College Football

How Deion Sanders has transformed Colorado football into must-see entertainment

Updated Sep. 19, 2023 1:46 p.m. ET

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Martin Rogers

FOX Sports Insider

Are we not entertained?

Deion Sanders presents himself as a modern-day coaching gladiator which means, as is the way with such forms of sporting combat, the resulting effect is usually a set of beguiling developments that you can't peel your eyes from.

Colorado is neither a juggernaut of unshakable brilliance nor an overhyped early-season flash. It is, despite both those facts, the unflinching owner of the loudest 3-0 record you've ever had to wrap your head around. 

It is still an unknown in some ways, but know this without any qualification – what's happening is the most watchable form of sporting entertainment that you can find, and while you won't be able to predict what's going to happen, you're reliably promised that it won't be boring.

Like how you don't go to a movie expecting the finale to be tame, predictable and anticlimactic, you don't plant your butt on the couch to check out Coach Prime and his fearless squad while forecasting a routine stroll that's done by halftime before some snoozy final quarter leads to stands-emptying garbage time.

They're not built like that. Colorado, courtesy of the "Louis" baggage Sanders brought with him and enticed with his personality, has some of the best players in the country at certain positions, but they also have flaws.

There are holes and gaps and unfamiliarity issues spawned from this being a group that was compiled on the fly. And, yes, by the way, this story is absolutely going to mention the "Vuitton" vocab every single time we write about Sanders and his program, between now and the end of footballing days. 

They're skilled enough to rip off highlight plays and stunning catches and 98-yard drives to get themselves out of trouble, and vulnerable enough to get into those spots where such heroics are needed, such as was the case for quarterback Shedeur Sanders late against Colorado State on Saturday.

They're unscarred enough to be mentally cowed by no one, not even the biggest of opposition, and not Oregon this weekend or USC the next, in what will be the last season where the Pac-12 is the Pac-12 as we know it.

And they're a big enough target, because Coach Prime purposely and deliberate puffs their collective chests, for underdogs to come at them unreservedly and with nothing to lose, with Colorado State and its head coach Jay Norvell writing the blueprint for that specific approach.

Colorado rallies from an 11-point deficit

They're a two-layer story in some ways. For neutrals, Colorado is irresistible when faced with big-name, storied programs, the narrative of the swaggering upstart challenging the established order too tasty to avoid.

It feels suddenly and markedly different when the role is reversed, as it felt like Colorado lined up as the bully last weekend. This is by no means a scientific study, but don't be surprised if many observers who wanted the Buffaloes to win their first two games against TCU and Nebraska also wouldn't have minded seeing them unseated at home against the Rams.

In truth, it is all part of the rollercoaster journey, and Sanders is in no mood for the tale to get stale and for the spotlight to shift anywhere else. His words and actions are sometimes so bombastic to reach the very brink of being dislikable, except then he pulls it back because he's just that charismatic, and he's letting us in on the joke.

And then – special prize if you saw this coming – he does things that are part-genius, part-adorable and absolutely part of the entertainment, like getting his mom to give one of the pregame speeches.

There is everything at play here. 

Coach Prime, gosh, even the nickname would be absurd if conferred on anyone else who didn't have the ability to back it up, talks more like a WWE superstar than a traditional college football coach, and he doesn't care if you like his hat and sunglasses or not.

There is fire in the words of one of his sons, Shedeur, the emotional pulse of the team, and humor in the talk of another, Shilo, who'll make you chuckle as long as he's not thwacking you with a tackle and knocking the ball loose.

"I think we were just out there fighting for hats and sunglasses," Shilo Sanders told the Washington Post, in response to Norvell's pregame comments casting UV 400 shade on his father's habit of permanently wearing shades and headgear.

When you talk about Colorado, you tend to spend a lot of time talking around the edges of football, for that's where we look to be entertained — are you not? The cold press of reality is emphatic in stating that this weekend should be the biggest test to date, as Oregon is coming in having won its three games by a combined 127 points, compared to Colorado's 33, and with QB Bo Nix shaping up as a potential Heisman finalist.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning doesn't seem likely to copy the Norvell route of providing a shred of bulletin board fodder this week, perhaps wisely. 

"We're excited to go play a great opponent," Lanning told reporters. "This is going to be an awesome atmosphere, and this is one of those marquee games that we are really excited about. So, we know we're going to get everybody's best."

Two-way star Travis Hunter is out with an injury, which is a major blow for the Buffaloes, but consider that this is Colorado's ideal scenario, taking ferocious aim at a team logic says they won't beat. Logic? That sounds like something that can be predicted, accounted for, and which makes all kind of sense.

That's not what we're dealing with here, not with this story, which by its very definition is different, we just don't fully know how yet.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter at @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.

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Martin Rogers