CU Buffs head coach Deion Sanders prepares for first signing day
Parking a Ford GT at Folsom Field one weekend and a McLaren at Indoor Stadium the next added some flash to a pair of recruiting weekends for the Colorado Buffaloes.
New coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders loves the flash. However, his actual message to recruits is more basic and direct.
“We don’t offer[to recruits],” Sanders told BuffZone. “We’re honest, we’re straightforward. The criteria, man: smart, tough, quick, disciplined with character. This character says a lot.”
“When a kid talks about the bag (money) more than he talks about his position coach, the planner, what we can do here together, how we can change this game. … We’re going to change the game – that’s what we want to hear. How it fits in with what we’re trying to achieve.” Not okay, what am I going to get? We don’t want that. We don’t want that kid who starts out that way.”
On Wednesday, Sanders, hired on Dec. 4 after a successful three-year stint at Jackson State, will have his first national signing day as head coach of the Buffaloes.
It’s a season that will be mixed with secondary recruits and transfers. It’s a class that, like all college athletes these days, will be wondering about your NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) odds. And he’s a chap, in part, who would be fascinated by playing with Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who also played more than a decade in Major League Baseball.
Sanders also hopes it’s a semester that sees what he’s done as an athlete, and what he’s done as a coach, including his 27-6 grade in three seasons at Jackson State, and he wants to be part of a turnaround for a program that’s coming off a dismal, 1-11 season.
“We’re winners,” Sanders said of why players want to come to CU and play for him and his crew. “We have a tremendous staff, made up of winners and guys who’ve made it to the final levels of football – the NFL. … great college coaches, plus great connections who really care. I think we’ve built a staff that has heart, care, and concern for these guys.”
“If you give us a boy, we’ll give you a man back. We’ll make sure he’s a man in the classroom, on the field, off the field in the community, and in his personal relationship with his girlfriend or whatever.”
The process of building the team he wants has just begun. National Signing Day is a holiday for college football fans, but Sanders said it’s just the beginning.
“Wednesday is a big deal,” he said, “but there’s a continuation after that.” “A lot of guys get into bowl games and they can’t get into the gate. They don’t want to get in the gate (yet). So Wednesday is a big deal, but it’s not the end of it.”
Sanders said he has a “40-40-20” roster-building plan with 40% transfers from graduates, 40% from college transfers and 20% from high school recruits.
“You can’t just hang your hat on (signing) day in high school,” he said. “You have to hang your hat on the other days. Those guys in high school, it takes a few years for them to really mature? I’m impatient like that. I want to win now.”
Roster building won’t be quick either, since there are some players around the country who have already moved on once and need to graduate in the spring before moving on again.
“You’re going to get together,” Sanders said of the CU roster. “You’ll have to see how it all comes together by the summertime.”
With the roster consolidated, Sanders knows “bag” will be an important factor. In the new era of college sports, NIL money is on the minds of many players and Sanders is for compensated athletes. While he builds a team in Colorado, he doesn’t want the NIL to be the main target.
“I enjoy some of the (recruiting) parts,” Sanders said. “I don’t enjoy all the parts of it because now to a certain extent—not necessarily our kids that we’re after now—but now it’s play driven. And that’s not how it should be. … I don’t know but maybe three or four guys have none already, And (Shader Sanders, his son and quarterback at Jackson State) is one of them.Travis (Hunter of Jackson State) is one of them that you really see his name and image and likeness being made and progressed.
“Everything else is collective. It’s just, ‘Hey, I’ll give you some money if you come here and play.’ That’s it. That’s where we went in college football and that’s not what it’s supposed to be. Those shouldn’t be worried.” Kids about the bag. They should be worried about getting to the NFL, not getting to the zero.”
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