This Is A Make-Or-Break Year For Deion Sanders

The disappointing finish to Deion Sanders's first season in charge of the Colorado Buffaloes hasn't led to a decrease in attention on his program heading into Year 2. That's because Sanders himself can't help doubling down on his bravado and self-assuredness, no matter what he's talking about.

On Friday, USA Today published an investigation into Shilo Sanders's ongoing bankruptcy case, partly because Deion asked them to. When asked about his son and starting safety's case last month, Deion challenged a reporter to do his "homework and do a whole investigation on that and then write that." The result of that investigation was Friday's story, which clarifies that Shilo recently filed for bankruptcy due to an $11.89 million default judgment against him in a 2022 civil trial. The trial, which Shilo did not show up for, stemmed from a 2015 incident during which a school security guard named John Darjean claims he was assaulted by Shilo when Shilo was a 15-year-old at FOCUS Academies in Dallas.

This is not the type of story that most college football coaches would want being rehashed about one of their players just before the season starts, especially at a program that was recently described as "real-life Grand Theft Auto," by an anonymous former player. Deion can't help himself, though, which is odd because for as much as he loves the spotlight, he doesn't deal so well with unwanted attention. He wants to be able to control the room with his force-of-nature personality and persona, and that leads to him doing things like challenging a reporter to get his son's legal troubles back in the headlines. It also leads to petty outbursts, like when he recently lambasted a Denver reporter for his coverage of the team, and then refused to answer a question from a CBS Sports reporter because of where he appeared in a ranking of Big 12 coaches.

All of this just puts even more pressure on Deion's players, who have to live up to the high expectations their coach invites. The Buffs still have their two studs, QB Shedeur Sanders and WR/CB Travis Hunter, but the program hasn't been recruiting or enticing transfers like one that is ready to compete for a national championship. The Buffs should be better than last year, but the squad is still pretty thin, especially as Colorado now enters the Big 12. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, as the Big 12 isn't as top heavy as the Pac-12 was, but every team in the Big 12 is roughly on the same playing field at all times. The Buffalos have to show progress, but more than that they have to show that they're heading towards contention, if not this year than the next.

College football needs a guy like Deion Sanders to succeed. Not only because he brings star power, attention, and a financial windfall to a program like Colorado, but because the sport thrives when coaches have personalities, particularly as players cycle in and out every 2-3 years. And with NIL giving players more power while chasing the likes of Nick Saban out of the sport, there's a vacuum to be filled by a coach who represents everything that is both beautiful and evil about this sport. Before he can do that, Deion has to prove that he can take his team forward from Year 1 to Year 2.