SAN ANTONIO — As much as anyone in the sport, Deion Sanders has been the face of college football the past two years as it hurtled into a new era of portal and Playoff, of NIL and evolution.
From taking over a 1-11 left-for-dead Colorado program to proving so many skeptics wrong to developing a Heisman Trophy winner to transforming Colorado into must-see TV that became not only a ratings machine, but also a Top 25 team, Coach Prime has been like nothing this sport has ever seen — with his own camera crews documenting every moment along the way. And yet, a few minutes before kickoff of Saturday night’s Alamo Bowl loss to BYU, we saw him like we’ve never seen him before.
Speechless.
Deion Sanders, with his sunglasses on, headset around his neck and head bowed, was overcome with emotion as all the memories poured in from years of coaching sons Shilo and Shedeur, from pee-wee football to Jackson State to resurrecting Colorado. He had just walked onto the field with his sons, as he has done countless other times, but it never felt like this.
On camera, ESPN reporter Taylor McGregor asked what was bringing up the emotions. The 57-year-old choked up for a few heartbeats.
“The journey,” he said. “It’s been a tremendous, tumultuous journey.”
Sanders knew this moment was coming. He conceded a day earlier that he’d been trying to shy from this reality. It seeped into his mind before his sons’ last home game at Colorado, but that wasn’t their last college game together.
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What made it even harder was that it wasn’t just Shilo and Shedeur — it was his other “sons” too. It was Travis Hunter, the two-way player and Heisman winner who shocked the college football establishment as the nation’s No. 1 recruit by decommitting from Florida State to follow Sanders to Jackson State. And it was Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig, the heartbeat of the Buffaloes defense who had played for him when he was the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian High School in Texas when Shedeur was the QB. Silmon-Craig had decommitted from FAU to follow Sanders to Jackson State.
“I got upset with Shedeur yesterday,” Sanders said Friday with a grin. “I told him we have 48 hours, son, then all this is over.
“It’s going to be something to behold. I don’t know how I’m going to handle it. I know Travis is going to trigger me because he always does. He’s going to bring tears up my eyes. I don’t look forward to it, but I do because that means they’re going to another level, another chapter of life, and they’re going to soar. I’m thankful that I feel we’ve equipped them with all the tools necessary to be successful.”
Colorado improved from 4-8 in 2023 to 9-4 in 2024. (Ronald Cortes / Getty Images)
It has been hard for Sanders not to get nostalgic. He had a legendary career as one of the most exciting players the sport has ever seen. He’s won two Super Bowls and made the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also played Major League Baseball and once hit over .500 in a World Series for the Atlanta Braves, doing so while playing with a broken bone in his foot. But it feels like this hits differently for him.
“This is a tremendous calling that God placed in my life to be around these kids, raise these kids to such a level as this,” Sanders said Friday. “When you think about your steps being ordered, I’m thankful. I’m thankful that (Colorado athletic director) Rick (George) gave me the opportunity. We wouldn’t have had a Heisman Trophy winner. Several other guys are definitely going to get drafted. It wouldn’t have happened if I wouldn’t have accepted that calling. So I’m thankful with the opportunities afforded to me. I’m thankful to be here, period. Man, this is a blessing. I don’t take any moment for granted.”
Sanders, who has insisted he plans to stay at Colorado after his sons are gone, continued in a stream of consciousness as he opened up about what he was feeling, talking about his bond with many of the other players who bought into his vision to join him along the way at CU.
“We’ve all had moments in my office or on the field that could bring you to tears if you really knew those moments,” he said. “Cam Silmon, who has been playing for me since he was a sophomore during high school.”
On Saturday night, about a half hour after Colorado had been overwhelmed by underdog BYU 36-14, it was Silmon-Craig who sat to Sanders’ right, with Shedeur to his dad’s left in the news conference after a game where almost everything went wrong for the Buffs.
Silmon-Craig isn’t the showstopper in the secondary. That, of course, is Hunter. But if you ask several coaches who their favorite player on this Colorado team is, the former two-star recruit ranked as the No. 212 safety in the Class of 2021 is their answer.
He was also the guy who the Colorado staff knew would say all the right things to his teammates when they needed it most, after the Buffs lost at home to Kansas State in mid-October, when the coaches knew the next six weeks would define this team. And he did say all the right things. They went on to win the next four games and five of their next six en route to finishing 9-4.
“He’s everything you want in college football,” defensive coordinator Robert Livingston told me, raving about Silmon-Craig’s toughness and character. “He’s phenomenal.”
Silmon-Craig, who had six tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and an interception Saturday, smiled when asked about how he’ll remember his time helping to get the Buffaloes turned around.
“I’ll think about the work, about the brotherhood that we built,” Silmon-Craig said. “I love those guys in that locker room with all my heart. They mean a lot to me.”
Shedeur Sanders, the quarterback who is projected to be a top-10 pick in the NFL Draft with Hunter, said for him the reality that this was the last game playing for his dad at Colorado with his big extended family hasn’t kicked in yet. Maybe it will in the next week or two when they’re not all together.
“I’ll be able to go back and think about those times,” he said.
But there is great pride for him in what they’ve accomplished in Boulder.
“It felt great representing Colorado and bringing (the program) back to where it was in the past,” he said. “I feel like we were able to re-lay the foundation of the program, so now it’s able for the other players coming in to pick up where we left off.”
Shedeur Sanders threw two touchdowns and two interceptions in the Alamo Bowl. (Troy Taormina / Imagn Images)
Saturday’s lopsided loss is not how anyone in the locker room, least of all Deion Sanders, thought this night would go. But Sanders said one rough night even in their last game together won’t overshadow or diminish all that they’ve accomplished in their journey over the past two years.
“It won’t,” he said. “That’s a wrap. It’s over. They are on to the next. They’re gonna have tremendous careers. They’re gonna move on. They’ll flush it. They may analyze it on the way home. I know Cam is gonna think about it, and think about plays that he made and plays that he didn’t make. They’ll flush this and then relax a little bit to get their bodies back right for preparation for combines and pro days, and Cam’s gonna play in the East-West (Shrine) Game, so he has to stay focused for that as well.”
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One of the last questions Sanders was asked was about his program leaving a footprint on college football in terms of how schools recruit, market and display themselves and what that meant to him in terms of legacy.
“I don’t think we consider that at all,” he said. “We really don’t care. We’re just trying to develop these young men, win games, make sure they’re consistent men in the community with their relationships, with their families and in school. Trust me, we don’t think about it like that.”
His answer to that question reminded me of something he had said the day before, when his perspective sounded so much like parenting, not just coaching.
“It’s unfortunate that they’re moving on, but you pray that you poured into them enough that when they move on, they move up,” he said. “They’re not just passing by. They move on and they move up. You’ve blessed them with knowledge and support and love and compassion in those moments. The most vital moments aren’t even about the field. It’s about what transpires in life that you’re able to be there for them.
“Those are the things that I passionately adore with many of our seniors, that I can’t wait to see them soar.”
(Top photo: David Buono / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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