“Deion is Deion, 100% of the time. You can see that in the business opportunities he seeks.” Before the Buffs were relevant in the grand scheme of things, Deion Sanders was pushing his luck with Jackson State. In the 2 year timeline, Coach Prime gave everything he had to that program, but a lot of questions were thrown up in the air: Is Deion here to stay? The moment the Colorado job hit, Deion Sanders and his sons were off for a fresh start in Boulder. Then, in just 2 years, Colorado went from a 1-11 irrelevant program to a 9-3 Big 12 contender. Now after 30 years, Colorado has its 2nd Heisman winner and Deion’s son is going for the Top 5 picks in the draft – the past comes back to haunt him. 

“This is towards the end of the pandemic, and he looked at us and he said, I’m here to stay. I’m here to build it two years later. He ends up at Colorado. Right now, Deion’s in another, uh, situationship, right? And that situationship is; is he going to take the job at the Dallas Cowboys?” Former NFL WR Brandon Marshall points out. To say that Deion didn’t build JSU would be a lie. Under Coach Prime, Jackson State’s standards and visibility rose high enough. While it wasn’t something revolutionary, the 27-6 run completely changed the recruitment game for JSU and we got to see some talents that were never heard before at the FCS level. “I don’t inherit a legacy. I build it,” was what Coach Prime had once said and it still rings true.

Talk about Colorado. The moment Prime Time snapped at Boulder, the Buffs saw one of the biggest roster changes in its history. 50 players transferred in, while more than 40 transferred out of the program. Was it good enough? It was something. From 1-11 to 4-8. Now, for the layman, this might look like a failure. However, the seeds of change were already planted and the fruition finally happened in 2024.

Did you ever imagine Paul Finebaum saying, “He beat the house this year. And he partly beat them because he’s a good coach.” The same Finebaum who called Colorado “irrelevant in the big picture of college football” was singing praises of Prime Time domination. This alone says a lot.

At the end of the day, it’s not about the “situationships” that Marshall pointed out. Yes, Deion had promised a longer time at JSU, but he left after pushing the program to the cusp of greatness. And for Colorado, while the 9-3 and the Heisman win might seem like a “fairy tale ending,” Deion “Prime Time” Sanders is not done.

Coach Prime is here to stay

“Am I crazy for thinking Deion would be a great fit for the Cowboys?” 2-3 months back, the Deion x Cowboys affair was selling like hotcakes on Christmas Eve. It made sense why. For Jerry Jones, a change was a must. Dak Prescott was a disappointment and Mike McCarthy barely did anything good.

But, you can pretty much say that Dallas cut themselves out of the Deion race intentionally when they won a game they should’ve lost. What did this do? Push them down the NFL draft pick list – Resulting in losing out on Shedeur Sanders as their QB.

Call it fate or destiny – it looks like even the football gods didn’t want Deion to prematurely leave the Buffs at their peak. See, the only way an NFL team could get Coach Prime to coach for them is if Coach Prime gets to coach his sons. With the Cowboys being out of that race, it’s pretty much impossible for them to get Deion Sanders on their staff.

For now, you can safely say that the Buffs have Coach Prime for another season.