Colorado - NDSU was a really entertaining game
But man, Shadeur Sanders is really talented. Buffalo’s o-line is still terrible and it seemed like Sanders never had a clean pocket. No matter. His escapability and decision making appears to be elite. Unlike most athletic college QBs he didn’t break and run very much but moved to spots where he could still make plays
Especially this second play where he breaks contain and then stops and resets when he easily could have run for a solid gain.
The questions with Shadeur are going to be behavioral IMO. The kid can play the position. Of that there is no doubt. Glad to have him as my fantasy QB bc it sure looks like that D is going to lead to quite a few shootouts.
I saw where he is rated top 5.
NDSU gave Colorado all they could handle, but in the end they could not cover Travis Hunter and Horn. Shaduer was running for his life, but I don’t think he is necessarily that good. Wait until he plays a team that has a good secondary. The throws Sanders were making were wide open most of the night, and the TD grab by Hunter was him bailing out a terrible throw by Shaduer. It reminded me of the Garrett Wilson catch on a shit Zach Wilson ball in the Jets-Bills game. That’s a WR making a play.
Of course NDSU had no answers for Hunter. I think Hunter is an absolutely legit NFL talent, and as he goes Colorado will have chances. Once the conference play begins, Colorado is back to a 3-4 win team. NDSU is a very solid D2 team and they were not going to be cupcakes, but Colorado should not have had as many issues stopping the run and stopping passes over the middle as they did. Their offensive line is still tragically bad. Deion Sanders is only there to help his kids get drafted to the NFL, and once that happens he will leave Colorado with nothing but problems.
It’s kind of a shame that Deion just isn’t into recruiting. Add 4-5 mid-level guys across both lines, maybe a couple DBs (all of which Deion could easily get if he were willing to like… leave his office), and Colorado would be a potential playoff team.
Jerry jones apparently is in love w him…i wonder if it will happen.
The no recruiting thing is the tell for what he is really trying to do. All Deion is trying to do, is get enough talent in place to make his kids look better. Deion is only taking transfer guys for last year and this year, because after this season his kids are going to the NFL and Deion is gone. Recruits take time to develop. Deion isn’t interested in that, and he is not going to bring in anyone that takes the shine away from Shadeur or Shiloh.
If you look at Deion’s actions, you can cut through his BS. I had some hopes for him until I realized what his angle is. I thought he was trying to prove himself to be more than a good player, and to show other ways to be a winner. Nope, this is all about getting his kids to the NFL. That’s why specifically Deion is blocking media groups that dare to say anything negative about him and the team. He is trying to control the narrative, and he doesn’t want anything that could potentially hurt their draft status to make it to print. He also does not want anyone saying exactly what he is doing, which is basically renting guys through the transfer portal just to get his kids through college.
Deion provided a perfectly good example of what exactly he is doing last night, when he called a pass play after Colorado got the ball back when EVERY coach and fan either runs the ball at minimum. Instead, calls a pass play to try to pad Shadeur’s stats. It’s incomplete, clock stops, SDSU saved a timeout and gets the ball back with time. No coach who wants to win makes that call. Deion isn’t about winning. He is about his kids.
Also, God help any team that takes Shadeur. It makes a ton of sense if he goes to Dallas. Hell, for all we know, this is Deion and Jerruh’s grand plan for post Dak life. Let Dak walk, pay whatever it takes for Dallas to get Shadeur, and now Jerruh gets everyone into the Cowboys again. Hell, he could even fire McCarthy and make Deion the new HC next year! Jerruh also does not care about winning. He cares about promoting the Dallas Cowboys, and keeping people talking about them.
100% agree with 90% of that. Yeah, it’s obvious that Deion is using Colorado to spend a couple years setting his kids up for the NFL draft and does not give a rat’s ass about the university or its fans or any other players. Which makes him kind of a scumbag, honestly. Like, getting a university to pay you crazy money to turn their program into a winner, when you have no intention of doing that and only plan to enrich yourself and your kids, seems a lot like fraud. (Though I’m sure Deion would respond, “When was the last time anybody tuned in to watch a Colorado game? You’re welcome.”)
The 10% I disagree with is that Jerruh doesn’t want to win. No doubt he loves “winning” when it comes to comparing his balance sheet against most other owners. But that guy is a specific kind of rich, especially Texas rich, that I’m sure it galls him every damn day that no matter how much he spends, his team is NEVER a serious super bowl contender, and ALWAYS disappoints in the playoffs. No doubt in my mind that it drives him insane that the rest of the league is laughing at him over that.
You nailed it on Colorado. I would actually feel sorry for them, except they know exactly what is going on. Colorado is absolutely themselves out for a couple of years of relevance, exposure and the gold mine that has come with people buying their merchandise. Zero people had any interest to watch any of their games until Coach Prime showed up. Colorado knows he will leave soon, they are just hoping in the meantime they can win some games and maybe, maybe a bit of relevance stays around for the next coach they hire. Hopefully that coach will actually try to build a program, and not use it to self promote.
For the record, I do think Jerruh cares some about winning, but it has to be done his way. The Dallas Cowboys are his real life reality show. For example, all of the contact stuff going on. Jerruh already knows who he is paying and how much. He is letting everything drag on because it keeps people talking. It keeps Dallas on the front page. At the end of the day, that’s what he wants. He’s let it slip a few times that he will know there is a problem “when people stop talking about us.”
This is great for Colorado
Shedeur is the #1 NIL athlete in the country. Their attendance last year increased by 11k per game, about 20%, to capacity.
And if Deion leaves after this year they have good coaches on staff. Pat Shurmur could step right in to provide quality and stability
Are we sure about that? Deion doesn’t strike me as much of a tactician. Compare that to someone like Kyle Wittingham, Lance Leopold or Mike Gundy who will squeeze everything out of his squads.
The only reason I’m able to entertain your theory is that the Big 12 is pretty bad talent wise compared to the big 2 or even the ACC for that matter. I do think there are some underrated top tier coaches in that league though and Deion isn’t one of them.
Yeah, I don’t mean they would be a playoff team because Deion is going to get the most out of his guys or out-gameplan anybody. Just that they already have enough elite talent that if you filled out the roster with some generally competent college football players, they could easily contend in the big 12.
I think Shadeur and Travis are elite. The depth at WR is impressive but the rest are at day 3 guys. Omarion Miller is super talented but in the dog house. Shilo is a likely pro but I don’t see him as big time. Am I missing someone?
I’m saying that Travis and shadeur are elite enough that if you surround them with some competent guys, in a mid tier league, they could contend for that league and its playoff slot(s).
To be clear, I don’t believe this Colorado team is going to contend for anything. My point is that with his ability to pull elite five star talent, I think Deion’s approach could actually work. But it would require him to actually work at recruiting at least a little bit, instead of not at all.
Shadeur is no doubt the type of QB that raises the play around him. At least at the college level. I agree there. I just think the talent infusion would have to be rather substantial. And there is a lot of smoke that last year’s more talented roster was built on the backs of a lot of broken NIL promises which I think will hamstring Deion going forward.
Does Shadeur need Deion to put up stats? The kid is talented and would do well in a lot of prolific offenses you see in college football.
I think Deion wants to be a good college coach, and he wants to be the best at whatever he does. I think he’d love to win a championship, but he doesn’t have a great staff and he has to recruit. He could easily be one of the best recruiters in the country. Kids would love to have Deion Sanders in their living room. He just doesn’t do it. It worked fine for him at Jackson State, but it won’t work when he’s competing against big programs.
He’s had some talented cosches.
Tim Brewster, though a bit crazy, is quite accomplished. Sean Lewis as an OC was once upon a time quite the cue. Good offensive mind. Will do well at SDSU IMO.
I think whether staff or the player the struggle with depth. Deion can get stars but he has to this point failed to build an underlying program to withstand the ebbs and flows of a season. His transcendental QB son is the reason it hasn’t looked terrible. 