Catchall Deion Sanders Thread

[mookie43]

If they beat one or both, then I will conclude that Deion is doing something special in Boulder. Squeaking by lightweights does not make a team special. Sure, losing to them is far worse, which is what TFG did for 3 years. So, beating them is what you're supposed to do, and it's a good thing.

Winning @TCU by 3 is a good win, but not a program redefining one. Beating that sad sack Nebraska team means -0-. Beating a thoroughly middling G5 Colorado State at home by 3 in 2 OT is a step back. The Buffs waxed CSU the last time they played them, in 2019, by the score of 52-31. Let's see what they do when they play two certified big boy teams.

So TCU wasn't a big boy?

 

[stinger78]

So TCU wasn't a big boy?

Not in the sense of Oregon and USC. They've been mostly down lately. Last year they beat a bunch of ho-hum teams, racked up a good record, and got absolutely waxed by UGA in the CFP CG. They were pretty good last year but did not belong in the CFP. The jury is still out for this year, IMPO.

Here's their W/L the last few years:
2022: 13-2
2021: 5-7
2020: 6-4
2019: 5-7
2018: 7-6

In 2022, they beat:
COL (1-11)
SMU (7-6)
OU (6-7)
KAN (6-7)
OSU (7-6)
KSU (10-4)
WVU (5-7)
TXT (8-5)
TEX (8-5)
BAY (6-7)
IA ST (4-8)

They lost to KSU in the B12 CG, beat UoM 51-45 in the CFP, waxed by UGA 65-7 in the CG.

 

[gt2690b]

Will be interesting to see the Buffs against Oregon and USC without Travis Hunter.

What was it? Concussion?

 

[Walton]

It is crazy to criticize Deion for stuff like haven’t beaten a “real” team. Colorado was worse than GT under Collins …
…
… let that soak in …
…
That he was able to put a compentent team on the field that has won 3 games is an unqualified great job. Just to be clear, I was a Deion doubter.

Now it could go wrong and I expect Colorado is thin so you never know.

 

[gt2690b]

But it's all about Deion. Colorado is 3-0 and squeaked by two middling P5 and G5 programs and one crappy P5 program. We, OTOH, lost a close one to a pretty decent P5 program in Louisville and a top 15 P5 program in Ole Miss. Further, if he's successful at Colorado, where will he be in 3 years? Ask the folks at Jackson State how that worked out for them. Brent Key loves GA Tech and I think he'd think long and hard about leaving were he to build a successful program here.

The most important point, though, is to wait and see that happens. We may end up playing Colorado as some point.

Uhh.. we play them in 2025

And what should I ask the folks at Jackson State? how much they are enjoying the upgraded facility, the upgraded record, and the upgraded national attention?

 

[MACHETE]

From WSJ:


Is the fever about to break on Colorado and Coach Prime Mania? It nearly did Saturday night in Boulder, in a sloppy double overtime contest against 24-point underdog Colorado State—“We started out playing like hot garbage,” Coach Prime acknowledged—but the Buffs rallied to stay undefeated at 3-0. The Most Unexpected and Delightful Party in Sports pushes on for at least another week.

Oregon is next, in Eugene. The also-undefeated, 10th-ranked Ducks are averaging 58 points per game and are the biggest threat Colorado has faced to date. If they fail to burst the bubble, fifth-ranked USC looms on Sep. 30.
It seems unlikely that a Colorado team which looked tired and disorganized against CSU will finish the month unbeaten. (They also lost two-way star Travis Hunter to a cheap hit.) It’s possible they will be 3-2 at month’s end, cooling the hype, giving the Coach Prime skeptics their Eager Moment of Schadenfreude, and we will finally start paying attention to other college football teams and coaches. We might look back and say: Remember when we all decided the biggest story in sports was Coach Prime and Colorado Buffaloes?
I doubt it fades entirely, however. Sanders has done too much already. It’s been stunning to watch one of the country’s most misbegotten programs (1-11 last season) instantly transformed into the team that everyone wants to watch. I couldn’t have been the only East Coaster on the couch early Sunday wondering: Why the heck am I watching a Colorado-Colorado State game at 1 a.m.? It’s reminiscent of Gordon Ramsay overhauling a decrepit diner. For years, Colorado served cold oatmeal. Now: Prime rib.
Buffalo football is suddenly one of the hottest tickets on Earth, catnip for celebrities and star athletes in other sports. Coach Prime, meanwhile, is the sun. Only Sanders can make a global movie star like the Rock feel like the second-most famous person in a mountain town. Even the often-injured NBA star Kawhi Leonard showed up to watch the game Saturday. As the Internet commentariat cracked: Kawhi doesn’t even show up to his own games.
Everyone craves a bite. ESPN and Fox hosted their pregame gabs on campus, Coach Prime dropping into both shows as the unquestioned Guest of Honor. Sanders also got a sit down Sunday on “60 Minutes”—a clear indicator that the story has progressed to a cultural phenomenon. This is the second Coach Prime column I’ve written in less than two weeks, and if they keep on winning, there will be more.
You’re not even mad. You’re curious, too.
Coach Prime arrived at the right time. For years, football has been stuck in a stale cycle of dominant teams, the same coaches giving the same bland sound bites. A summer’s worth of smoke-filled room conference chaos—Colorado is another program bailing on the Pac-12; it’s going to the Big 12—threatened to alienate the audience further.
But what’s happening in Colorado feels new. With more than 50 transfer players, including some from Sanders’s time at Jackson State—and a similar number pushed out the door—it represents what an aggressive college football program can be in 2023, as the sport shifts its power from schools and conferences to the people who actually make the game.

Colorado players celebrate a double overtime win against Colorado State. PHOTO: RON CHENOY/USA TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS CON
In this new landscape, personality matters. Tradition isn’t essential, and geography is a mere detail. Sanders is unabashed about college football’s entrepreneurial possibilities, whether it’s name, image or likeness, or the NFL for a lucky few. Colorado HQ is outfitted with famous Sanders-isms, including this all-timer: IF YOU LOOK GOOD, YOU FEEL GOOD. IF YOU FEEL GOOD, YOU PLAY GOOD. IF YOU PLAY GOOD, THEY PAY GOOD.
“My kids who play for me, they didn’t choose a university,” Coach Prime told “60 Minutes.” “They chose me.”
Perhaps the apex of Prime Mania is that there’s already speculation about what Sanders does after Colorado. Would Prime thrive at a different school? The SEC? The Big Ten? Would he jump to the NFL? (“I would never do that,” he told Rich Eisen of the pros.) Why stop with football? It’s only a matter of time before the management gurus and office consultants start offering Coach Prime 101. Wait until your boss closes the 9 a.m. meeting and says “Now give me my theme music!”
He does it his way, unabashedly. Sanders is happy to upend coaching conventions, whether it’s the theme music, his on-field style, his sanitized expletives (“bull junk”) and, most of all, his willingness to engage with outside noise. He happily turned a criticism from Colorado State’s coach about his habit of wearing a hat and sunglasses into motivational fuel—“They messed around and made it personal,” he quipped—and also made it a viral marketing bit for his sunglasses sponsor. Sanders greets his media appearances with the casual ease of a man who knows how to talk on camera. (The other night he followed up a live halftime TV interview with another live halftime TV interview.)
He does this all with the mild wink of a showman who wants you to know he’s having fun, too. Sanders surely suspects Colorado will have its hands full with Oregon and USC, especially if Travis Hunter is out, but he’s not going to do the standard coach’s routine of pooh-poohing the heightened expectations. Coach Prime isn’t going to chastise students for rushing Folsom Field after squeaking out a victory over 0-2 Colorado State. Let them enjoy. It’s been a while.
Does it all come apart with a losing streak? It’s possible. College football is a long season, and a hot program can be rendered human very quickly. Colorado is an exciting but newly-assembled team, capable of brilliant flashes but also careless mistakes. There are lots of critics eager to say ‘I told you so’ when Sanders takes a few Ls. I’m not there. I think Coach Prime is winning.

 

[JJacket]

 

[Walton]

Hunter out 4 weeks

 

[stinger78]

Uhh.. we play them in 2025

And what should I ask the folks at Jackson State? how much they are enjoying the upgraded facility, the upgraded record, and the upgraded national attention?

They are 2-2 so far this season. You might ask them how they like that. You might ask then about those 10 or so players Deion took with him to Colorado and what they might have meant to the program.

Look. You like him and I'm not a fan. No sense arguing about it. That's just the way it is. Again, it's your opinion and I'm fine with that. Are you fine with me having my opinion?

 

[gt2690b]

They are 2-2 so far this season. You might ask them how they like that. You might ask then about those 10 or so players Deion took with him to Colorado and what they might have meant to the program.

Look. You like him and I'm not a fan. No sense arguing about it. That's just the way it is. Again, it's your opinion and I'm fine with that. Are you fine with me having my opinion?

Yeah but I think most Jackson State people also have an opinion

 

[stinger78]

Yeah but I think most Jackson State people also have an opinion

Sure, that's why I said to ask them. What's your issue?

 

[gt2690b]

Sure, that's why I said to ask them. What's your issue?

I would think most are glad he came better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all

 

[JJacket]

Hunter out 4 weeks

One of my butthurt friends put "just stay on your page" when I asked him why he is so suddenly concerned about Colorado and their players. He was putting how there needed to be a game "hit" put on the Colorado State player for the cheap shot. This same friend also has complained for years now that football players aren't tough enough and would never survive in the days of Ronnie Lott.

Yea, the hot was cheap. It was dirty. It was also no different than the blindside blocks of a decade ago that were legal.

 

[JJacket]

This block would have killed Hunter....

 

[gt2690b]

I think the cheaper shot was shedaur poking that dudes eyeballs out

 

[stinger78]

I would think most are glad he came better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all

Did you love it when Radakovich came and added a bunch of debt to the GTAA then jumped to Clemson? Did you love it when GOL insisted on the N EZ rebuild, encumbering us with a lot of debt, and then left for ND? Did you like it when Stan raised almost $200M and then let the clown ruin the football program? Buildings are buildings. They don't endear people.

What Deion did was recruit a bunch of good players, especially for that level ball, had one great season, then left and took 1/4 of the 2-deep with him to CO.

Jackson State is now 2-2 this season. The rest of the season is yet to be seen. We don't know if Deion left a lasting positive impact on that program.

That may be what you love. If so, that's your business. It's not what I love.

 

[USCJacket]

Shows what Vegas thinks of the so called powerhouse #19 Colorado @ #11 Oregon. Line started at 14.5 and since Saturday nights epic win over powerhouse CSU in 2 OT, the line has risen to between 20.5-21.5. Easy $$$ taking Oregon at home. Probably will be closer to 30 when Caleb Williams and USC roll into Boulder against the Colorado juggernaut.

 

[USCJacket]

Did you love it when Radakovich came and added a bunch of debt to the GTAA then jumped to Clemson? Did you love it when GOL insisted on the N EZ rebuild, encumbering us with a lot of debt, and then left for ND? Did you like it when Stan raised almost $200M and then let the clown ruin the football program? Buildings are buildings. They don't endear people.

You can’t sit here and blame D-Rad for the GTAA debt. He wasn’t the one who signed Hewitt to the stupidest contract in history. Follow that with the disaster that was M-Bob. Guy did not give 2 ishes about football. All the promises made to CPJ were ignored.

GOL adjusted the size of the stadium to go with the standard of what schools the size GT hold. There was nothing wrong with that. This was pre every game being on TV.

T-Stan had no real $$$ to spend when hiring CPJ’s replacement, and do you even remember who the other finalist was? Ken W. It’s not like GT was attracting top level candidates. People wanted Tony Elliot, and the guy has been a disaster for UVA replacing Bronco.

Rewind to 10 months ago and again who were the finalist? Willie Fritz who whatever report you believe accepted the job, but only on his terms and then backed out. So GT went with Key.

Again, where is the $$$? The aging donors are tired of footing the bill for bad hires, and the school doesn’t seem to have young donors filling that role. Other schools don’t have that problem.

So I’ll ask you, whose fault is it again? 3/4 AD’s (excluding idiot M-Bob) weren’t exactly handed the keys to a budget flush with $$$.

 

[stinger78]

You can’t sit her and blame D-Rad for the GTAA debt. He wasn’t the one who signed Hewitt to the stupidest contract in history. Follow that with the disaster that was M-Bob. Guy did not give 2 ishes about football. All the promises made to CPJ were ignored.

GOL adjusted the size of the stadium to go with the standard of what schools the size GT hold. There was nothing wrong with that. This was pre every game being on TV.

T-Stan had no real $$$ to spend when hiring CPJ’s replacement, and do you even remember who the other finalist was? Ken W. It’s not like GT was attracting top level candidates. People wanted Tony Elliot, and the guy has been a disaster for UVA replacing Bronco.

Rewind to 10 months ago and again who were the finalist? Willie Fritz who whatever report you believe accepted the job, but only on his terms and then backed out. So GT went with Key.

Again, where is the $$$? The aging donors are tired of footing the bill for bad hires, and the school doesn’t seem to have young donors filling that role. Other schools don’t have that problem.

So I’ll ask you, whose fault is it again? 3/4 AD’s (excluding idiot M-Bob) weren’t exactly handed the keys to a budget flush with $$$.

You missed the point

 

[GTsapper]

I won't speak my mind, because some snitch will come out and complain again. But it looks pretty obvious why half of you are mad right now.