Deion Sanders and his son Shedeur have been involved in a war of words with former Buffs safety Xavier Smith. Smith, one of the many players who left the program after Coach Prime’s arrival, had a lot to say about his behavior in Boulder. However, his criticism of Sanders has been dismissed by a Colorado alum.
The Buffs had 53 players transferred out of the program when Sanders took over and some of them aren’t happy with how they were treated. After he hit out at Sanders for lacking compassion, Shedeur responded with vile criticism.
“You want respect, earn it,” McChesney has a clear message to Xavier Smith
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After being cut from the team and entering the portal, Smith told The Athletic “I was actually getting mad, like tears coming to my eyes. Because, bro, you never even tried to get to know me. He was destroying guys’ confidence and belief in themselves. The way he did it, it could’ve been done with a little more compassion.” He talked about how Deion had expressly stated that he should transfer because he could not earn a starting spot in Colorado at all. Smith eventually transferred to Austin Peay.
However, Colorado alum Matt McChesney, on the YouTube show, The Coach JB Show with Big Smitty, unapologetically denied Smith’s request for compassion stating, “If you want respect, earn it. In this game, you cannot buy it, you cannot obtain it, and you can’t get anybody to give it to you. You have to earn it, you have to earn it and the fact that he actually had the audacity to say you could have cut me with a little bit more compassion, shut up b*tch.”
McChesney further backed it up by adding that the coaches can see everything that everyone else doesn’t see, so their actions may not make sense to us but can be perfectly reasonable.
In an interview on Thee Pregame Show, Coach Prime wondered why Smith had bad mouthed the program despite not being a member of the team for nearly a year at this point. He said, “This is what’s strange to me. That great weekend with the (spring) game. with the festivities, great recruiting weekend, million recruits up there that can flat out, play and change the complexity of your program. And right after that, somebody goes and finds a young brother. They talk about another brother and. Is that okay? How’s that okay?” He also responded to the allegations of unfair treatment.
Coach Prime said, “No one mistreats nobody, man. Like, we don’t do that. I don’t condone that. Y’all been around me. Y’all know how I get down. I don’t mistreat anybody. I don’t play that, I don’t condone that.”
Sanders has been clear about his position regarding transfers since taking the Colorado job. His aim is to revamp the entire program from the ground up. Thus a player who does not fit his vision for the program may be cut or advised to enter the transfer portal. Already at least 14 players have exited The Buffs and entered the transfer portal. But is there some merit to Smith’s allegations?
Sanders posted the caption “Lawd Jesus” on a quote tweet of Smith’s Austin Peay teammate, Jaheim Ward’s stats. Perhaps, this may have triggered Smith’s reaction and things snowballed from there with Coach Prime even throwing shade at a random poster on X after they criticized his son.
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“Where is your son going?” Coach Prime’s fiery retort to a fan
After Smith’s complaints and allegations about Coach Prime in the interview with Athletic, Shedeur Sanders stepped in. The Buffs QB tweeted about Smith, “Ion (sic) even remember him (to be honest). Bro had to be very mid at best.” But things didn’t stop there.
The comment section of the tweet found Shedeur to be a villain as fans poured in their comments, hitting out at the quarterback’s words. One user asked his father to step in and wrote, “Hey, tell your son stop acting like he’s the coldest out there“. The Buffs HC wasted no time and came back with a reply, “He will be a top 5 pick. Where yo son going ? Lololol I got time today. Lololol.”
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All that being said, the 2025 draft is far away and we have a whole season of college football to look forward to before that. Colorado ended this 15-day portal window period with another upheaval losing 29 players and adding 18 new ones.
What’s your take on Colorado’s transfer portal conundrum? Let us know in the comments.