Nov 16, 2024; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders looks on before the game against the Utah Utes at Folsom Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images The NFL world went into a frenzy on Monday night when multiple reporters confirmed that the Dallas Cowboys had spoken to Colorado head coach Deion Sanders for their head coach vacancy.
The Cowboys job became available earlier on Monday when Jerry Jones could not reach an agreement with Mike McCarthy, who has coached the team over the last five seasons. With McCarthy in the rearview mirror, Jones called up Sanders, who spent five stellar seasons with the Cowboys as a player in the late 1990s.
“To hear from Jerry Jones is truly delightful, and it’s intriguing,” Sanders told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday night. “I love Jerry and believe in Jerry. After you hang up, and process it, and think about it, it’s intriguing. But I love Boulder and everything there is about our team, the coaches, our student body and the community.”
Sanders has coached the Buffaloes the last two seasons after a successful run as head coach at Jackson State. To his credit, he turned around Colorado from being the laughing stock of college football into a bowl-eligible program.
But without the luxury of his star quarterback son, Shedeur Sanders, and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, who are both primed to become top five NFL Draft picks, there has been constant speculation that Coach Prime could make his exit from Boulder sooner than later.
Back in November, when rumors started swirling around Prime’s interest in the NFL, he assured everyone that his “kickstand was down,” signifying that he was happy with life in Boulder.
But what was he supposed to say? At that point, the Buffaloes were ranked, in the midst of the Big 12 Championship and even a crack at the new 12-team College Football Playoff.
Now that the dust has settled, it’s clear that Sanders at least heard Jones’ phone call about coaching the Cowboys. But here’s the kicker. That would be a disaster waiting to happen.
Jones refuses to get out of his own way. Every season, he somehow one-ups himself from the last stupid thing that he has done. Losing McCarthy because of not being able to agree to terms is the latest example of that, and it comes off the heels of public contract disputes with quarterback Dak Prescott and star wideout CeeDee Lamb.
Sanders and Jones might have a lot of mutual respect right now. Some could even call it a friendship. Sanders is a legend who played for Jones’ organization. There’s obviously a lot of mutual admiration between the two, but that’s completely different than when you have to work with somebody every single day.
Jones calls the shots in Dallas. That’s just the way it is. Unless he had some sort of epiphany, that’s likely how it will continue to be next season and for years to come as well.
Prime has always had an ego of his own—but to his credit, it has actually worked very well for him after his playing days.
Plenty of pundits mocked Sanders when he went viral while addressing the team at Colorado and told them that “he’s bringing his own baggage, and it’s Louis Vuitton,” insinuating that they’d be better fit to enter the transfer portal because he was bringing his own players.
He did bring his own players, and it worked. It worked because he did it his own way. Less than one year into his gig with the Buffaloes, Sanders jettisoned offensive coordinator Sean Lewis from the program and replaced him with Pat Shurmur. That clearly worked, too.
There’s no way to tell if Sanders would be a good NFL coach. The 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee played at the highest level for years. He’s had nearly instant success everywhere he’s gone in the college ranks.
The pro game is different. It’s especially different when you’re dealing with Jerry Jones, who only wants things his way. It would be fun to find out if he could coach in the NFL at some point soon, but not in this spot.