Lincoln Riley: Deion Sanders at Colorado is great for the Pac-12, college football

Boulder, Colorado, became the center of the college football universe for a brief while on Saturday afternoon as everyone got the first taste of Deion Sanders as a Power 5 head coach. And USC head caoch Lincoln Riley, one of his Pac 12 coaching peers, thinks scenes like the one at Folsom Field are great for the sport.

Colorado packed more than 45,000 people into the stadium for a spring game the year after going 1-11. Results on the field are still pending for Sanders at Colorado, but everything so far look like a step in the right direction from Riley’s seat.

“I think any time like that where maybe you’ve had a program — any part of the country — that’s been down, to see it start to come back and get momentum and get excitement like that, that’s good for college football. We want all of our good programs out there to really be good. And we want great coaches. We want energy around the game. And Deion’s certainly brought that. I know he’s going to do a tremendous job there,” Riley said on “First Take” on ESPN.

While USC was not nearly as bad on the field as Colorado was the year before Riley got there, he engineered an impressive turnaround in Pasadena. From 4-8 in 2021 to 11-3 in 2023, Riley — along with quarterback Caleb Williams — had the Trojans on the brink of a College Football Playoff berth.

Sanders doesn’t have the same roster talent that USC did then, but he’s working the portal hard to get there. And even getting the Buffaloes back to bowl contention would be a good enough start in Boulder in Year 1.

“I think it’s great. I think it’s great for the Pac 12. I think it’s great for college football. Deion is obviously one of the greatest players that’s ever played the game. And he’s got a big personality. He’s got just a great kind of vibe about him that, obviously, he’s done a tremendous job getting into the coaching side of it. And he’s brought a lot of energy and excitement,” Riley said.

And Riley isn’t the only person hyping Sanders up after the spring game. Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt had high praise for the Colorado head coach.

“It was electric. Even I tweeted out when you look at what this has been so far, it has been a major success,” Klatt said on Monday. “The spring game was incredible to watch, wish I could have been there … I’m so excited for what Coach Prime is doing there in Boulder. And by the way, from what I saw on the field, I think they’re going to win 6-plus games this season.”