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For a moment, it appeared that Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes were going to defy all expectations.
The Buffs began the 2023 college football season 3-0 and even landed in the AP Top 25 for a week. But then reality hit with the start of conference play and Colorado finished the season with a brutal 4-8 record.
Fast forward a few months and the Buffs are struggling on the recruiting trail as well, and a strange new quote from Sanders might explain why.
Deion Sanders Refuses To Do In-Home Recruiting Visits
Colorado’s first full recruiting class under Sanders ranked 22nd in the country according to 247Sports. That’s well above most expectations.
But that ranking was buoyed by the sixth-ranked transfer class. While the Buffs brought in just seven high school players, for a high school class that ranked 119th in the nation.
Thus far, Sanders and company have a grand total of zero commits in the 2025 class.
Not great!
Part of his struggles in 2024, and presumably 2025, is that Sanders refuses to do any in-home visits with recruits.
Why? We’ll let him explain.
“I have never heard one guy say I chose this college because this coach came by my crib. Have you?” Sanders told David Ubben of The Athletic. “I can’t do the things other coaches can do. You know why? I’m Coach Prime. And I didn’t stutter when I said it.”
Sanders told Ubben he did a “personal survey” and that he “truly believe in my heart that parents don’t want me in their house.”
He said he’d rather sell recruits and their parents on the city of Boulder.
“They want to see how I live, how I get down, see what I got going on, what God has done in my life,” Sanders says. “I know when I was in college I did not want Bobby Bowden in my house because I knew after 7 o’clock, there was going to be rats and roaches on parade.”
On one hand, he makes a good point.
Having highly esteemed coaches in your home can be a bit awkward.
But home visits also often solidify relationships between coaches and parents. There is an intimacy that comes with having someone in your home.
Will Deion’s approach work? We’ll find out in the long haul.
New offensive line coach Phil Loadholdt has talked about changing the program’s strategy.
But the early returns aren’t exactly encouraging.