Colorado Buffaloes’ head coach Deion Sanders had a perfectly blunt message for the mother of one of his players: The program would fall without him.
Sanders and the Buffaloes have been the biggest surprise in the 2023 NCAA football season thus far. He inherited a team that won just a single game last year, but Sanders’ Buffaloes are carrying a perfect 3-0 record into Saturday’s clash with the Oregon Ducks.
During an interview with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report (h/t Kaiden Smith of On3.com), the Pro Football Hall of Famer revealed that the mother of a Buffaloes’ player asked if the program would be “sustainable” if he left.
Sanders’ answer was simply short and to the point:
“I’m honest. I just had a parent ask me the other day, she said, ‘Do you think that if you left that what you’ve created is still sustainable?’. I said no Mama, it ain’t. I’m not gon lie to you, I will cry to you before I lie to you, but it’s not.”
Sanders certainly makes a good point. Not only did Colorado win just one game last year, but they’ve had just a single winning season since 2006. That was in 2016, when the group finished 10-4 under head coach Mike MacIntyre.
One also just has to look at the success Prime Time had at Jackson State (2020 to 2022), where he compiled a 27-6 record. Sanders coached the Tigers to consecutive SWAC Championships in 2021 and 2022 before accepting the Buffaloes’ offer.
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Sanders’ Buffaloes got off to a surprising 1-0 start when they defeated the TCU Horned Frogs in Week 1. That was followed up by wins at home over the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Colorado State Rams.
Now we’ll see if they can make it 4-0 against the heavily-favored Ducks this Saturday.
