For Colorado football and Deion Sanders, Phase II starts now

The first phase of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders’ resurrection of the Buffaloes football program ended with a thud.

Brigham Young University bullied and bashed the Buffaloes in the Valero Alamo Bowl 36-14. A blowout loss in a bowl game hardly defines Colorado’s season. Not when Colorado — picked to finish 11th in the 2024 Big 12 media preseason poll — tied BYU, Arizona State, and Iowa State for first place.

And don’t forget, a preseason CBS and 247Sports poll ranked Sanders as the 15th-best coach in the conference. Just so you know, the poll ranked Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham 16th, and the Sun Devils advanced to the College Football Playoff.

Sanders guided Colorado to nine wins for the first time since 2016, and the team emerged as one of college football’s highest-profile programs. Travis Hunter, the first full-time two-way player in modern college football, won the Heisman Trophy. He also won the Biletnikoff (best receiver), Bednarik (best defensive player) and Maxwell (best all-around player) awards. Shedeur Sanders, the Big 12’s Offensive Player of the Year, completed 74% of his passes for 4,134 yards with 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Hunter and Sanders are expected to be among the top five players selected in April’s NFL draft.

“It felt great representing Colorado and bringing it back to where it was it was in the past,” Shedeur Sanders told reporters last week. “We kind of laid the foundation of the program, so now it’s possible for the other players coming in to take off and pick up where we left off.”

Phase II of Sanders’ rebuilding program, making Colorado a consistent winner, starts now.

Players and coaches who join the program must be prepared to deal with expectations that haven’t existed since former coaches Bill McCartney and Rick Neuheisel combined for five 10-win seasons from 1989 to 1996.

“We’ve established expectations,” Deion Sanders told reporters last week. “So now you expect us to perform a certain way. You expect us to win. You expect us to be exciting…You just have expectations of us now. That’s what we’ve established.

Hunter and Shedeur Sanders have created a foundation of individual and team excellence. Deion Sanders has cultivated a culture where NIL money isn’t the top priority for Colorado’s players and where hard work and fun coexist.

Colorado, like every Power 5 program, has a budget to pay players, but Deion Sanders wants them focused more on development and NFL money. Besides, he tells potential recruits that superior play on the field leads to endorsement opportunities like Shedeur Sanders and Hunter received. Shedeur reportedly had a NIL valuation of nearly $5 million, while Hunter ‘s valuation is nearly $3 million.

The Buffaloes play on national TV virtually every week, a DJ plays bangers in the locker room before games, rappers and celebrities line the sidelines for home games and the coach encourages social media interaction. All of that’s enticing for this generation of players.

Colorado already has felt the sting of success. Good teams have their rosters and coaching staffs raided.

Nikhai Hill-Green, a second-team All-Big 12 linebacker, who transferred from North Carolina-Charlotte last season, left for Alabama before the Alamo Bowl. On Sunday, Mississippi State announced offensive line coach Phil Loadholt and defensive line assistant Vincent Dancy would join the Bulldogs’ staff.

Any questions about Sanders’ ability to hire a staff have been answered. Each of his coordinators his first year at Colorado, Sean Lewis (San Diego State) and Charles Kelly (Jacksonville State), are now head coaches.

“We’re here to advance people,” Sanders said.

Reality says any longterm success revolves around securing the quarterback position. Graduate transfer Kaidon Salter and five-star quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis will get the opportunity to replace Sanders.

Salter completed 58.8% of his passes for 4,762 yards with 47 touchdowns and 12 interceptions the past two seasons, while leading Liberty University to a 21-4 record. The dual-threat quarterback also rushed for 1,668 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Lewis flipped from Southern California to Colorado just before signing day in December. The 17-year-old, who reclassified from the Class of 2026 to the Class of 2025, practiced last week with Colorado.

A three-year starter, Lewis passed for 11,010 yards with 144 touchdowns and 21 interceptions in Georgia’s second-largest classification. He passed for 333 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions in Carrollton (Ga.) High School’s 38-24 loss to Grayson in the Class 6A championship game. On Sunday, he posted a photo on “X” (formerly Twitter) that showed a photo of his locker next to the locker of Shedeur Sanders.

Recruiting high school players or transfer portal veterans is the key to any program’s sustained success. Deion Sanders has proved he can recruit without ever leaving Colorado.

He has mastered the FaceTime call or Zoom meeting because his charisma permeates through any screen and Colorado has the nation’s most visible program. He has five million Instagram followers and 1.8 million on X. Well Off Media, run by his son Deion Sanders Jr., has 520,000 YouTube subscribers.

High school players know exactly what Colorado’s program is all about before they ever receive a text or direct message from an assistant coach. According to on3.com, Colorado had the 34th best recruiting class in the country despite signing just 14 players. Last year, Colorado’s recruiting class ranked 65th.

Lewis highlighted the class, but Colorado also signed four-star offensive linemen Carde Smith and Chauncey Gooden to join class of 2024 five-star offensive lineman Jordan Seaton, who started every game at left tackle as a freshman. Colorado flipped four-star defensive end London Merritt from Ohio State, while adding five-star kicker Elliott Arnold.

Colorado has always performed well in transfer portal recruiting, adding Alabama defensive tackle Jaheim Oatis, the portal’s best defensive lineman, and Oklahoma safety Makari Vickers.

“When I came to Boulder after the 1-11 team we had to build a lot of things. A lot of people hated on us but look at us and where we’re at,” said safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig, who also played for Sanders in high school and at Jackson State. “I talk to the newcomers, the freshmen, the early enrollees, all the time because they’re building something here. We’re really building something,” he said. “We’ve got guys that you’ll remember started this. It’s important to make sure you keep passing it down.

“It’s been wonderful seeing the guys come in with a hunger. They kind of caught on how we get things done. These guys are humble. They’re quiet and trying to listen and learn. They’re going to do some big things.”