the highest watched college game of the season averaging 10.03 million viewers, according to Yahoo Sports. 

Win, lose, or draw, Sanders is everywhere, because he is simply undeniable. His energy is unquantifiable, whether he is wearing sunglasses and cowboy hats on the sideline or is in nearly every commercial on ESPN’s network, he is going to grab everyone’s attention.