Strike 1: Chemistry is a class that most of us tried to avoid taking in high school. Deion Sanders probably did, too. He made it clear at Colorado’s Media Day prior to the season that chemistry isn’t a high priority for him.
“What is chemistry,” Sanders answered when he was asked about blending a lot of new players (again) into his Buffaloes football program and having them fit in with the returning players within the locker room.
“What is it?” Pointing at the gathered media, he added, “You guys work together. You don’t like each other, most of you. You don’t. But y’all work together and you get the job done. We generally have a love and admiration for one another. We really do, whether you throw the word chemistry out or not. Everybody keeps throwing that word out. Some of you don’t have chemistry at home, but you go there every day.”
Okay.
You’d be hard pressed to find another football coach who feels like team chemistry isn’t important. For example, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule – a former college linebacker at Penn State – puts a ton of emphasis on building chemistry within his program, especially along the line of scrimmage, where both sets of lineman need to work together in order to have consistent success. The Huskers veteran line play on both sides of the ball was pivotal in their 28-10 romp over CU last Saturday.
But for Deion, you can see why he might think differently. After all, it wasn’t something he needed to focus on very often during his playing days. If you followed Sanders’ career path, you watched a guy who played for five different NFL teams and four different Major League Baseball squads. He was in and out of so many different locker rooms that his fan mail had to get forwarded every other month. Tough to get too close or too attached to very many soon-to-be former teammates when you wear so many different colors.
Also, Deion spent most of his time on a gridiron on an island, worrying about his job and no one else’s. Whether it was as a Hall of Fame cornerback who didn’t need a lot of help to shut down the other team’s best wideout, or as a kick returner, catching a punt and looking for green spaces ahead of him, or even after he hung ‘em up, when he was still out there being one of the best self-promoters ever, Deion the player/celebrity has been a pretty successful one man band.
Knowing that he himself succeeded (in football, anyway) without developing any real long-term connections with teammates, why would he put all that much emphasis on team chemistry as a football coach? He’s just been plug-and-play.
We already know Deion is anything but typical. Typical college football coaches recruit high school players, bring them in and try to teach them to play a certain way over time. Develop them within the program. That’s especially true with lineman on both sides of the ball. Yet Deion figures that once a player has any playing experience, he should know what to do and just do it. So he figures he can simply bring guys in, and if they don’t perform up to expectations, go get new guys. He did it when he first arrived (having seen very few of those CU players even play in a game) and again after his first season in Boulder. Only four of CU’s current group of offensive linemen (out of 15) wore the silver and gold last season. And none of those four start. Yet he still expects the unit to have already meshed.
“We have a tremendous offense,” Sanders said after his line was manhandled in Lincoln. “We should be able to move the ball on anyone. We should be able to protect with the experience that we have offensively. We just couldn’t get it going today.”
How it works the rest of the way is TBD.
Regardless, his approach isn’t going to change. Chemistry isn’t going to suddenly become a requirement.
Deion’s emphasis is crystal clear: Showcase his QB son Shedeur’s passing skills and feature do-everything athlete Travis Hunter for NFL scouts and try to win six games along the way. Building a program brick by brick doesn’t interest him.
That’s anything but typical for a coach who’s in it for the long haul.
