Deion Sanders, the notoriously candid “Coach Prime,” recently told 247Sports that he wouldn’t recognize Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi if he walked into Sanders’s Colorado Buffaloes football program. This comment comes after Narduzzi criticized Sanders’s roster management earlier this spring.
Sanders said that Narduzzi is not mad at him but rather the situation in football that allowed his best player, former All-American wideout Jordan Addison, to transfer to USC and then turn pro. He added that Narduzzi is using him to shoot bullets at another coach, presumably USC’s Lincoln Riley.
Narduzzi, known for being an old-school coach, said that Coach Prime’s roster changing in Boulder, Colorado is bad for the sport of college football. Although Colorado has seen more than 70 players enter the NCAA Transfer Portal since last summer, Sanders claims he is simply embracing the system.
“Necessary changes,” was how Sanders described the Colorado roster overhaul, which has included almost 50 player exits since Sanders concluded the Buffaloes’ spring camp in late April. He also confirmed that former consensus five-star prospect Travis Hunter would continue to play both sides of the ball at Colorado and turned down about $1.5 million to reunite with Sanders after starting his career with Coach Prime at Jackson State.
The Coach Prime era will open on September 2 at TCU, last season’s College Football Playoff runner-up. The Buffaloes will play their first home game under Sanders the following week against former longtime Big 12 rival Nebraska.
