Deion Sanders was ahead of his time as a player – college, NFL and even Major League Baseball – and just might be ahead of his time as a collegiate head coach.
So forgive Coach Prime for not being suddenly awash in a frenzy to see college football programs host spring exhibition contests against … other college football programs.
In the news lately because of comments from Auburn’s Hugh Freeze, UAB’s Trent Dilfer and even Alabama’s Nick Saban, spring exhibitions are an old concept to Sanders, now past the midway point of his first spring as head coach at the University of Colorado.
“I said that three years ago,” Sanders said, answering the question before it was fully posed. “I said it three years ago. That’s the smartest thing ever. You can’t play the schools that could possibly be on your schedule, but I think it’s a financial windfall for a lot of universities, you could go home in a way. It’s a tremendous opportunity.”
Sanders noted that the scrimmage contests against other schools could curtail exposure to injuries while also revealing more completely strengths and weaknesses.
“We don’t want to play ourselves and bang each other up,” said Sanders, who shattered records for success at Football Championship Subdivision program Jackson State, an Historically Black College and University program (HBCU), before leaping last December to take over the Power-5 Buffaloes program. “We don’t want to do that but we want to put on a good show and give our fans the hope that they desire and they want to see. I would love to do that.
“I said that at Jackson when we first got there, because it don’t make sense.”
Sanders even took his proposal further, advocating for evolution in player development ranging from summer passing leagues to individual drills.
“You have a lot of other … even 7-on-7 in the offseason, why can’t we go somewhere and play 7-on-7? We need that,” he said. “The pass rushers need 1-on-1s as well. You like to see, you like to see what you’ve got and what you don’t have against someone else other than yourself. Sometimes you measure yourself based on what you have in camp, and sometimes that’s not good. It’s a false sense of advertisement. You think this guy’s good because he’s kicking everybody’s butt in your camp. Well, shoot, your camp might not be good.
“You’ve got to get out there and see, if Tarzan is really Tarzan or is he Jane? You want to see.”
Sanders made clear, as his Colorado team readies for its sold-out, ESPN-televised April 22 intrasquad scrimmage that will cap spring camp, that he is seeking to comb through college athletics’ version of free agency – the NCAA Transfer Portal – to continue to bolster his roster before the Buffaloes travel Sept. 2 to 2022 College Football Playoff runner-up TCU for their season-opening contest.
“The team that we’re playing with now,” said Sanders, measuring his words, “is not the team that we’re going to play with in Texas the first game. … Do I need to say any more? It’s not going to be that. There’s going to be a lot of new faces, lot of new attitudes. Lot of new understandings. Lot of new wants and desires and you’ve got to have it. Got to be a sense of urgency.
“One of the things I talked about in the beginning was don’t allow yesterday to cripple you and then you’re fearful of tomorrow and while yet still you’re missing today. I don’t understand that. But they will.”