Will Deion Sanders be served papers at CU’s home opener?

Will Gideon Lampron or Julian Lewis get subpoenaed during their postgame interviews?

Coach Prime’s Buffs are a walking prop bet right now, college football’s most curious outfit.

Shilo Sanders’ bankruptcy trial, stemming from a physical altercation with a high-school security guard more than a decade ago, begins Monday — a few days before CU opens its 2026 football season at Georgia Tech.

Despite efforts to quash a subpoena, a Colorado judge ruled that Sanders, CU’s fourth-year football coach, must testify if asked, but not until after the Buffs-Yellow Jackets game on Thursday night in Atlanta. Which means the work week for the elder Sanders’ biggest game since his Buffs debut at TCU three years ago just gets weirder and weirder.

“There is a lot of pressure, a lot of external expectations and stuff like that,” CU wide receiver Danny Scudero said. “But if we can narrow it down to what our team believes in, and just focus on going 1-0 each week, that kind of eliminates a lot of the external factors that weigh on us as players and coaches.”

When it comes to Coach Prime 2.0, there’s only one way to get this train back on the football track. Just win, baby.

“I feel like us collectively as a team, we understand that the most important game is the next one,” Buffs linebacker Liona Lefau, a transfer from Texas, told me earlier this month. “And especially if it’s the season-opener — that kind of sets the tone to see how we want the season to go. The coaches, they keep preaching as well, that (it’s) going to set the tone for our season. We’re really hoping to come out there (at Georgia Tech) firing, preparing the best we can to just be ready, to be at the top of our game and ready to go.”

We joke about the prop market, but a nugget of Buffs wagering news kind of went under the radar this past week. Ben Fawkes, a betting analyst with Yahoo Sports, — sandwiched between the over on Oklahoma’s 8.5 victories (No. 1) and the over on Nebraska’s 5.5 wins (No. 3).

2023: Welcome to The Coach Prime Effect.

2026: Welcome to The Coach Marion Effect.

“I think based on the track record for (Marion), I see nothing but success coming out of this,” Connor Fetterhoff told me by phone recently. “There’s no doubt.”

Fetterhoff doesn’t know Coach Prime. But he knows Brennan Marion, CU’s new offensive coordinator, well. And he kind of likes the Buffs at over 4.5 wins this fall, too.

Connor’s an insurance broker these days in Waynesboro, Pa., a little burg along southern border of the state, roughly 72 miles northwest of Baltimore. A dozen years ago, he was the starting quarterback at Waynesboro Area High School in 2014, a 5-foot-11 plugger who ran, by his own admission, a “5.0 in the 40 (yard-dash).” Marion had just arrived in town to be his head coach. Waynesboro went 0-10 the year before. The program hadn’t produced a winning season in 22 years. Fetterhoff didn’t play varsity football in 2013, and wasn’t even sure he was going to in ’14, either.

“We’re at the YMCA, just shooting hoops, and Coach Marion and his younger brother Justin, they walked into the YMCA, and I don’t know if he’d (met) me before or not,” Connor recalled. “And he said to me, ‘You’re going to be my QB this year.’ And it was crazy how it all played out there.”

Marion, then just 27, had brought this new-fangled, no-huddle offense with him from California. Fetterhoff and his pals hadn’t run anything like the “Go-Go” before. Two running backs lined up as “sidecars” on either side of the quarterback taking a shotgun or pistol snap. Five eligible wide receivers gathered on the same side of the formation. Tempo, tempo, tempo.

“As soon as somebody was down, you’re all getting right onto the ball for the next snap,” he recalled. “The defense had no time to recover.”

In Marion’s Waynesboro debut, his kids won 53-7. Fetterhoff threw for 417 yards, five touchdowns and two picks. Waynesboro piled up 607 yards. They’d gone from 0-10 to 6-4, from averaging 11.4 points the season before to 36.6 points per contest under Marion. Fetterhoff, he of the 5.0 40, finished the season with 19 passing touchdowns and ran for five more.

Marion bolted for a job working quality control at Arizona State not long after that, and the rest his history.

“He sat us down when we first met him and was very upfront about his goal,” Fetterhoff recounted. “To build something really crazy here and then move up. I didn’t know if any of this would go and extend (for him) like it has. It’s awesome.”

He would call plays at Howard (2017, ’18), William & Mary (2019), UNLV (2023, ’24) and as head coach at Sacramento State last fall. The teams in each of his initial seasons at those four stops wound up with a combined 28-21, for an average of seven wins. In his Howard debut in 2017, the FCS Bison went to UNLV as 45-point underdogs and wound up running for 309 yards, throwing for 140 more, and notching a 43-40 upset in Sin City. What worked in Waynesboro worked against the Mountain West, too.

“It definitely switched the whole town’s mindset on the whole football program,” Fetterhoff said. “He started making it exciting to go watch the games.”

Something that could not be said for Marion’s CU predecessor, mind you. Compared to Pat Shurmur practicing incompletions or “free-balling” it with JuJu Lewis last year, any upgrade for the Buffs’ offense would feel like a breath of fresh air. But when Marion’s guys are humming, the vibe’s more like a tsunami. His Sac State Hornet teams in 2025 scored at least 30 points on seven different occasions and went 6-1 in those tilts.

That’s the magic number to watch. Thirty. 3-0. Since 2023, Sanders’ Buffs are 13-3 when CU scores 30 points or more, and 3-18 when that number is 29 points or fewer. To that end, a no-huddle offense at altitude is exactly the kind of offense the Buffs should be running, given Sanders’ remit. And the 38-year-old Marion, on paper, is exactly the sort of young, innovative play-designer Coach Prime should be hiring.

You bring up CU’s offensive line being small on the eyes, and Fetterhoff takes you back a dozen autumns, when he says Waynesboro under Marion featured maybe one guy who weighed 300 pounds protecting the pocket, while the rest of the offensive line checked in at between 180-230 pounds.

You bring up Lewis’ height —, and that might be generous — and Connor reminds you that he’s still probably 5-10 and change, but had an arm that could chuck the ball 65-70 yards and get it out quick. Sound like anybody we know?

“Just buy into the system,” Fetterhoff would tell Lewis.

“Just listen to (Marion) … and know that system is built for success, no doubt … just building that team atmosphere and knowing that you can trust those guys, and knowing that they can trust you.”

Can we trust these Buffs? The only thing that’ll change CU’s narrative is the scoreboard. And you can that the one at will speak volumes.

We kid, of course, but goodness gracias — this CU football season, which is slated to open on Sept. 3 in Atlanta against Georgia Tech, can’t get here quick enough for Buffs fans. Just so they’ll have something to talk about other than the latest round of reported subpoenas.

The college football wonks on the Grading The Week crew were already raising eyebrows with the news that the lawyer for an ex-security guard at Sanders’ private school, John Darjean, had attempted to serve papers to the Buffs football coach on campus in order to get him to testify in the bankruptcy trial of Sanders’ son, former CU safety Shilo Sanders.

The trial is slated to begin on Aug. 31, just four days before the Buffs’ opener against the Yellow Jackets, and concerns Darjean’s efforts to enforce a $11.89-million default judgment for damages arising from an altercation that occurred when Shilo Sanders was 15. Darjean alleges he suffered permanent injuries while trying to obtain the younger Sanders’ phone.

While it remains to be seen whether Deion Sanders will testify during the week of the Buffs’ first game, is also seeking damages in court from the elder Sanders over Coach Prime’s trademarks.

Actually, it’s the “trademark” part that has Alan Tipp, a graphic designer from Omaha, crying foul over the Buffs’ football coach.

According to documents filed in U.S. District Court, Tipp designed the now-famous “PRIME21” logo in 2011, which became synonymous with Sanders and CU football.

Tipp alleges in said documents that Sanders and his management team, SMAC Entertainment,

Shade thrown over Deion’s shades — D

In the filing, Tipp alleges that he signed a conditional agreement to forgo rights to the logo after a representative from SMAC Entertainment, Sam Morini, made promises that the designer would be “an integral part of the Sanders’ (sic) marketing and branding team”; that Tipp would serve as advisor for CU student-athletes and their marketing efforts; that he would collaborate with Nike on Sanders branded apparel and footwear; and would be “retained to design, brand and develop a marketing plan” for a line of Sanders-themed sunglasses using the “PRIME21” logo.

Tipp alleges that none of the above happened. He also contends in the documents that “Sanders and his representatives began evading Tipp” after the agreement was executed, and that in April 2023, SMAC told the designer that his “services were no longer needed” for the planned sunglasses launch.

In September 2023, Sanders partnered with Blenders Eyewear to produce signature sunglasses. The partnership garnered $1.2 million in pre-orders and reportedly generated nearly $5 million in sales within the first few days of release.

Tipp wants the court to render his agreement with Sanders to be nullified; for all Sanders’ and SMAC’s trademarks to be canceled; and seeks injunctive relief, as well as compensation of at least $75,000 plus legal costs. It’s probably not the best sign for a pivotal Year 4 of The Sanders Era when folks are throwing that kind of shade at Coach Prime before a ball’s even been snapped.

Peyton Watson trade — D-minus

The Nuggets still have a month or so to salvage what’s been a depressing offseason to date — and an almost 180-degree flip of the enthusiasm and good vibes that stemmed from the summer of 2025.

“I’m happy for Peyton. He deserved it,” Nuggets icon Nikola Jokic told Miroslav Cuk in Serbian on Thursday when asked about Denver’s trade of Peyton Watson to Cleveland for draft picks

“We will miss (Watson’s) energy and skill. I don’t think about (the) season yet … we have to play this (summer), but it’s going to be OK.”

Is it, though? Unless trading away a promising wing who had all the things this roster needed — good defender, athletic, potential 3-and-D threat with upside — wasn’t the first chess move that sets up another roster addition before preseason camp, Heaven help Nuggets faithful. Heaven help the Joker, too. Because ownership clearly won’t.

BEREA, Ohio — Shedeur Sanders asked his father, Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, not to come to his first training camp with the last year.

With his son vying for the Browns’ starting quarterback job this season, the welcome mat was out for Coach Prime.

Deion Sanders watched Thursday from the top row of the bleachers as the Browns conducted their second practice.

The elder Sanders met with coach Todd Monken and general manager Andrew Berry between the morning walkthrough and the afternoon practice.

“That was Deion Sanders, are you kidding me? Forget that it is Shedeur’s (Sanders) dad,” Monken said. “First of all, he did an unbelievable job with Shedeur — great kid, obviously an elite football player, hell, baseball player. And then as a coach, I mean, wow, everything he’s achieved, that was awesome.”

Monken said most of the conversation with Hall of Famer focused on his coaching experiences at Jackson State and Colorado and the challenges around Name, Image and Likeness in college. He also told Deion how Shedeur almost got selected by the Baltimore Ravens.

“It was part coach, part father, which is what it should be,” Monken said.

Deion Sanders visited Shilo Sanders at Tampa Bay’s training camp before his release. Last year during camp, Shedeur said he asked his father to stay away because of the lack of snaps and the attention it would bring.

Shedeur Sanders referred to it at the time as “a gift and a curse at the same time.”

Deion picked a good day to come to practice since Shedeur was taking snaps with the first team on Thursday. Sanders and Deshaun Watson are alternating snaps with the first team as they compete to be the starter for the Sept. 13 opener at Jacksonville.

“You have to make a decision when you two spot — someone’s got to go with the twos, however you do it, to get the same amount of reps. So, we basically divide up the groups,” Monken said. “The reason we also like, if we’re going to rotate the quarterbacks and rotate the left tackle, it makes sense to me with the receivers to stay, so every other day they get work with the other quarterback. If we moved them together, in my mind, that doesn’t give us the ability to really see what we want to see in terms of development.”

Deion and Shedeur talked while walking around the field after practice. Most of the exchange was filmed by Deion Sanders Jr.

Deion Sanders is going into his fourth season at Colorado. The Buffaloes, who are looking to bounce back after a 3-9 campaign, open fall camp on Sunday before their season opener at Georgia Tech on Sept. 3.

____

AP NFL:

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team hasn’t announced its cuts.

Sanders, the son of Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders, was battling for a roster spot after going undrafted out of Colorado, where he played for his father. He was also penalized for pass interference earlier in Tampa Bay’s 23-19 loss to Buffalo on Saturday night.

“You can’t throw punches in this league. It����ap inexcusable. They’re gonna get you every time,” Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said. “You gotta grow from that.”

The Buccaneers could still add Sanders to the practice squad if he doesn’t get claimed off waivers by another team.

Sanders, a hard-hitting and playmaking safety at Colorado, had an for the Buccaneers in the preseason opener. But he had strong competition to make Tampa Bay’s roster.

Sanders was engaged with Zach Davidson for a few yards, pushing and shoving each other. He was immediately flagged after throwing a punch that sent him to the locker room.

It was a tough Saturday for both of the sons of “Coach Prime” in the preseason. Shedeur Sanders, a fifth-round pick by Cleveland, was 3 of 6 for 14 yards and took five sacks.

The Buffs this year landed at least eight players from the transfer portal listed at 306 pounds or larger, . That’s No. 1 in the league by at least two party subs.

In fact, the only conference peer that came close to portaling in big dudes at the same volume was West Virginia, with six — from a haul of a whopping 54 portal additions.

“We’re going to impose our will. And we’ve got big dudes on our defensive line to kind of give us that competition that we need,” CU sophomore left tackle Jordan Seaton said earlier this month. “And we’re just grinding right now and making sure that we’re able to run the ball when we want and how we want.”

CU is bigger. Coach Prime says they’re badder. But will they be better? And, more to the point, better in the box? Is 2025 the year teams finally stop trying to punch the Buffs in the kisser?

We’re going to find out in a few days, one way or another. And the opener against Georgia Tech before a national ESPN audience Friday at Folsom Field shapes up to be one of the sexiest — right out of the gate.

, on paper, are built to do the things that drove last year’s 9-4 Buffs, and CU fans, a little nuts.

Key was Alabama’s offensive line coach under Nick Saban. He’s chiseled his Jackets into what Midwesterners would easily recognize as the Wisconsin/Iowa/Kansas State archetype. Dominate the trenches. Move the chains on the ground. Chew up clock like it’s a tray of Dubai chocolate.

The Yellow Jackets ran up 271 yards against Miami last fall. They rolled up another 260 on the ground at Georgia.

Tech ranked fourth nationally in the FBS in rush yards gained on second down (6.26 per carry). They finished 20th in rushing first downs converted on third-and-3 or fewer. CU, meanwhile, was tied for 72nd in rushing first downs allowed on third-and-short.

Uh-oh.

“I’m very confident in my front seven,” “I like my front seven against any other front seven in the world. So, the confidence is there. I believe in my guys.”

Can the rest of us? CU might be the most fascinating team in all of college football to start 2025, largely because nobody has any idea what a Coach Prime program at the Power 4 level truly looks like without Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders and Shilo Sanders.

Jackson State in 2022 and 2021, in hindsight, at least sketched out an idea of what’s to come. This feels like almost a completely blank slate, more refresh than rebuild.

Sanders has hinted at a complete offensive about-face, a run-first mantra that probably works better with Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter starting at quarterback than gifted freshman Julian Lewis. Trust the floor you know until Ju Ju’s ceiling shows you otherwise.

Although we learned with Bo Nix a year ago, the best way to accelerate a learning curve for a new QB1 is to pair him with a defense that can clean up their mistakes and give them a chance to grow on the job.

To Sanders’ credit, the most glaring personnel holes of his 2023 debut season — offensive line, depth, depth, more depth and speed across the board — were pretty much addressed in the offseason leading up to Year 2.

Yet if CU ran into an opponent with a big offensive line, one committed to running the ball and committed to keeping Shedeur on the sideline, Ralphie’s engine didn’t always turn over.

Kansas State, Kansas and BYU more or less followed the same script: Get a lead, keep the ball, keep your distance, then keep gashing the Buffs on the ground until time runs out.

And, sure enough, the Jackets’ projected starters along the offensive line average 306 pounds.

“The D-line definitely plays a big part in team success,” CU defensive end Samuel Okunlola said. “The front four is very important. So, yeah, we definitely play a big role. We have to show up every time.”

Your serve, big guy.

The Buffs are 7-3 under Coach Prime when giving up 139 rushing yards or fewer in a game. The Yellow Jackets are 2-6 under Key since ’23 when running for under 140. If that’s science, it sure as heck ain’t the rocket variety.

“What I can do for the whole team,” said CU offensive lineman Xavier Hill, one of those new Buffs 300-pounders, “I feel like that’s a golden opportunity.”

And a gilded path, potentially. Of the 16 Big 12 championship game participants since 2017, 10 wound up ranked either first or second in the league in team run defense during the regular season.

Even in a league that’s unabashedly basketball on grass, the low man wins. Louis Vuitton luggage will put you on the map in a hurry. But shopping for quality beef up front is still the surest way to stay there.

The CU Buffs coach arrived at Big 12 media days in Frisco, Texas, after going virtually unseen since April 19 as he dealt with unspecified medical issues. It prevented him from attending youth and high school camps last month, even though they are part of his employment conditions.

Asked about his health Wednesday, Sanders offered no insight.

“I am not here to talk about my health. I am here to talk about my team,” Sanders said Wednesday. “I am living good. I am living lovely. God has truly blessed me.”

Sanders’ only acknowledgement of his recent battles came during his opening statement when he thanked Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, CU athletic director Rick George, and conference coaches for checking in on him. In June, Deion Sanders Jr. posted that his father was “making progress.” And Coach Prime tweeted a month ago that “everything is OKAY,” promising an update when he was back on campus.

George told The Athletic that he expects Sanders to return to Boulder

Sanders operated Wednesday like someone ready to coach his third season at CU. He missed the Pac-12 Media Days in 2023 to undergo emergency surgery for blood clots in his legs. So, this is not unfamiliar territory.

What little we know is unsettling, a man who is as public as any college coach ever fighting a private health battle. It is hard to have an opinion on something this personal, other than you hope he is receiving the best care.

But how can we not?

He is the state’s highest-paid employee, so the questions are impossible to avoid: Does Sanders need to take time off? Does he need to be protected from himself after he admitted his goal this season is to “win at all costs?”

Again, it’s hard to know without more information. Sanders is a polarizing figure. But this has nothing to do with his style, bravado or use of social media. This is about the man, not the legend.

His heath issues have been well documented, including the amputation of two toes in 2021. Sanders said on a May podcast with former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel that “what I am dealing with now is a whole ‘nother level,” while revealing that he had lost 14 pounds.

Sanders has always leaned on his faith, family and friends in times of crisis. This is no different. He deserves space.

But what should happen next? My hope is that George and others Sanders trusts remain sounding boards, providing advice.

The challenge this season is unique. Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter is in Jacksonville. His sons Shedeur and Shilo are in the NFL, marking the first time he has coached without them.

“I have thought about it. I am going to love it. Now I only have to be a coach. I don’t have to be a coach and a dad. I don’t have that dilemma. It’s going to be easier,” Sanders told ESPN, later adding, “We are not as good individually, but we are better collectively.”

Sanders continues to recruit well using his model of 40% grad transfers, 40% transfers and 20% high school kids. But he is unsure of his starting quarterback, conceding that fifth-year transfer Kaidon Salter and true freshman Julian Lewis could both play “as long as they are doing their jobs and we are winning.”

And while he loves Boulder, it is not always reciprocated when attracting and retaining players. Asked to play commissioner during a coaches roundtable, Sanders did not hold back. He wants more regulation in college football to level the playing field, forever a utopian idea in a sport where schools see themselves as adversaries and love to exploit loopholes and tattle on each other.

“We have alumni, we have boosters who are doing the best they darn could, but sometimes they just can’t compete with some of the other powers. And I wish it was truly equality. They are trying to say that with a cap and collective bargaining, whatever they call it. It����ap equality, but it����ap not,” Sanders said.

“Now they go back to doing stuff under the table, go back to the agent. You have parents trying to be the agent, you have homeboys trying to be the agent, you have friends trying to be the agent, you’ve got a lot of bull junk going on. And quite frankly we are sick of it. Nobody will say it. So, I will say it for everybody. We are sick of it. You are not going to fix it unless you listen to all these men with all this experience.”

Sanders spoke like a leader. Like a veteran coach. He wants an NFL model with more parity. He wants what’s best for the game. But what matters most right now is his health, and what is best for him.

If that’s what a depressed market for Shedeur Sanders looks like, I doubt the CU Buffs’ Indoor Practice Facility would’ve had the space for a happy one.

“I feel like I’m the No. 1 quarterback (in this draft),” the Buffs’ record-setting former QB1 and consensus 2025 first-round pick, said after throwing at CU’s pro day Friday, “and that’s what I know.”

And yet CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli raised eyebrows locally this week when he predicted Sanders, who’d been considered a top-five lock for — well, years — would fall to the Saints with pick No. 19. Most pundits, including peg the QB-needy Titans to nab Miami’s Cam Ward at No. 1 overall. He’s got Sanders going to the Giants with pick No. 3, right after Travis Hunter’s taken by Cleveland at No. 2.

At a made-for-TV pro day with nearly 200 credentialed media in the house, perhaps the most notable — and wealthiest — visitor to CU wasn’t a coach or former player at all.

It was Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, who was part of a contingent from The Cleve that took Shedeur and Hunter out for supper on Thursday night.

“I sent them to my favorite steakhouse in the city,” Shedeur recalled. “But it was a good vibe. It was a good atmosphere.”

Good enough, in fact, that Haslam spent a chunk of Friday morning talking shop near midfield with Deion Sanders, Shedeur’s father and Hunter’s sensei.

“It was charming, it was engaging,” Coach Prime said just before lunch. “It was cool. (Haslam’s) a good guy, and I like him. I think one of (Shedeur or Hunter) is gonna be there.”

We wouldn’t wish that fate on anybody, but it’s not as if the Browns have much choice. Not after Friday. Eric Galko of the Shrine Bowl charted Sanders as completing 58 of 63 passes, with three of those incompletions resulting from drops.

And, yes, some early balls wobbled. A few sideline throws tailed. But the deep ones were exquisite, reminiscent of a young Russell Wilson. Who just signed with the Giants. The plot thickens.

“At the end of the day, I’m not stuck on that because it’s about the situation,” Shedeur said. “So whatever situation, whatever franchise believes in me, gives me the opportunity, (then) I’m excited to go.”

Now, were all those scouts, GMs and owners here to see Hunter up close, too? Oh, yeah. But they didn’t see much. The Heisman winner reportedly only decided to run routes for Sanders at the last minute and did so without gloves.

When there’s a tie on most angles, most NFL draftniks go back to arm strength to break it. Brian Baldinger of NFL Network gives Ward the edge there, based on the zip of the ball and the mechanics. He thinks the Titans might’ve made up their minds on that, too.

“I think (Ward’s got better) arm talent,” Baldinger told me after the workouts. “I think both can lead. I think they both have great leadership abilities. I just think Cam’s arm is just more accurate, and he’s got just more RPMs on the ball.”

In fact, Hunter told Baldinger, questions about Shedeur’s arm were one of the reasons the two-way talent went out there sans gloves.

“He said he wanted to hear the sound of the ball (coming out of Shedeur’s hands),” the analyst recalled. “So, maybe he wanted to help Shedeur out, with (scouts) hearing the sound of it hitting his hands. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. That’s what he said.”

Which is funny, in hindsight, because when Shedeur was chucking it, at least early on, the facility became deathly quiet. It was like watching Tiger Woods line up for a putt on the 17th green.

Before long, the silence became so prevalent that even Shilo Sanders got annoyed. The Buffs safety and older brother of the ex-CU QB parted his position among the inside circle of scouts, then walked over to some onlookers watching along the sideline.

“I need y’all to clap after every completion,” Shilo told them, pleading like a cheer captain for more CU spirit. “For real.”

Shedeur missed his next two throws, then dropped a dime up the right boundary.

Golf claps.

Shilo looked over.

“I need you to clap after every completion,” the safety admonished politely, “so he can get in his rhythm.”

Which Shedeur did, nailing three more completions in crisp succession.

Golf clap. Golf clap. Golf clap.

Another Shilo look.

“Let me hear everybody clap,” he said, slightly less politely this time. “Everybody, clap so you can make him feel like it’s a game.”

A few throws later, the younger Sanders lofted a pretty rainbow to Jimmy Horn Jr. up the left boundary on a corner route, one his receiver dove to secure. It was easily the grab of the day, and Horn knew it, popping up and celebrating with a backflip.

“Oh, yeah, Shilo’s funny,” Shedeur said. “He was out there clapping. You know, he was the only one clapping out there. So that’s real support. And everybody else, I don’t know. He earned my respect today.”

After he’d wrapped up his media pit stops, Shedeur was approached by Broncos coach Sean Payton, who made a point to give Sanders a hug and a quick word.

Giants GM Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll also pulled Shedeur aside. Daboll had said three days ago he wasn’t coming to BoCo. Read into that what you will.

“I could bring cameras and eyes anywhere I go,” the younger Sanders said. “No matter where I go … I know the influence I have in society and on culture. So wherever I go, it’s definitely going to be improvement than what it was before I got there.”

At one point, Shedeur even went into Mahomes Mode. He dropped back, took three steps to his right, and flipped the ball behind his back for a short completion.

As the claps resumed, louder this time, Sanders smiled. Not bad for a falling star. Not too bad at all.

“I know some other bull junk came out (this week),” Buffs coach Deion Sanders said during a brief news conference at CU’s Indoor Practice Facility. “But he fulfilled all his financial obligations.”

Coach Prime was addressing this week that said his son was past due for nearly $7,000 in payments on his 2023 Mercedes-Benz and that the company was seeking relief with the court in which the younger Sanders filed for bankruptcy in 2023.

Deion Sanders added the following, stressing that it was from Shilo’s attorney: “‘These issues appear to have risen due to disruptions in the payment process … following the termination of Mr. Sanders’ online account access.’

“So he’s good. He’s good.”

The report indicated through court records that Mercedes-Benz is seeking to repossess the car and wants information as to its whereabouts. The company said Sanders had missed $6,877 on his monthly payments.

A 36-14 loss to BYU in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Saturday put a disappointing cap on the many years he has coached Shedeur and Shilo, from the youth leagues to now.

The Alamo Bowl won’t take away from the journey, though.

Before every game, Coach Prime has walked the sidelines with Shedeur, the Buffaloes’ star quarterback – one way as coach and one way as a dad. In recent games, Shilo, a starting safety, has joined them in that walk.

The reality of the Alamo Bowl being the last game together hit Coach Prime during that walk.

“It����ap been a tremendous, tumultuous journey, and we’re making it,” an emotional Coach Prime said to ABC just after that walk and before kickoff on Saturday night. “I’m sorry, this is tough. This is tough. … I’ve got to get it together. I’ve got to coach.”

The next few hours didn’t go as well as hoped, as the favored Buffs got off to a bad start and never recovered. Shedeur, the Big 12 offensive player of the year, struggled, but still battled to the end, throwing for 208 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Projected as the potential No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, no one would have blamed Shedeur for not even playing in the game. But, he said he never considered coming out.

“We started so we had to finish it,” he said. “That was simply it. No matter what it was if it was the other way around and we were up, we were still gonna play regardless.”

Shilo, meanwhile, led the team with eight tackles on Saturday. He also had a pass breakup, intercepted a pass to deny a two-point conversion and had another interception that was waved off because of a defensive penalty.

Overall, it wasn’t the most memorable game for the Sanders family, but it was, without question, a remarkable journey for them all.

Shortly after he was hired by CU in December of 2022, Coach Prime talked to BuffZone about his coaching journey.

He wasn’t able to coach his oldest son, Deion Jr., because he was still in the midst of own playing career. He was done playing by the time Shedeur and Shilo – who is two years older than Shedeur – began playing, though.

Initially, he was content to sit back and watch their practices. He couldn’t help himself, though, when he didn’t like how they were coached.

“It was being taught so recklessly,” Coach Prime said to BuffZone two years ago. “I like perfection, man, so I got up and helped. Got up again and helped. Next thing I know I’m helping coaching. I said, ‘If I’m gonna do it, I’m doing it my way.’”

That led to the start of the Truth Sports Organization and the Prime Prep Academy and he’s been on the sidelines with Shedeur and Shilo ever since.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Coach Prime said after Saturday’s game. “You recollect just the times in youth league and seeing them lay out uniforms in my closet, get ready for the next game. And they used to have 100 wristbands on their wrists, trying to stunt. It was all those things I recalled.”

Shedeur smiled when his father brought up the wristbands, but also added, “I mean, the reality and all that hasn’t kicked in yet.”

The reality certainly had set in for dad, though. Coach Prime’s coaching journey began because of his sons. Along the way, he worked with others, such as CU safeties Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig and Herman Smith III. Several of CU’s coaches have been with Coach Prime since the Truth days.

On one hand, Coach Prime is looking forward to the next chapter for his sons.

“They on to the next,” he said. “They’re going to have tremendous careers.”

Still, after a journey that took the Sanders family from youth sports in Dallas to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, it was tough to hold back emotions when it came to an end.

“That����ap tough to know that that����ap it,” Coach Prime said, “and that walk won’t happen again.”

Notable

Prime Video announced Monday that season 3 of the Coach Prime documentary will premiere on Jan. 7. The full season of episodes will be released that day.

The Buffs arrived at Arrowhead Stadium with their destiny in their hands. And like every KU ball carrier Saturday, it slipped through their fingers.

Racing into the locker room, a KU player leaped into the air and delivered an expletive about CU. Could the Buffs fans, save for Peggy, be blamed for joining him?

This game provided an opportunity to make a statement. Now, CU must wait, painfully needing Wil Hunting to sift through the tiebreakers with multiple teams knotted atop the conference standings. For starters, the Buffs must beat Oklahoma State on Friday. Then it gets messy.

If there is a four-way tie at 7-2, it goes to common opponents. Arizona State (4-0) becomes the No. 1 seed, Iowa State and BYU tie (3-1) and CU is out (2-2). In a three-way tie, the Buffs need a victory and for one of the other teams to lose. Not impossible, but a lot less likely than before Saturday when the Buffs knew two wins would send them into the championship with a shot to reach the College Football Playoff.

That was the blueprint.

Saturday, the Buffs did not look like they even had concepts of a plan.

This was the Buffs’ biggest game in eight years. Based on how the past month had gone, it was supposed to end with talk about Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders and Deion.

Instead, it invoked images of Charmin. The Buffs were soft. There is no polite way to put it after a 37-21 loss when they got rocked, chalked and Jayhawked. Facing a team desperate to keep its bowl hopes flickering, CU failed to match KU’s energy, intensity and physicality.

Devin Neal rushed for everything but a fraternity, finishing with 207 of KU’s 331 yards on the ground.

“It����ap not indicative of who we’ve been and who we are. We could not stop the bleeding,” coach Deion Sanders said. “They outplayed us and they wanted it more than we did.”

This was a day when things ended for CU, like a four-game winning streak that left the Buffs as media darlings on merit, not social media posts. This was a day when memories of 2023 resurfaced, the Buffs hanging on by a thread, with Coach Prime begging, pleading for his defense to get a stop. As in one. Uno.

He did not blame talented defensive coordinator Robert Livingston, insisting he called “a good game.” He pointed the finger in the mirror and at the alarming lack of execution that included missed tackles by Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig, LaVonta Bentley and inexcusable penalties by Shilo Sanders.

It was disappointing because it represented such a juxtaposition. Coach Prime recruits players who crave the big stage. But they wilted in the spotlight, the curtain pull producing an audible gasp of disbelief, starting with Neal opening the scoring with a 51-yard gallop on a screen pass.

“I was like, ‘Oh no here we go with the dumb stuff,”‘ Coach Prime said. “We have to do better. We have to be better as coaches and players. We have to do a better job, period. We started smelling ourselves as a team. We got intoxicated with the attention, the multitude of articles and the assumption that we’re this and we are that. We did not play CU football. Therefore, we got our butts kicked.”

It would have been instructive to talk to a defensive player after this debacle. But no one was made available, fittingly no-shows just like they were on the field after KU shredded CU for 522 yards and 29 first downs.

“We just played with a different energy,” Neal said.

It should have been worse. For reasons that remain inexplicable, the Jayhawks kicked three short field goals when they should have gone for it on every fourth down, and they actually passed the ball in the second half.

Logic demanded they use only their legs with quarterback Jalon Daniels ducking under defenders, Neal running through them and Sevion Morrison jogging past them. The Jayhawks did not just win at the point of attack. They dominated.

It left Damon Greaves lonely. He is KU’s punter. Hopefully, his parents took a screen shot of him when FOX panned the sidelines. He has punted 31 times this season, and no fewer than twice in a game before Saturday’s staycation.

CU is built for a track meet. But even with Shedeur playing well and Travis Hunter posting his sixth 100-yard receiving game this season and scoring twice, the Buffs were lapped.

“We had a lot of mess-ups offensively,” said Shedeur, who completed 23 of 29 passes for 266 yards and set a new single-season record with his 29th touchdown passes. “We have to look at what we did wrong.”

This was Nebraska all over again. CU responded to that embarrassment by winning seven of its next eight games. It put them in position to do something special.

Now the Buffs are, for all intents and purposes, on the outside looking in. We have learned this season that they are better than anticipated, their roster microwaving before our eyes. But on Saturday, the Jayhawks taught them a lesson, that inflated egos can still lead to sobering humiliation.