The Prime Effect

Deion Sanders holds up a jersey before speaking after being introduced as the new head football coach at the University of Colorado during a news conference Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. Sanders left Jackson State University after three seasons at the helm of the school’s football team. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

If you are longing for college football of just 10 years ago, forget it. That game is long gone, never to return.  The sport has had more changes over the last five years than Taylor Swift has had boyfriends.

The transfer portal, N.I.L., conference realignment and the playoff system, be it four teams and soon to be 12, have altered college football in more ways over the last few years than anything that has happened in the game over the last century.

For better or worse depending on what sideline you stand on, the collegiate game has embarked on vast new frontiers that would have Captains Kirk and Picard’s heads spinning.

And speaking of stars, add one Prime Time Deion Sanders to the list of things that have changed the college game from recruiting, marketing, use of social media, player relations and prompting some opposing coaches into a war of words.

Sanders started his coaching career on the ground level as the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian High School near his home in Dallas. He helped guide his sons Shedeur and Shilo to three straight prep private association state championships.

The prime time spotlight shone brightly on Sanders as a star at Florida State, then as a Hall of Fame player in the NFL, then followed him to network TV gigs on CBS and the NFL Network.  A reality show on his family life and raising kids was next, and then he decided to try his hand at coaching high schoolers.

Everywhere he went, Sanders was never far from media attention and always seem to be winning and coming out on top.

When Sanders decided to make the unexpected leap as a college coach in 2020 things really got interesting. He didn’t opt for a position coach at his alma mater in Tallahassee or stay close to home joining the staff at TCU or SMU.

Prime took his considerable talents, personality and media magnet abilities to Jackson State, a small historically renowned black university in the SWAC that competed on the second tier FCS level. Sanders’ impact and effect was immediate, not only on HBCU schools but on college football as a whole.

He didn’t just knock on the door of the college game, Sanders kicked it in by convincing the country’s top-rated, no. 1 football player, 5-star mega recruit Travis Hunter, to decommit from Florida State and join him in little Jackson, Mississippi. 

This had never happened before.

No top ranked recruit with the skill level of Hunter had ever bypassed a Power 5 school to play for an FCS team, much less an HBCU program.  

Never.

Hunter, a Florida native who played his high school ball in Georgia, was sold on Sanders and learning the cornerback position from someone who was considered one of the game’s best ever.

That had some of the biggest coaching names in the sport from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas, Ohio State and USC doing a double take with jaws dropped.

The largeness of Prime Time’s personality, appeal and icon status hammered a small crack in the floodgate that is major college recruiting. If he can get a Travis Hunter type to Jackson State, imagine what Sanders might do on a bigger Power 5 stage.

He went 27-6 over 3 seasons at Jackson State, winning two SWAC titles and the FCS Coach of the Year award in 2021. 

He proved the doubters wrong.  Deion was serious about doing the hard work. He was serious about coaching.  He was serious about “giving back” to HBCU. And he was serious about reaching young athletes with his unique message.

A few SWAC coaches grumbled about Sanders’ quick rise and success and drawing all the attention. No doubt Prime will suck all the air from the room that he occupies, but you can’t deny his results and the simple truth that his methods worked at Jackson State.

Taking that next step to the Power 5 level was a given. But who would take that leap of faith on an impressive but short coaching resume and on Prime’s brashness, approach and hip hop style?

Florida State could have courted their favorite son before hiring Mike Norvell. Auburn and Mississippi State didn’t give Sanders a glance of interest before hiring Hugh Freeze and Zach Arnatt, respectively. And there are numerous other programs that passed on Prime.

I wonder what they are thinking now.

Colorado, with that one 1990 national championship so far removed and coming off a 1-11 record, didn’t hesitate to hire Sanders to revive the program.  

And that’s when the Prime Effect really kicked in.

His star QB and son, Shedeur, along with son Shilo and superstar Hunter, followed Deion to Colorado.   Sanders took the unconventional route of announcing to the returning Colorado players that many if not all were not long for his team. Upwards of 60 or more players left Boulder.  

He explained recently, on his unprecedented second appearance on 60 Minutes within a year, that he wanted to determine which players would be motivated and challenged by his words to prove him wrong and put in the work and not shrink under his verbal pressure.

There was shrinkage.

A nearly complete roster rebuild ensued; one had never seen before at this level of the game.

Sanders quickly used his vast NFL and coaching contacts to assemble an impressive staff. They then raided the transfer portal for 80-plus new players in time for August practice.

All off-season and into pre-season camp, Prime Time in the Power 5 was the storyline of college football. It bumped Kirby Smart and Georgia seeking an unprecedented third straight national title from the lead. Nick Saban wasn’t getting as many headlines outside of Tuscaloosa. Southern Cal quarterback Caleb Williams, chasing a second straight Heisman Trophy, played second fiddle to the hype around Sanders.

No coaching hire had ever put the media on such a feeding frenzy, and it went to the next level when the season started with Fox and ESPN both camping out in Boulder with their gigantic game day shows and coverage, not once but on successive Saturdays.

Overkill, yeah, but the networks saw the chum in the water and wanted in on all the Hollywood and ex pro celebrities that swooped into Boulder to take part in the party.

With the portal so prevalent today, coaches are on a 24-7, 365 recruiting mission both inside and outside their buildings. Once again, here is where Prime has changed the recruiting game with his TV status, national notoriety, huge social media presence orchestrated by his oldest son Deion, Jr., and his constant selling of himself and the Buffs.

When the TV lights are shining and there is maximum attention, Coach Prime looks straight in the cameras and unabashedly proclaims to players of all ages and all 5 star recruits, wherever they may be, “I ain’t hard to find.”

You won’t see Saban, Smart, Swinney, Sarkisian, Riley, Kelly or Harbaugh selling themselves or their programs like Sanders does.

You can argue they don’t have to because of their multiple national titles, established records or, in Lincoln Riley’s case, his run of Heisman winning quarterbacks. But clearly, Prime is taking a different approach. 

“You hear the term so much today the term branding. Branding of the program and that kind of stuff. I think Coach Sanders has come in and done a really good job of that,” says Rusty Phelps, retired veteran head coach at Jennings High School.

I sought out Phelps for his opinions and insights on the Prime effect because he is the one coach in this region that has dealt with a vast number of big-name, elite college coaches over his years in Jennings, when he coached mega talents Travis and Trevor Etienne. Saban, Swinney, Orgeron and many others all came through Jennings, and Phelps saw their styles and heard their pitches.  He admits that Prime has taken a different route to recruiting.

“I don’t care how you cut it college football is year-round, and it all boils down to recruiting. Naturally, if you are a good defensive back and you have an opportunity to go play for Coach Sanders, you are going to go and learn,” Phelps said. “Today, you have to market yourself and your program, and he has done some awesome things in Colorado.”

I found it interesting that Phelps continually referred to Prime as Coach Sanders not just Sanders or Deion. It was Coach Sanders, and Phelps says it’s because he has earned that title. “They don’t give those jobs to just anyone.  He (Sanders) knows what he is doing, and he is doing it his way.”

Phelps has experienced the Saban process; The Dabo Swinney down home approach from Clemson, when he signed Travis Etienne; Ed Orgeron’s Cajun grunts while at LSU; and Florida coach Billy Napier’s energy during the signing of Trevor Etienne.  

He has seen them all. The difference with Coach Sanders, according to Phelps, is that he is reaching the recruits by relating to them and their parents with his unique message. And he delivers much of it through social media and YouTube.

Phelps praised Prime, saying, “I think he can go as far as he wants to in this business at whatever level he can, because he can reach kids and motivate kids. Either you are going to play hard or you’re not going to be here long.”

Phelps, a hard-nosed 36-year veteran of high school football coaching in Louisiana, sees beyond the flash and bling of Prime at Colorado. Through those YouTube productions, Phelps recognizes the discipline, structure, respect and demand for the details and hard work that Sanders implemented at Jackson State and now in Colorado.

 “I think the guy has done a fabulous job, and he is doing it his way.  Just like the hundred or so of all the Power 5 and Group 5 coaches there are.  He is doing it his way,” proclaimed Phelps.

So, the grizzled old ex prep coach, who is thankful he doesn’t have to endure the pitfalls of social media, NIL and the transfer portal, loves how Coach Prime has embraced all of those things because “recruiting is the name of the game and he just does things differently.”

 “He has put his stamp on it,” Phelps concedes.  “He is great for college football.”

Despite Colorado’s blowout loss to No. 8 Oregon and a close defeat to ninth-ranked USC, which took some luster off Sanders’ shine and dropped his record to 3-2, the presence of Prime Time, his appeal and methods have most certainly changed college football.

And that is great for the game.

Catch Rick Sarro’s commentary and latest opinions on Soundoff on CBS Lake Charles Tueday and Thursday nights at 10:05 pm and again Saturday at 11 pm and Sunday at 10 pm. Follow Rick on Twitter @ricksarro.