After a successful 2024 season capped with an appearance at the Alamo Bowl, the Colorado Buffaloes under head coach Deion Sanders have not had the start to this season that many hoped.
Holding a 1-2 record with losses to Georgia Tech and Houston, Sanders and Colorado now enter a crucial point of the season, with wins needed more than ever. But even as they continue their 2025 season, Sanders was recently urged to leave the program, due in part to the fact that he’s already brought a historic amount of attention to Boulder.
“After last night’s rough outing in H-Town, the Buffs have fallen to 1-2 in Sanders’ third year, a time traditionally seen as “the year it all comes together,” Austin Perry wrote in an article for Outkick titled ‘It’s Time For Deion Sanders And Colorado To Mutually Part Ways.’
In his first season at Colorado, Sanders went 4-8, going 1-7 in their last eight after a strong start. Last season, the team had a 9-4 record and its first bowl game in a few years and saw Travis Hunter win the Hiesman Award. Now 1-2 after Week 3, the pressure rises for Sanders and his staff in hopes of finishing with another winning season.
Sanders Urged To Leave Boulder
While Perry’s argument that Sanders should leave the program might sound outlandish after just three games into the season, his overarching point about the success he brought to the school remains true.
“What were and are the expectations for Deion Sanders as a coach at the University of Colorado? Was the Deion Experiment supposed to drum up publicity and get eyes on the program?” Perry asked. “Because if so, mission accomplished, folks! People are talking about the Colorado football team more in the past three years than they have probably since the early ’90s.”
The Buffaloes went 1-11 before Sanders arrived. But since he was announced as the new head coach of the program, social media interactions and followers have skyrocketed, and Colorado is now one of a few teams in the country with at least one million Instagram followers.
The school has also seen a rise in applications and financial donations towards the athletic department, a majority of which can be ascribed to Sanders’ arrival.
But now, with the school close to the peak of their national attention in college football, ‘Sanders’ job‘ Perry referenced does seem to have been accomplished.
“I‘m sure the idea was that he would deliver the Colorado program back to relevance, first through the team’s play on the field and then from the free press the man they call Coach Prime brought with him,” Perry added.
Perry cited the Buffaloes’ lack of success on both the field and in the recruiting office compared to other top programs as a reason Sanders’ future could be in question. While Colorado fans might not share the same national championship hopes as other schools, the Buffs’ developing quarterback controversy could hold more weight around Boulder for why Sanders’ future might start being questioned.
Colorado QB Situation
Filling the shoes of Shedeur Sanders was always going to be a tough task for whoever was named the starting quarterback at Colorado. However, with transfer Kaidon Salter, five-star recruit Julian Lewis, and returning backup Ryan Staub, many expected the Buffaloes to have one of the best quarterback rooms in the country.
Three weeks into the season, that hasn’t been the case, and Sanders has yet to fully commit to just one of the three as his starter.
In Week 1, Salter played a majority of the snaps in their loss to Georgia Tech. In Week 2, he started again, but was replaced by Lewis in the second quarter, who threw just four passes for eight yards. Staub then took over, throwing for 157 yards and two scores against Delaware. He was subsequently named starter for Week 3 in Houston.
In his second-ever start, Staub was underwhelming. He went 19/35 passing for 204 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions as Colorado lost 36-20. Despite the numbers, Staub was the only quarterback to play for Sanders, who was described as ‘disappointing‘ by the media after many expected a better performance from the former backup.
“I have no idea,” Sanders said about the quarterback position in the postgame press conference after adding he was ‘dumbfounded‘ after the loss. “It wasn’t good at all. I take full responsibility of the foolishness that went on out there.”
“At the end of the day, it always falls on the quarterback,” Staub added postgame.
Sanders has yet to name a starting quarterback for their next game against Wyoming.
Deion Sanders Urged To Leave Colorado After 1-2 Start, QB Issues