FOUNTAIN — Deion Sanders can bus his team 22 miles east on Highway 36, and 89 miles south on I-25, but there is no place in Colorado he can hide from the truth.
Year 4 of the Sanders era began with summer camp at UCCS, hanging out at the Air Force Academy and grueling practices at Fountain-Fort Carson High School. The only thing hotter than the dorms without air conditioning and the turf field is the conversation around Sanders’ coaching acumen.
Can the highest-paid coach in the Big 12 keep selling out Folsom Field and return CU to a bowl game?
For the first time in Sanders’ tenure, the second goal will be tied to the first.
Having experienced the adulation of 2023’s September and the near-conference title in 2024, Buffs fans want more than mercenaries playing out the string with bare-chested students waving their t-shirts as opponents run up the score in a half-empty stadium.
It is on Sanders to deliver.
“The expectation is to win. Isn’t that why we are here?” Sanders said Wednesday. “We came here to win.”
Patience is wearing thin. Last season fueled serious doubts that Sanders could pull it off without his son Shedeur, a record-breaking quarterback, and Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner.
How did we get here?
And where is this story going?
It is easy to understand, but complicated to untangle. Former CU athletic director Rick George hired Sanders in a Hail Mary with money he did not have. Desperate for relevance in a rapidly changing realignment landscape, Sanders put the Buffs back on the map.
The attention provided a lifeline to a program that had not been competitive for nearly two decades. The attention, the money, and signature victories led to an uncomfortable choice for George: make Sanders one of the highest-paid coaches in the country or risk losing him to another school or the TV booth.
But the five-year, $54 million extension signed in March of 2025 came with an unspoken provision: win games. Preferably a lot of them for an athletic department hemorrhaging money because of Sanders’ contract and the cost of sharing revenue with players.
The goodwill of the first two seasons was scraped away by the blunt-force losses at the end of last year. Looking like they did not practice during the bye week during a rout at Utah. Seeing players quit in an embarrassing home outing against Arizona.
So that is how we got here Wednesday, in an auxiliary room above the basketball court at Trojan Arena with a coach insisting he is immune from stress, explaining how this year is going to be different.
“I apply pressure. I don’t feel pressure,” Sanders said. “This is football. I can play this. And coach this. I can do it. You don’t believe it? God bless you.”
The insulation around Sanders is not as thick. Last year’s failure, which he wants in the rearview, stuck. When the Buffs lost in 2023, they were wildly entertaining. Last year, they finished bad and boring.
It had some wanting a new coach, a non-starter with Sanders’ buyout.
Instead we get a new staff, mostly new roster and a leader with improved health and renewed energy.
Sanders made no excuses publicly for the 2025 mess, but clearly he was compromised by his recovery from cancer. He wanted to be there for his players, but his absence from campus for nearly four months because of treatment and recovery left him disconnected.
He didn’t know his team. They didn’t know him. And the coaches couldn’t provide cover.
The lack of connective tissue was reflected in how this team played and ultimately splintered.
Because Sanders preached optimism a year ago at this same press conference, I asked him why he thinks this team will get the program back on track.
For those who love Sanders, his explanations will keep them in the fold. For those who don’t, there was likely nothing said that will change their mind.
But Sanders, who is in a much better place physically, has learned some lessons from last year’s dramatic failure.
He stopped star-chasing assistants. While it is cool to say half your staff played in the NFL, it does not mean they can coach. Most great players are terrible at it, not having either the patience or professional traits necessary for success.
And those who could — like Marshall Faulk, who landed a head coaching job — were not grinders, not sleeping in the office and eating donuts and drinking cold coffee on the recruiting trail.
Sanders’ non-traditional path to a head coaching job at Jacksonville State and CU was inspirational. It also left him vulnerable, trusting the opinions of others for staff members since he didn’t spend a decade working his way through the ranks meeting future assistants.
Sanders failed CU by hiring and promoting Pat Shurmur to offensive coordinator. And Shurmur sabotaged Kaidon Salter by running a scheme ill-fitted for his skill set.
Defensive boss Robert Livingston departed to the Broncos during the spring after his unit ranked 133 out of 134 against the run last season. I believe Livingston is legit — Sean Payton would not have added him otherwise. Maybe he jumped before he got pushed given how Sanders cycles through coordinators.
In Brennan Marion, the offensive boss, and Chris Marve, the leader of the defense, Sanders has returned to those who have proven themselves at the college level.
That matters when you are trying to breathe life back into a program.
“This isn’t meant to demean who was here before,” Sanders said, “but this is the best staff I have had in my coaching career.”
Secondly, Sanders shifted his strategy on how he recruits the portal. He was the first to flip a roster — which was needed given the lack of talent he inherited — but now everyone does it. And many are better because they have more money to offer.
This cycle, Sanders added players who were hungry to prove themselves on a bigger stage — like receiver Danny Scudero and edge rusher Lamont Lester — and, in many cases, were team leaders. Guys, Sanders said, “who love the game.”
This stuff rolls eyes, but it can prevent CU from getting rolled up like a tarp again when adversity strikes.
Of course CU took chances on some players with past problems, most notably defensive back Boo Carter, who was kicked off Tennessee’s team. Talent is rocket fuel and Carter, who could line up anywhere in the secondary with his versatility, should be the Buffs’ best player.
But ability is not the answer. We have reached the point in the program where instruction takes center stage. Where passion, intensity and accountability are more important than stars on a resume or gold jackets in a closet.
As Sanders exited Wednesday, he noticed AD Fernando Lovo sitting in the back and urged him to speak.
“I can’t follow that,” Lovo said.
And when it comes to last season, the same goes for Sanders.
