Deion Sanders says he’s going to prove that CU has the right man leading the program

The 2025 football season has been a disappointment for Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes. At 3-7, the program’s hope of making a bowl game for the second year in a row — something that hasn’t been done since the 2004 and 2005 seasons — is long gone and the team is now tasked with looking to the future.

The Buffs got a glimmer of hope in their last game, a loss against West Virginia, as true freshman quarterback Julian Lewis showed that he has what it take sot be the quarterback of the future for the black and gold. When Sanders recruited him to Boulder, flipping his commitment from USC in the process, Buffs fans were happy to have an answer at the position in the wake of Shedeur Sanders, but it took Lewis longer to earn the starting job than many would’ve hoped.

Part of the reason this season has been such a struggle for the Buffs is not because of the freshmen that Sanders recruited, but rather the transfer portal players he brought to town. Many of them have not played up to standards and have been the reason why they’ve lost seven games.

The transfer portal is supposed to be Sanders’ niche, the one thing of coaching that he excels at. Since most of his guys have been misses and his program is having a worse season than his first one in town, many concerns have been raised about the future of the Buffs with Sanders at the helm. Is he going to be able to get talented portal guys into town that aren’t Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, who were coming with him no matter what in 2022?

Sanders has faced a lot of adversity this year, highlighted by him overcoming cancer in the offseason then undergoing surgery for blood clots midway through the season, and that’s just off the field. On the field, he’s dealt with multiple blowout losses and a QB carousel that didn’t have an answer for the first nine and a half games of the season.

He’s confident he can stand up to this adversity and get the program back to its winning ways of old.

“Please understand, if anybody is built for adversity, I am. If anybody is built for change, I am. If anybody is built to overcome situations and trials and tribulations, I am. You got the right, man, I promise you, you do. And I’m going to prove that to you, I am. Just give me an opportunity and give me a little more time. And I’m going to prove that to you, I will, I promise you that,” Sanders said at his weekly media availability on Tuesday.

He’s had three years to instill a winning culture at Colorado. While he won a lot in 2024, it was thanks to many of the players that he started his tenure at Colorado with. Now that many of those talented players are gone, he’s been tasked with replacing him and hasn’t done so.

Two of Sanders’ first three seasons in Boulder have been losing ones. The 2023 season made sense, as he inherited the worst Power 4 program in the country and had a lot of rebuilding to do. But this year, after he had his team in playoff contention and signed a new contract worth an average of $10.8 million a year through 2029, it’s alarming how bad things have been. He’s had three years to establish a winning culture, but now is asking for more time to do so.

He’s not going to get fired from Boulder anytime soon, but when you stack his resume up against the other coaches around his price point, he’s severely outmatched. Buffs fans want answers, and they want winning football. If that doesn’t come next year, some uncomfortable conversations are going to have to be had.

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