From the time he was hired as Colorado’s head football coach in December of 2022, there has been outside chatter about where Deion Sanders might go the following year.
In 2023, there was talk of Florida State, Auburn or other big-time programs that might lure him away from Boulder. In 2024 and early this year, there was speculation he might jump to the NFL.
As the Buffaloes’ 2025 season has fallen well short of expectations – particularly Sanders’ own standard – and he continues to battle health issues, some have suggested he should be fired, or wondered if he’d bail on CU.
None of that chatter has ever come from Sanders himself, though, and during his weekly news conference on Tuesday, he certainly didn’t sound like a man ready to leave Boulder. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“You got the right man (leading the program),” said Sanders, in the first year of a five-year, $54 million contract extension. “I promise you you do, and I’m gonna prove that to you. I am. Just give me an opportunity and give me a little more time and I’m gonna prove that to you. I will. I promise you that.”
Sanders, 16-19 at CU, entered this season telling anyone who would listen that he felt the Buffs had a better overall team than the group that went 9-4 a year ago. At 3-7 (1-6 Big 12), CU hasn’t come close to that. The Buffs, who host Arizona State on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN2) in the home finale, will miss out on a bowl game for the seventh time in nine years.
Given the struggles of this season and the health issues he’s battled in recent years – including bladder cancer and blood clots this year – Sanders, 58, could easily walk away from the challenge ahead of the Buffs, focus on his health, his business deals, a TV career and watching his son Shedeur play in the NFL.
Instead, Sanders appears geared up for the challenge of getting the Buffs going in 2026.
“If anybody is built to overcome situations and trial and tribulations, I am,” he said.
Sanders is facing a similar challenge that many recent CU coaches have faced. Gary Barnett was the last head coach to lead CU to back-to-back bowl games, in 2004 and 2005.
Sanders is CU’s sixth head coach since Barnett. None of them have taken the Buffs to two bowls, let alone two in a row. In fact, in the past 20 seasons, there’s been at least three losing seasons in between each of the Buffs’ four bowl appearances.
The lack of consistent football success has frustrated not only Sanders, but athletic director Rick George, who announced last week that he’ll step down at the end of the academic year to take on a lesser role.
George told BuffZone this week he’s a firm believer Sanders can do what others haven’t done in the past two decades.
“His discipline that he has, his accountability, all the things that I’ve seen before here (at CU) when we’ve had that discipline and that accountability, and what that can do for us moving forward,” said George, who first worked at CU under head coach Bill McCartney, who led the Buffs to the 1990 national title. “(Sanders) is very visible as we all know, but he’s got the right morals, he’s got the right compass that guides him. And I just feel strongly that he’s the person that can consistently make this program great.”
With two games left, Sanders said the Buffs will do everything they can to win, but there’s no question the process of improving for 2026 is already under way.
“Game day is the future,” he said. “You win, it helps the future.
“You want to win, but you’re evaluating. You’re evaluating young men, as well as the staff. Like, where do you go? So you’re doing a lot of evaluations when it’s coming down the home stretch.”
Those evaluations will help him get a jump on making sure next year is better. This will be just the second losing season in Sanders’ six years as a college head coach, and he’s confident he’ll get it right next year.
“I haven’t forgot how to coach in a year,” he said. “A lot of these wonderful coaches out there that’s not winning this season, they hadn’t forgotten how to coach in a year. We did some things we shouldn’t have done. That’s on us.
“The record, to me, is not indicative of who these young men are, or who these coaches are in between these walls, or who this program is. The ball just didn’t bounce in our way and we’ve got to do something about it. And we’re going to do something about it as soon as the season is over.”
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