Coach Prime to Colorado

LargeFO

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One of my big questions about bringing Sanders here was whether we’d bring in all the necessary support and give him full control. Colorado has basically handed him a blank check and given him total control.

As long as he doesn’t self destruct or get caught up in a compliance or legal issue, I think he’ll win games.

It'll be interesting. I think first two years are gonna be rough. He can crap on the roster to his heart's content, but you still have to have some ST guys, depth for injuries etc...
 

bobongo

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One of my big questions about bringing Sanders here was whether we’d bring in all the necessary support and give him full control. Colorado has basically handed him a blank check and given him total control.

As long as he doesn’t self destruct or get caught up in a compliance or legal issue, I think he’ll win games.
I think he'll eventually win games, too, but as you suggest, it's highly improbable the Jackets would have been able to match Colorado's offer:


"Deion Sanders and the University of Colorado agreed to a five-year, $29.5 million deal..."

In addition: "Colorado has given Coach Prime a $5 million pool to hire assistants and support staff members."
 

MidtownJacket

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I guess I don’t understand what “the experiment” is and what other schools will do if Deion is successful. It’s not like there are a lot of other Deion Sanders types out there.

I’m not a Deion homer, but I’m amazed by comments that Deion is more flash than substance. They guy has delivered at the highest levels in everything he has done. He has an incredible work ethic and is extremely demanding. He puts more pressure on himself with his bravado and has pretty much delivered all of his life. People seem to think he has been given things versus earning them. I just don't understand that.
For me the question lies in his ability to be a leader of men and a supporter of his charges.

As an athlete he had a winning combination of work ethic AND natural phenom talent. Like Michael Phelps or Lebron James his body was embued with the ability to be a superstar and he did the work to capitalize on that. Take nothing away from the effort required to get to and maintain his physical dominance.

As a coach, if he is surrounded by tacticians and handlers you can insulate some of the potential downside, but I just think he is too self-centered and is not going to be able to unite the locker room and keep the guys playing with common purpose. It doesn’t feel like it is worth the circus and noise. Maybe I’m just gun shy after living through the CGC experience but I think his downside outweighs the upside.
 

Richard7125

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For me the question lies in his ability to be a leader of men and a supporter of his charges.

As an athlete he had a winning combination of work ethic AND natural phenom talent. Like Michael Phelps or Lebron James his body was embued with the ability to be a superstar and he did the work to capitalize on that. Take nothing away from the effort required to get to and maintain his physical dominance.

As a coach, if he is surrounded by tacticians and handlers you can insulate some of the potential downside, but I just think he is too self-centered and is not going to be able to unite the locker room and keep the guys playing with common purpose. It doesn’t feel like it is worth the circus and noise. Maybe I’m just gun shy after living through the CGC experience but I think his downside outweighs the upside.
I don’t think he would have been a good fit at Tech, but I think that has as much to do with Tech being a little peculiar as with Deion being Deion.
 

FightWinDrink

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Well I was a little less concerned with the start of the mass exodus at Colorado since he’s bringing in 48 new players but they’re down to 11 returning players so a roster of 59 is still pretty bad
 

Jim Prather

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Well I was a little less concerned with the start of the mass exodus at Colorado since he’s bringing in 48 new players but they’re down to 11 returning players so a roster of 59 is still pretty bad
This is his first time coaching at this level. Maybe he doesn't realize he's allowed 85 players 🤣
 

MidtownJacket

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The approach coaches take with the portal and maintaining Locker room chemistry is interesting. When I played sports the closest I came to “college athletics” like feeling was my rugby club. We had an extensive network of “old boys” who played previously and remained dues paying members to support and mentor and grow the clubs and players. There was a real sense of brotherhood that far outweighed my traveling soccer and swim team experience because you literally had generational connection to the history of the club.

I loved that. I am curious how the newer “mercenary-like” approach some coaches are taking with NIL guys and transfers will effect the camaraderie and esprit de corps that helped us dig deeper in games and practice to support and back up our brothers on the team.

That’s something I like about CBK’s approach so far - he seems to be willing to bring in transfers but isn’t going to bet the farm on them. Growing and retaining players makes sense to me and I see the portal as a good way to balance class size/positions of players who don’t work out. Not necessarily flip rosters and win out repeatedly.
 

slugboy

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Well I was a little less concerned with the start of the mass exodus at Colorado since he’s bringing in 48 new players but they’re down to 11 returning players so a roster of 59 is still pretty bad
I’m surprised he kept 11. He made life inhospitable for any “leftovers”
 

RamblinRed

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Well I was a little less concerned with the start of the mass exodus at Colorado since he’s bringing in 48 new players but they’re down to 11 returning players so a roster of 59 is still pretty bad
It's great that he is bringing in 48 players. But 19 of them are HS kids - how many can you realistically expect to be able to compete at a P5 level as True fr?
Also, it's not like every one of those 29 transfers is a big time player - most are just 3* guys. 8 are guys jumping up from JSU - that is going to be a whole different level of competition for them every weekend.

He has absolutely brought in a handful of stars, but I feel like right now he doesn't have anywhere near enough depth to maintain much of anything over 12 games.

I feel like at least for yr 1 he currently doesn't have enough of just everyday players ready to play at a P5 level to sustain much through a whole season.

Like I said, it will be fascinating to watch.
 

FightWinDrink

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I’m surprised he kept 11. He made life inhospitable for any “leftovers”
11 so far. Every few hours another guy jumps in so it might actually be 0 by Monday lol

Edit just saw a couple more on Reddit. They’re saying it’s actually down to 8 now lmao
 

UgaBlows

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Whats his OL and DL depth, talent and experience looking like? The quality of those players will largely determine whether the Coach Prime experiment succeeds or fails.
 

slugboy

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There was just a story about how he told his OL Coach to cut 5 guys.

If you can read the article, read it. Here’s a quote

“I want y’all to get ready to go ahead and jump in that portal. … The more you jump in, the more room you make.”
 

4shotB

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I loved that. I am curious how the newer “mercenary-like” approach some coaches are taking with NIL guys and transfers will effect the camaraderie and esprit de corps that helped us dig deeper in games and practice to support and back up our brothers on the team.
This is a great question but I think we (the readers) will need to answer from the perspective of work as I don't think we have any college athletes on this board who have played under the new structure or any former professional athletes who contribute.

From my perspective, I have worked in a variety of organizations. Probably the most enjoyment I ever received from my career was being a part of a tight knit, highly effective team environment. This spilled over into a lot of fraternizing/socializing outside of work. With that being said, I have also worked in an organization with this type of vibe:




people showed up to work, did their jobs, went home. There wasn't much of a "family" or "team environment" at all. Did it work? Yes, because the men and women I worked with were very talented and professional and dedicated to their craft. So, to your point, I think a "mercenary" approach CAN work given that you have enough talent, professionalism and maturity so that people don't need any sort of external motivation.

Can it work for a group of 18 - 21 year old boys/young men? Remains to be seen as you suggest. I am curious to what others have to say on this topic as it IS definitely a new paradigm.
 

TooTall

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This is a "Prime" example of pushing through bad ideas without fully looking at all the consequences.

A) Let's treat the student athletes like employees!!! Oops, that means we can "fire" the student athletes.
B) Let's pay the student athletes!!!!! Oops, that means I can leave and go make more money somewhere else, despite what you have invested in me.
C) Let's give them 4 year scholarships!!!! Oops, we only meant that if your the best at your position every year.

a) CDS is forcibly making players enter the transfer portal by "cutting" them. Other schools may fluff the wording, ie; position group filled up, tough for you to earn playing time etc.
b) All programs are feeling this effect.
c) We're not hearing as much about this since NIL became a thing, cause and effect.
 

Richard7125

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This is a "Prime" example of pushing through bad ideas without fully looking at all the consequences.

A) Let's treat the student athletes like employees!!! Oops, that means we can "fire" the student athletes.
B) Let's pay the student athletes!!!!! Oops, that means I can leave and go make more money somewhere else, despite what you have invested in me.
C) Let's give them 4 year scholarships!!!! Oops, we only meant that if your the best at your position every year.

a) CDS is forcibly making players enter the transfer portal by "cutting" them. Other schools may fluff the wording, ie; position group filled up, tough for you to earn playing time etc.
b) All programs are feeling this effect.
c) We're not hearing as much about this since NIL became a thing, cause and effect.
Why is it so egregious to cut players from college teams? Team sports have always cut kids (with the most popular being Michael Jordan being cut from his high school hoops team), but for some reason it’s an inalienable right that you can’t be cut from a college football team.
 
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