Eventually, maybe, Deion Sanders might start to self-censor.
Here's hoping that day never comes for the tenaciously, hellaciously candid "Coach Prime," who told 247Sports he wouldn't know Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi if Narduzzi walked in the doors of Sanders's Colorado Buffaloes football program.
Per 247Sports, when asked to respond to Narduzzi's earlier criticism this spring of his roster management after hired atop the Colorado program last December, Sanders said the following:
"What was his situation when he came to Pitt?," Sanders asked interviewer Carl Reed. "He had a different situation than me. He is not mad at me, he is mad at the situation in football now that allowed his best player to leave a year ago (former All-American wideout Jordan Addison transferred to USC, then turned pro earlier this spring).
"He’s not mad at me, he’s using me to shoot bullets at another coach (presumably USC's Lincoln Riley) who he has an issue with.
"I don’t know who he is; if he walked in here right now I wouldn’t know him."
Narduzzi is the classically old-school coach who earlier this spring decried Coach Prime's roster churning in Boulder, Colorado, as bad for the sport of college football.
"That's not what the rule was intended to be," said Narduzzi, who guided Pitt to the 2021 ACC Championship and has led the Panthers to a combined 20 wins in their past two seasons. "It was not to overhaul your roster. We'll see how it works out, but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country."
While Colorado has seen more than 70 players enter into the NCAA Transfer Portal since last summer, not all of those departures have unfolded under Sanders, who nonetheless said he simply has embraced the system.
"Necessary changes," Sanders told 247Sports of the Colorado roster overhaul, which has included almost 50 player exits since Sanders wrapped up the Buffaloes' spring camp in late April. "Say, 'Necessary.'"
Sanders also told the outlet that former consensus five-star prospect and one-time No. 1 recruit Travis Hunter would continue to play both sides of the ball at Colorado and that Hunter "was offered a bag; he turned down about $1.5 million" to reunite with Sanders after Hunter began his career with Coach Prime at Jackson State.
Colorado opens the Coach Prime era Sept. 2 at TCU, last season's College Football Playoff runner-up, and the Buffaloes play their first home game under Sanders the next week against former longtime Big 12 rival Nebraska.