BOULDER — If anyone’s flashing a bigger smile these days than Deion Sanders over the offensive linemen he’s landed in the transfer portal, it’s his quarterback son.
Shedeur Sanders completed nearly 70% of his passes this season but was sacked an NCAA-high 52 times as Colorado finished 4-8. He took such a beating that he missed the Buffs’ final game with a fractured bone in his back.
His father told The Associated Press in a Zoom call on Monday that he anticipates Shedeur being back under center for the Buffs’ spring practices.
“Oh yeah, most definitely. He will be,” Sanders said. “He just needs some rest and to heal up a little bit because he took a tremendous beating. And that provoked some things in me to do some things differently because the beating that he took — sometimes people forgot that I’m not only his coach, but that’s my son — so I understand that’s not how this is supposed to go.
“We’ve played youth league, high school and at an HBCU and we’ve never been beaten up like this,” Sanders added. “So, something had to change in that aspect.”
The first change was hiring former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Phil Loadholt to be the team’s offensive line coach. Then, Sanders went about beefing up his O-line via the transfer portal, which he likens to the quick fixes that can be found in NFL free agency.
In a wide-ranging interview with The AP, Coach Prime also said his QB son was ecstatic over the linemen who are coming to Boulder to bolster his protection and allow the Buffaloes to both balance and supercharge the offense.
“He’s elated, but more so than anything, he’s thinking football, he’s thinking, OK, now we have more balance. Now we get to display a running game. You got eight men in the box trying to stop the run. Now you got 1-on-1s on the outside.
“Not only did we upgrade the line, I don’t know if you’ve seen the receivers. So these are starters that we’re bringing in here,” Sanders said. “So everything has gone tremendously to another level. The defensive linemen, we put them out sporadically to keep people waiting. But we got the whole thing solved but maybe one defensive tackle. We’ve already got commitments from the others and so we’re good now, we’re on the linebackers and a couple more DBs and we can call it a day.”
The Buffaloes’ weakness up front and in the offensive backfield were major reasons the team lost eight of nine games after turning the college football world upside down during a 3-0 start.
Sanders was featured on the cover of Time Magazine and he was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year. He accepted that award earlier this month at an event that included the premiere of the second season of “Coach Prime,” the docuseries from Amazon Prime Video that provides an inside look at the CU program.
All of these things helped him recruit from the transfer portal and high schools, he said.
Even though most programs still keep a tight lid on their work behind the scenes, Sanders embraces social media and the transparency and unvarnished nature that comes with having cameras around 24/7.
“I have not met a kid yet that said that he or she didn’t want more followers or attention or focus or didn’t want more opportunity for NIL or collectives,” Sanders said. “I’ve met coaches that don’t know how to handle media and attention in the spotlight. But I’ve been in this realm since 1985. So this is nothing new to me. I know this business.
“I was in television for 19 years, as well. So I understand this wholeheartedly. So I’ve sat in each seat of the player, coach, of the parent and as the media personality, as well. So I kind of understand all these trappings and what these kids really want,” Sanders said. “Most coaches want to be seen the way they want to be seen when they want to be seen.”
Sanders said win or lose, he wants the cameras there.
“It’s a tremendous blessing to me because you use this as a recruiting tool, a mentorship tool, an exposure tool,” Sanders said. “There’s nothing negative to it to me.”
Sanders said the few assistants who have left Boulder and a spattering of decommitments were natural attrition and nothing to fret over.
When asked about his alma mater, Florida State, going undefeated but getting snubbed by the College Football Playoff because its star quarterback is hurt, Sanders said he only wishes he had such worries in Boulder but felt the playoff’s expansion to 12 teams next year will prevent similar snubs.
“Expansion is going to help it tremendously. I love it. I love it for us. I love it for a multitude of schools, a multitude of coaches. I love it. I really do,” Sanders said.
He added he’s eager for CU’s move from the Pac-12 into the Big 12 next season along with Utah, Arizona and Arizona State.
“We plan on having a tremendous impact on the Big 12,” he said. “I mean you can see what we’ve done in the portal and you’re going to see on Wednesday what we’ve done in high school. You may see a surprise or two that you’re gonna say, ‘Wow, like they are building something special.’
“When people see the quarterbacks that we retain, they should say, ‘Dang, they’re really thinking not just for now; they’re taking the future because everybody knows Shedeur is gonna be this guy. But look what they built behind him.’”
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