The CU Buffs defense is in good hands, at least since Robert Livingston took over. The Prime way to know it? Livingston’s willingness to learn from the best seasoned among them all: Coach Prime. Deion Sanders played not one, not two, but three defensive positions. “I’d be an idiot not to use it,” Livingston confessed, knowing Prime was the ‘triple threat’ back in his NFL days. Sanders primarily featured as a cornerback and made appearances as a wide receiver as well. This was common since Jim Thorpe made two-way skills the next-hot thing in the NFL. However, Sanders brought it up a notch by also making occasional appearances as a return specialist. If all this was not enough to establish Sanders as a formidable figure in the NFL, then he simultaneously started scoring home runs in the World Series. So how could someone always curious to lean like Livingston not praise Sanders?

“He was such a great player for so long and to not use his phenomenal background and wisdom. Whether it’s playing man or zone. I’d be an idiot not to use it. So super excited to have him,” Robert Livingston admitted in his interview with The Pregame Show. Livingston’s defensive intelligence in mixing the best of both worlds, whatever Deion Sanders has to teach, and whatever he has learned on his way, would be paving the way for Buffs’ defense to be unstoppable. That’s a big thing to say, especially after the previous season. After all, last season’s defense performance was hardly anything less than a nightmare for fans and the Buffs staff alike.

Bob Shoop on Robert Livingston

You know that a student has truly excelled in his profession when one of his earliest mentors asks to be painted as a fan of his. Bob Shoop, one of the earliest mentors of Robert Livingston, with whom he coached at William & Mary from 2007 to 2009, is eager to be painted in “Black and Gold now” thanks to Livingston. Shoop was the then William & Mary coordinator and safeties coach when Livingston was just getting there as a sophomore transfer from Western Michigan.

Over the course of the next three seasons, Shoop and Livingston helped turn the Tribe into one of the best defenses in the Football Championship Subdivision. W&M went from being 111th in 2007 to being vaulted the 55th in 2008 in the FCS in scoring defense. By 2009, the Tribe was 2nd, advancing to the FCS semifinals.

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“I mean, you could just see that his passion was for the game of football. When they talk about a coach on the field, he embodied all that stuff. He not only knew what he was doing, he knew what the other 10 players on the defense’s responsibilities were on every single play,” Shoop said about his student, who he knew was going to pursue a career in football coaching. Since Livingston has impressed his former mentor with all the things he has learned throughout the years, it is now his time to prove the same to Deion Sanders and the whole of the Buffs staff, with the Black and Gold Spring Day being his first chance at doing so.