Deion Sanders' meager approach to dealing with criticism won't help Colorado football reach the heights he planned

It was all about Coach Prime when we reached this juncture of the college football season a year ago, and that is how he prefers things to function. Even if that sounds a bit like criticism, Deion Sanders surely would not argue the point.

TCU fell, then Nebraska, then Colorado State, and it was Prime’s world for a while. There were pieces on CNN, CBS News and NPR, as well as in the New York Times, Slate and the Nation. Goodness, “60 Minutes” came to town for a piece about how he was reinventing the Colorado Buffaloes and, quite possibly, college football. Talking or writing about Deion Sanders was great business for those of us in the media.

It was all a bit too much, a bit too fast for a football coach working his first season at a major college program – and one whose recent performances had stretched that designation in all the wrong directions. Maybe that’s what Colorado needed to become a serious program as rapidly as possible, but more likely it’s just a byproduct of the Prime experience: He worked so hard for so long to attract attention to himself that now it’s an inevitability.

Why isn’t he better at it, then?

Not in the area of attracting attention, but handling it?

Sanders has made himself appear weak in his one-sided feud with Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler. The athletic department announced two weeks ago the coach no longer would accept questions from Keeler after critical coverage of Coach Prime. Apparently the ancient practice of yelling at reporters for questions perceived as inane or problematic – visited upon me in my younger days by Chuck Tanner and Joe Paterno – was insufficient.

“After a series of sustained, personal attacks on the football program and specifically Coach Prime, the CU Athletic Department in conjunction with the football program, have decided not to take questions from Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler at football-related events,” the Colorado athletics release said.

When the Post asked CU athletics for examples of such “personal attacks”, a spokesperson cited such descriptors as “false prophet”, “Deposition Deion”, “Bruce Lee of B.S.” and “circus.”

One can argue it’s a bit early in any coach’s tenure to be issuing such judgments, but it’s beyond dispute that none of this is particularly injurious to a figure of Sanders’ stature – or that hiding behind his employer is surprisingly meager for someone with extensive experience dealing with public attention.

It may not even be possible in modern college athletics to caution fans and journalists to employ patience as a program is built. When Johnny Majors took over an even more wretched Pitt football program in advance of the 1973 season, the Panthers advanced from 1-10 to 6-5 in a single year, but the next two seasons represented only incremental progress: 7-4 and no bowl game, 8-4 and a Sun Bowl victory. Then came the Tony Dorsett Heisman/12-0 national title season in 1976.

Now, with the transfer portal available to exorcise an entire roster, such a four-year process seems quaint, the relic of a sport as it existed a half-century ago. It was Sanders who turned over the majority of the CU squad before his first season even began. His bold approach ignited the excitement and scrutiny and, when it failed in the direction of a 4-8 record, the criticism.

Colorado had been the worst team in the worst major conference the year before Sanders arrived and produced one winning record in 17 seasons. What’s happened since a thrilling 3-0 start has borne too great a resemblance to this mountain of futility. The Buffaloes since are 1-8 against major-college opponents.

Now, Colorado faces an enormous road game Saturday night at Nebraska, a longtime power attempting to recover its cachet behind gifted freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola and second-year coach Matt Rhule. The Huskers should be the only opponent this weekend, and Colorado State the next. The media should present only to cover these activities.

We appear to be well beyond that possibility now. It need not be debilitating to Sanders’ attempt to rebuild Colorado football. But it’s not helping, either.

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