Watching Colorado’s season implode has been painful but predictable for anyone who values accountability over celebrity. The latest humiliation — a 53-7 rout at Utah that left the Buffaloes 3-5 and 1-4 in Big 12 play — was not an accident, it was the logical end of a program built more on flash than fundamentals.
Deion Sanders himself admitted the team was outcoached and said the evaluation “starts with me,” but words mean little when the sidelines show a pattern of absent preparation and poor in-game adjustments. The scoreboard tells the true story: the Buffaloes were gashed for 422 rushing yards while managing just 140 yards of offense, evidence that this is a coaching failure as much as a personnel problem.
Let’s be frank: Coach Prime’s celebrity aura bought him leniency when wins came, and excuses when they didn’t. Sanders has also battled serious health issues this year — including surgeries and blood-clot complications that have kept him away at times — but claiming sympathy shouldn’t eclipse demanding competence from the sideline. The university and the coach both owe the players a program that prepares them, not a reality-show atmosphere.
Colorado’s climb in 2024 after a rough first season was sold as proof the celebrity hire worked, but that narrative ignored durable problems beneath the surface. Transfers and flashy recruiting brought headlines and short-term gains, yet the culture of discipline and fundamentals that wins in November was never fully rebuilt — and now the façade is cracking. Fans and alumni didn’t sign up for a highlight-reel coach who can’t coach his way out of a halftime deficit.
Jason Whitlock saw what was coming because he watches for substance, not spectacle, and he called out the performative leadership that values attention over accountability. That critique stings because it’s accurate: American institutions, including college athletics, keep chasing clout at the expense of results, and Colorado is the latest cautionary tale. Conservative common sense says hire for competence, measure by results, and fire theatrics when they fail the kids.
The university administration must stop treating football as marketing and start treating it as a responsibility to young men who deserve coaching that prepares them for life and competition. If Sanders can’t rebuild the basics, then the school — and the boosters who reward outcomes, not TV clicks — should demand a course correction immediately. Hardworking Americans expect leaders who deliver, and that standard should apply to Coach Prime just like anyone else.
