Strike 2: Could Deion Sanders simply walk away at the end of the season?
The third-year head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes is befuddled. Bewildered. Confused. Things aren’t supposed to be happening this way. Losing two consecutive Big 12 conference games by a combined score of 105-24? Deion has confessed that he doesn’t have the answers. No explanation other than to point the finger at himself and continue to say “we’re gonna fix it.”
Among the many questions that are floating around out there: Is Deion having fun? Is he enjoying coaching college football now that he’s not coaching his sons for the first time? If not, could this season be his last as a head coach? Sitting on a TV set for pre and postgame commentary would be a heck of a lot easier than this. And he’d get to see his sons more often.
Sanders has more than 10 million reasons to remain in Boulder. His current five-year, $54 million deal was signed last offseason. There’s also the matter of his health. It’s not like he can’t get top flight health care back home in Texas, but what the University of Colorado medical people have done for him during some very trying times recently can be accurately called incredible.
There are reasons to stay.
However, one thing is for sure. Things can’t continue to happen with his CU football team the way they’ve been happening. Something’s got to give.
After a nine-win season in 2024 that included having the Heisman Trophy winner on his team, the bottom has fallen out very quickly in 2025. There’s been uncertainty and inconsistency at quarterback, erratic play at the line of scrimmage. poor tackling and Saturday night against middling Big 12 rival Arizona, a sudden batch of penalties, one of which wiped out a sensational touchdown pass play and another that negated an interception. CU began the season losing competitive games for the most part. Then came the upset of nationally ranked Iowa State ahead of a bye week. Since then, things haven’t been pretty.
One week after getting embarrassed by Utah on national TV, the encore was perhaps even worse because it happened in front of 50,000 Buff fans on Homecoming. A Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champion as a player, being on the receiving end of blow out losses isn’t something Deion is accustomed to. He’s certainly not going to just accept it and stand pat.
Speaking of Pat, as in offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, this is clearly going to be his last season in Boulder. Whether or not defensive coordinator Robert Livingston is back is probably a coin flip at this point. The entire coaching staff will be in wait and see mode to see whether or not Deion himself returns for a fourth season.
With three games left and no realistic shot at making a bowl game for the second straight season, Sanders has given the keys to undersized true freshman quarterback Ju Ju Lewis. The Buffs are going to have to rally behind JuJu if they’re going to finish better than the 4-8 mark Deion’s first CU team put up in 2023. A 4-8 record – or worse – wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card this summer in Boulder. Most didn’t fully comprehend the true impact of losing Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter to the NFL, and clearly overestimated Deion’s recruiting prowess. The Transfer Portal doesn’t have all the answers after all.
We’ll see what kind of answers the Buffs final three games can give us, and what kind of answers Deion provides after the season.
