Colorado fans who are getting all geeked up by what Deion Sanders has supposedly done might want to take a look at Nebraska football six years ago.
Far be it from me to tell Colorado Buffaloes fans that they shouldn’t get excited about Deion Sanders’ first season in Boulder. There’s certainly reason to be excited. He’s fed into that level of excitement and brought energy CU fans haven’t seen in quite a while.
But allow me, Buff fans, to caution you a bit. Because when I look at the things that Deion Sanders is saying and doing, I can’t help but see the similarities to when Nebraska football fans thought we’d found a similar type of savior in Scott Frost. In fact, a recent interview Sanders did with Joel Klatt for the broadcaster’s podcast set off alarm bells.
Klatt posted one segment where the two were discussion just how bad Colorado has been recently. In 2022, they posted a 1-11 record and Klatt and Sanders were shown arguing over whether people really knew what that Colorado team was.
Klatt says that he evaluates teams for a living before commenting, “I know what Colorado was,” to which “Prime Time” responds only by bursting into laughter. Klatt then says that he doesn’t think a lot of other people do and Sanders responds, “yes they do.” The two men then argue over whether people knew “what Colorado was” for a few more seconds because Sanders utters the quote that feels weirdly familiar.
"“They just want to take a shot at me and I’m good with that. They do. They know what it was. But this is their opportunity to take a shot. But they better … they better shoot now. Because in a moment, you’re not going to be able to shoot.”"
I’m confident I’m far from the only Nebraska football fan who saw that clip and thought, “man does that ever feel like Scott Frost’s first year.” More specifically, that little sit down sounded an awful lot like Frost’s first press conference.
When Frost was asked how he was going to change his offensive approach to work in the Big Ten, he made a comment that would haunt him for his entire Nebraska football career. And not a little bit because people remembered it as far more cocky and brash than it really was. But it was indeed a little too brash for a coach that had never helmed a Power 5 conference school.
“I’m hoping the Big Ten has to modify their system for us.”
There are other things that Deion Sanders and his staff are doing and saying that are shockingly similar to what Frost and his crew did. The talk about how they’re fixing everything that’s wrong in a short period of time is right at the top of the list.
Those who were paying close attention saw the Nebraska football coaches back then talk about how their predecessors didn’t even have the team doing squats. That’s how bad things were. Supposedly. And there’s Sanders in that video, talking about how bad Colorado was and how he’s going to make it better “in a moment.”
Nebraska football foes can get cocky all they want
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the level of cockiness that Sanders is bringing to Boulder tickles me. I don’t like him, really never have and hope he’s a terrible fit in Colorado. I hope he loses far more than he wins.
And so far, he seems to be on that path. That same path Nebraska football fans had to walk down. And what schadenfreude it would be if the Huskers helped Coach Prime down that path with a big loss in week two of 2023.