Take the big talk and put it aside. The post-game I-told-you-so’s. The made-for-social media material.
Ignore it for a moment.
Now focus on Deion Sanders, football coach. The man who owns a 28-6 record since taking the Jackson State job in 2020. Who has recruited extremely well and coached even better. Who engineered the biggest upset of the weekend. Who arrived in Fort Worth, Texas, a 21-point underdog and left victorious.
Because the man can coach. He sure can recruit. Too much is being made of the other stuff. Not enough is being said about Colorado’s pulsating 45-42 victory at No. 17 TCU, last year’s national championship runner-up. Sanders became the first coach to win his FBS debut as an underdog of more than 20 points since the 1978 FBS/FCS split.
Sanders’ roster has 87 new players, an unheard-of amount, basically a new team he had not only ready to play, but prepared and unfazed when it lost the lead twice in the fourth quarter. Colorado was supposed to get dusted by TCU. Instead, the Buffaloes were the story of college football’s opening weekend. Sanders’ two stars from Jackson State — his son and quarterback, Shedeur, and his dynamic two-way dynamo, Travis Hunter — looked like future pros. Shedeur threw for 510 yards — the most passing yards by a player in his FBS debut over the past 25 years — and four touchdowns. Hunter, the former overall No. 1 prospect in the country, had 11 catches for 119 yards as a receiver and a huge interception near the goal line as a defensive back.
Afterwards, Deion was being Deion, taking on reporters who doubted his team, getting in the way of the moment. It’s part of the package — defiance, swagger and ego. The act predictably went viral on social media, and make no mistake, it is an act. Just watch his riveting pregame speech, when he told his players the only thing that mattered was them — not the opponent and not the “non-believers, the haters, the doubters.”
Now, it is one game, impressive and stunning and unexpected as it was. Colorado is still a 2.5-point underdog next Saturday at home against rebuilding Nebraska. In time, this win may not be as impressive weeks down the road. This year’s TCU isn’t last year’s TCU. I still believe that Colorado reaching a bowl game would make for a successful season.
But, it is clear that Sanders knows what he’s doing. It was apparent through his three years turning Jackson State into a two-time SWAC champion and it was obvious on Saturday. He didn’t win all those games by accident and his team didn’t pull off the biggest surprise in Week 1 by some fluke.
Colorado and Sanders will have to be accounted for — this season and however long Boulder, Colo., remains his coaching home. That point is inarguable. Get used to it.
But don’t let Deion the showman distract from Deion the coach. There is plenty of substance behind that act.
It’s ironic, isn’t it? Or maybe sad. Possibly both. If the first weekend of the season is any indication, the Pac-12 appears primed for its best season in several years this fall — before the end of the conference as we know it.
The league looks to have a number of early contenders, from USC to Oregon and Washington to Utah. Led by the sixth-ranked Trojans, it had five ranked teams in the preseason, and likely a sixth (Colorado) when the new Associated Press poll is released. The Pac-12, which last was included in the playoff seven years ago, went undefeated this weekend, highlighted by Colorado’s stunning upset of TCU. The Buffaloes were hardly the only team to impress. Washington, my sleeper playoff pick, annihilated Mountain West preseason favorite Boise State. Utah, despite the absence of star quarterback Cameron Rising, manhandled SEC foe Florida.
Defending Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams has guided USC to a pair of blowout wins, throwing for nine touchdown passes and 597 yards. Michael Penix Jr. countered with 450 yards through the air and five scores for Washington while former top-rated Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei started his Oregon State career off right, producing five touchdowns in a rout at San Jose State.
After this season, this all ends, of course. USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are headed to the Big Ten. Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State are joining the Big 12. California and Stanford are going to the ACC. Only Oregon State and Washington State are left.
For now, let’s try to enjoy the Pac-12. It appears primed to go out with a bang.
Florida State certainly looked back Sunday. It looked back in the trenches. It looked back on the perimeter. It looked back by throttling LSU, 45-24, and piling up 494 yards of offense. The eighth-ranked Seminoles only have one other ranked team on their schedule, a trip to No. 9 Clemson on Sept 23. Win that game, and the College Football Playoff seems very attainable. That’s how impressive Florida State was against one of the projected best teams in the country. It looked like an old school Florida State team in the Bobby Bowden heyday. The offseason hype seems warranted.