For the first time in 27 years, the University of Colorado (CU) hosted ESPN’s College GameDay this past Saturday following their impressive start to the 2023-24 college football season. This comes after American collegiate football coach and NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders joined the University of Colorado as the new Buffaloes head coach in December 2022. Since joining, Sanders has completely transformed the team and shocked the college football world. Following the game against Colorado State this past Saturday, the Buffaloes are currently (3-0), already surpassing their record of (1-11) in the 2022-23 college football season.
Colorado get ready, WE'RE COMIN'!
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 9, 2023
For the first time since 1996, we're headed to Boulder as Coach Prime and 2-0 @CUBuffsFootball host the Rocky Mountain Showdown with rival Colorado State! pic.twitter.com/rAcTFTS5zW
Since joining the University of Colorado, the former NFL Hall of Famer has completely transformed the team by having over 50 players enter the transfer portal. At the 2023 season-opening game, only ten scholarship players from the 2022 roster remained on the CU team. According to ESPN, this massive roster overhaul has seen the most incoming players to a collegiate football team since the transfer portal was established in 2018.
Following the complete transformation of the Buffaloes Football team, season tickets were sold out for the first time since 1996. College sports fans were waiting in anticipation for the 2023-24 football season to start as people were excited to see this new and improved team. Sander’s team made headlines after winning their season-opening game against former College Football Playoff National Championship runner-up TCU. For a school that has not been on many people’s radars over the last few years, they have been creating all the buzz in the sports world.
Sanders is joined by his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, and former Jackson State defensive back/wide receiver Travis Hunter. Shedeur and Travis are among some of the top contenders for the acclaimed Heisman Trophy awarded to the most outstanding player in college football each year. Additionally, once they are eligible to declare themselves for the NFL Draft, the two collegiate stars are projected to be first-round draft picks following their impressive performances in the first three games. This is remarkable on Sanders’ behalf, as during the 2022 and 2023 NFL Drafts, the Buffaloes did not have any players selected in the draft, yet the school now has at least two-star players projected to be first-round picks.
Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter make the Heisman case for each other 👀 @CUBuffsFootball pic.twitter.com/3P8sf91Q7E
— First Take (@FirstTake) September 15, 2023
This is not Sanders’ first time completely transforming a team for the better. The college football coach has been credited for leaving the distinguished HBCU, Jackson State University, better than he found it.
In September 2020, Deion took on the role of transforming the Jackson State football team, as the school had a combined record of (21-40) under three different head coaches from 2014-2020. Throughout his three seasons with the HBCU, Sanders led the school to a record of (27-6) and watched as his team won the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Championship back-to-back in 2021 and 2022. He took a struggling HBCU team and put it on the map as one of the greatest HBCU football programs.
Prior to the former Hall of Famer’s arrival at Jackson State, not one player from the school had been drafted to the NFL in 12 years. In the 2022 NFL Draft, Jackson State player James Houston IV became the first player coached by Sanders to be drafted.
Deion’s track record and incredible transformation with the Jackson State football team leave fans with a lot of hope and excitement for the University of Colorado Buffaloes. The first three games of this season have already been eye-opening and exciting to watch as some doubted Sanders’ decisions leading up to this season. As Colorado enters into Week 4, the world is watching perhaps one of the greatest college football Cinderella stories in the making that will create a whirlwind of a football season.
