“Joke of Leadership”: Jason Whitlock Rips Deion Sanders to Shreds Over Naive Coaching Antics

Deion Sanders may have given Jason Whitlock yet another reason to be critical of him. Whitlock thinks the Boulder head coach does not practice what he preaches and, to prove his point, he outlined how Sanders deflected from answering a very important question. On June 24, Prime Time was on ‘The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast’ and was asked a simple question about self-evaluation, but Sanders seemed to slip away and that infuriated Whitlock.

Whitlock thus stated, “Calling yourself Coach Prime or Prime Time some nickname and you’re trying to live up to some persona of Prime Time. That’s how you get to age 57, you have to be, you can’t do any self-reflection at all.”

After watching a clip of Deion Sanders answering the question, Whitlock further said, “Joel Klatt asked this man a direct question, and it’s an important question for any serious man. And Deion purports to be some sort of Christian. Any Christian who is not able to self-reflect, stand in the mirror, look at themselves, evaluate themselves, look for opportunities to improve them, what religion is he following?”

Let us backtrack to Coach Prime’s book ‘Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field’, which was published in March 2024. One thing the book mentioned was self-evaluation and how the coach aggressively followed it. As he prepares for his second season with Colorado, he would have reflected on their first season, right? Just so that the team doesn’t make the same mistakes. Wrong!

Hence, the podcaster further stated on his YouTube channel ‘Jason Whitlock’, “The man [Klatt] ask you a direct question about ‘take me through post-season and how you evaluated yourself and your staff’. And Deion’s answer was ‘let me take you back to in-season and tell you about these players that we didn’t have. My offensive and defensive lines weren’t any good’. … This man, no interest in evaluating himself.”

“What leader doesn’t evaluate themselves? We’re making a joke of leadership. He’s not responsible for anything. The players are responsible for everything. If the team loses, it’s their fault. If the team wins, it’s because Coach Prime is the greatest evaluator of talent,” he said about the deception that he senses.

However, let us also take a look at how exactly Deion Sanders had answered Klatt’s question. When Klatt asked Sanders about his post-season evaluation, the coach indeed gave a rundown of his in-season evaluation. He opined how the Buffs didn’t have the right players for the level they were aiming for. BUT!

That doesn’t mean Sanders did no self-reflection at all. At different points in the interview, the HC pointed out the gaps that he could see.

The four things Deion Sanders will do for the coming season:

Patience: 2023 was Deion Sanders’s first year with Colorado, and things were turbulent. Let us not forget he walked into Boulder right after the team had one of its worst seasons. Colorado finished the 2022 season with a 1-11 record. Thus, Sanders walking into such a team, overhauling the roaster, and finishing the 2023 season with a comparatively better record was not a bad feat to achieve.

He told Klatt, “I need a little bit more patience… I needed a little more patience in certain areas. Because I know what’s supposed to be happening, and I’m hearing what’s supposed to be happening. If it’s not happening — my best statement I make to the staff is, “If you allow it to happen, that’s on you.” It’s just consequently on me.” 

Consistency: After Deion Sanders walked through the gates of Boulder, the team quickly picked three back-to-back wins. The world of college football was shocked to see such a transformation. And to this the star power he brought and how some of the biggest celebrities were coming to watch them play, everyone thought CU would get the last laugh.

Unfortunately, the team lacked consistency, and the season ended with a 4-8 finish. Thus, Coach Prime intends to build more consistency in his second year.

A resilient and balanced team: Despite already overhauling the roaster, Deion Sanders believes he just didn’t have the right players to gun forward like he would want. But now, they have players like Jordan Seaton, Brandon Davis-Swain, Eric Brantley Jr., and many others who can build a more resilient and balanced team.

Further, in his second season with CU, Sanders’s recruiting strategy was focused on filling the weaknesses that he previously identified. And one of those would be better protection for their QB.

Adaptation: Sanders knows that he will have to work with the weapons he already has. He will have to devise new strategies and get the team to adapt to them. His goal is not just improvement but progress that will push them as a contender in the Big 12 and eventually, the national playoff.

While the first season brought in a lot of attention, people expect a lot from the second season under Sanders’s coaching. He seems to have made some critical adjustments in the offseason. Now only time will tell if those turn out to be the answers Deion Sanders was looking for.