Joel Klatt calls Deion Sanders to Colorado the most interesting coaching change in college football

No coaching change this offseason has drawn more attention than that of Deion Sanders to Colorado. Hired after three years at Jackson State, the NFL Hall of Famer takes over a Buffaloes team that went just 1-11 in 2022.

Despite the tall task ahead of him in rebuilding the program, Sanders has made it clear his expectations are to win right away. He essentially cleaned house to prepare to do so, bringing in 47 transfers and keeping only 10 scholarship players from this past season.

That has led to plenty of opinions on the way Sanders went about his roster rehaul with fans, coaches and media pundits alike eager to see how it plays out. FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt, who played quarterback at Colorado from 2002-05, has never seen anything quite like it.

“There is not a more interesting coaching change that I can remember in college football,” Klatt said on his podcast. “Maybe (Nick) Saban going to Alabama. But I think it even pales in comparison to this. …Colorado’s level of ineptitude over the past few years is staggering when you actually look at the numbers. They were easily, and not by a close margin, the worst team in the Power 5 a year ago.

“…Enter Deion Sanders. From his own mouth in Big Noon Conversations, he said he loves it at Colorado and he is a ‘need to be needed’ type of guy. There is not a program that needed Deion Sanders more than the University of Colorado.”

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To hammer home just how bad the Buffaloes were this past season, Klatt noted that they lost their games by an average of 29 points. Ten of their 11 losses were by 23 points or more. He compared that to another 1-11 team, Northwestern, which saw an average margin of 14 points in their losses.

With that perspective, it’s easy to see why Sanders chose to use the transfer portal in the way he did. It also represents what is possible in this new era of college football where players are free to switch schools without having to sit out a year.

“You talk about a rebuild,” Klatt said. “We’ve never seen anything like this. In modern college football, this is absolutely within the rules, but we’ve still never seen anything like this. They are going to have 68 new players. That’s wild. …They drew the ire of a lot of people throughout college football. How many times have you seen coaches from across the country, not just within their conference, all have an opinion on a 1-11 team and what they’re doing in the offseason? Never.

“That’s why coach Prime and his rebuild at Colorado is unequivocally the most interesting thing in college football and particularly early in the season. You know what? I think it might work.”

With all the changes, it’s clear Colorado is in a much better position now from a talent standpoint. Among the players Sanders added is Travis Hunter, the No. 1 player in On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings, who is expected to contribute on both offense and defense. They also added Sanders’ son, Shedeur Sanders, at quarterback and five-star freshman cornerback Cormani McClain.

Integrating all those new players will certainly be difficult, but Klatt believes the bar won’t be very high coming off of last year’s disastrous record. As long as Sanders can lead the team to four wins, it will be a successful season in his book. Anything beyond that would be even more incredible.

“You take a look at what they were able to do in terms of increasing their talent level,” Klatt said. “This is going to be a drastically better team. Some people have said to me, ‘What do you really expect them to do?’ That’s interesting because as I said to him right to his face, if they were to get a plus-four or five or six and get to five, six or seven wins that would be monumental.

“He wants more than that and kudos to him. I don’t know. I’m a little bit more of a realist. I see their schedule. If they get to four I think its a huge success. If they get to five it’s a huge success. If they get to six wins and go to a bowl game, it is like Coach of the Year status for coach Prime.”

Colorado will kick off the Deion Sanders era on Sept. 2 with a big test against defending national runner up TCU.