Deion Sanders describes his role in guiding Colorado players to NFL Draft decisions

Deion Sanders has always been critical when it came to the development of his players in preparation for the NFL.

Sure, there are top 10 pick cases for Travis Hunter and Deion Sanders’ son Shedeur. Heck, his other son Shilo could command decent NFL attention.

But it’s the other players who struggle with the decision to stay in school or go to the NFL. Coach Prime had wisdom though, when asked about it this week.

“Well, if they don’t like school, they need to go, because I don’t want them affecting our APR,” Sanders said. “That’s number one. Secondly, if they have a good shot at going to the NFL, but it could increase if they stayed, I’m going to give them that wisdom. I’m going to put them in front of a multitude of scouts and people that (have) the resources to give them the truth about where they stand. But you got to understand, you got to really take in consideration who that person is.” 

Sanders even provided an NFL-probable player at Jackson State that did not quite take his advice.

“We had a person at Jackson that could, I promise you, if he would have came here with us, he probably would have been (a) second through fourth round pick, by all means,” Sanders said. “But he didn’t enjoy school, so he wanted to do his thing. So you really got to understand who a person is. but I’m going to give him the truth, the adulted truth. I’m going to really tell them like it is, but I’m going to try to urge them to go in the right direction. But then, the choice is ultimately up to them. Good question, though, man.”

NFL players aside, Colorado and Sanders have the chance to do something special: win the Big 12 and make the College Football Playoff.

Colorado is 4-1 in league play and travels to Texas Tech this weekend before finishing the season with Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma State, which are a combined 9-17 on the season. Texas Tech is a 3.5-point favorite at home, according to FanDuel.

Iowa State still has meetings with Kansas State and Cincinnati, both of which sit in the upper half of the Big 12 standings. BYU has a clear path to finish 12-0 with visits to Utah and Arizona State while hosting Kansas and Houston.