Deion Sanders’ style had nothing for Matt Rhule’s substance

LINCOLN—Deion Sanders sure did talk the talk as a player, one of the most quotable athletes known for his dozens of catchphrases—but more importantly he walked the walk, as a ground-breaking performer who is the only person who has played in a Super Bowl and a World Series.

Deion Sanders as a coach, boy can he talk the talk. His face with a black and gold cap is everywhere in the media. But the walk? The walk has been weak. Not only has Colorado lacked a signature win with Coach Prime at the helm, but they’re coming off the team’s most embarrassing loss yet—a 28-10 butt-kicking by the rival Nebraska Cornhuskers.

The Blackshirts are coached by a fellow second-year man coming off a decent debut season in Matt Rhule. The failed NFL coach is back in the college ranks, after turning Temple and then Baylor into real and ranked threats.

Rhule, not known for recruiting the way Sanders is, started building his program around star freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola. It’s not a quick fix but a slow build, one focused on the long grind to get the Cornhuskers back to the national championship glory of the 1990s.

In Colorado, where they chase the highs and titles of the 1990s, it’s been failed quick fix after failed quick fix. The latest is shaping up to be Sanders. With a revolving door of coaches, and just one bowl appearance in nearly two decades, athletic director Rick George tried to make good on his third hire after his first ditched town and scorned him and his second was so safe because he lived around the area but pointed the program’s arrow so far downward. A year behind on the transfer portal and NIL, Colorado sought the star power of Sanders, who used his playing celebrity and his stud prospect son to turn Jackson State into one of the best programs on the FCS level.

Sanders was in the SWAC because that’s where he could get his first head coaching job. Some may call the reason he was there racism as his enormous accomplishments as a player were overlooked while other, less accomplished, white footballers received head NFL gigs with less time on the whistle. There were plenty of reasons Sanders was there, but there’s no doubt he had a positive impact on the HBCU—bringing in money and racking up wins.

At Colorado, the wins are missing. Yes, the money has flowed. The eyeballs have been everywhere and the attention feels like the 1990s. The play on the field has been far from that glory.

Sanders’ quick-fix attempt was focused on the portal and using his name to help students get NIL. Honestly, a lot of it is honorable. But the result on the field has been patchwork trench play that can’t support the stars who will undoubtedly be heading to the NFL. And, maybe most importantly, the attitude of players who are wearing black and gold but don’t bleed it.

Sanders’ team didn’t take the time to learn the 35-word fight song, in which the last five words are all the same—fight. We saw no fight when Colorado tried to defend a large lead against Stanford in 2023. And there was very little fight while the team lost seven of their last eight games.

A year later and the offensive line still doesn’t fight for each other.

A year later and the fight song doesn’t even play in the stadium after the quarterback throws a touchdown. Deion Sanders told the band they couldn’t play if his son Shedeur Sanders scores a touchdown so that the loudspeaker can play a recording of his son’s song “Perfect Timing.”

The other star player, Travis Hunter, is maybe the best athlete at Colorado since Byron “Whizzer” White. Does Hunter have fight? Well, the two-way player made a business decision on one of Nebraska’s touchdowns. Getting out of the way at the two-yard rush from the running back, that likely wouldn’t have been stopped either way—but there was no attempt to even try.

Not a fan of the effort from the outside corner on this Nebraska TD. pic.twitter.com/vynNy0t6Xf

— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) September 8, 2024

On a later touchdown where Raiola looked like a star on the drive, the NBC broadcast cut from the Buffs getting their butt kicked into a commercial for Hunter selling energy drinks.

While the fight song is rarely ever sung in Boulder, and old traditional jerseys are ditched for ones designed by the coach, Rhule on Saturday brought back the Cornhuskers tradition of releasing balloons into the sky on the team’s first score. Sure it’s horrible for the environment but it’s telling of Rhule’s buy-in to the history of Big Red as much as Big Red Nation has bought into him.

One thing was clear on Saturday, the pride and tradition of the Colorado Buffaloes was entrusted to the timid and weak.

The pride and tradition of the Buffs have been replaced by Instagram views, marketing deals and players who have not bought into the school. The fanbase has been energized but it’s hard to say how. The new blood coming to Boulder is great but some of the team’s oldest fans are seeing an unfamiliar product off the field but a story they recognize on it.

What’s familiar is the losing, and most Buffs were willing to trade some of the traditions to create new ones on the climb to the top. What nobody in Boulder is willing to do is ditch the traditions while continuing to play the same lousy way on the field. More importantly, nobody at CU should tolerate getting embarrassed on and off the field by Nebraska of all teams.

I’m not writing that Coach Prime should get the axe but maybe, just maybe, the leader of the Colorado Buffaloes should be taking the program and its traditions as seriously as Matt Rhule seems to be taking them at Nebraska.