STILLWATER — Growing up in the Texas Panhandle, Eric Morris watched a lot of Deion Sanders’ games.
But it wasn’t necessarily Prime Time's days with the Dallas Cowboys that the Oklahoma State football coach remembers most. Rather, it was Deion’s time with the Atlanta Braves that is clearest.
“When I was young, you always watched the Cubs and the Braves because that was what was on TV at my house back in the day,” Morris said of the national broadcasts from WGN in Chicago and TBS in Atlanta. “So, weirdly, you become attached to those teams that you have no affiliation with because that’s what’s on.”
Morris couldn’t help being impressed with Sanders.
“One of those unicorns in sports that can do a variety of things,” he said.
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Now, of course, Sanders is doing something else in sports, though the results haven’t been nearly as flashy as his playing days were. Coach Prime is in the midst of his fourth season as the head coach at Colorado, but as he and the Buffs travel to OSU this weekend, it’s safe to assume Sanders is coaching for his job during this back half of the season.
The Buffs have just two wins this season and are on a four-game losing streak, and that comes on the heels of a 4-8 record a year ago. Overall, Sanders has a record of 19-24 in Boulder.
The reality is, the shine on Prime has dulled.
No one who wants the best for the Big 12 should be happy about that.
When the conference lost OU and Texas to the SEC in 2024, it lost its marquee programs. Did the Big 12 have other good programs remaining? Sure. OSU, for instance, had a bowl-game streak at the time that was among the longest in the nation. The number of programs with longer ones could be counted on one hand and included the likes of Georgia and OU.
But like it or not, OSU still didn’t grab national eyeballs like OU and Texas did.
Deion Sanders, on the other hand, got people’s attention.
Even though he was taking over a program that had just three winning seasons in the previous 20 years, he was brash and audacious and unapologetic. Prime purged the program’s roster of dozens of players who he didn’t deem good enough, saying at one point, “No way I can put new furniture in this beautiful home if we don’t clean out the old furniture.”
Young men referred to as furniture?
Not the best analogy.
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Even though the Buffs ended up with 87 newcomers in Sanders’ first season, the most at that point in recent FBS history — Morris and the Cowboys, of course, blew that record out of the water this season with 91 newcomers — Sanders didn’t flinch when critics cried foul over his roster remake. Or when his team got headlines and attention that outpaced its performance. Or when his games drew so many celebrities that the green grass of Folsom Field might as well have been a red carpet.
But three-plus years in, the hubbub has died down. Sanders and the Buffs have proven to be just average, and being mid doesn’t exactly bring the A-listers.
Now, to hear Morris tell it, Colorado is much more than mid this season.
“They might be the best two-win team in the nation,” he said during his weekly press conference, then proceeded to talk up the defensive front, the secondary, the quarterback, the receivers, the tight ends.
“This will be a huge test for our team again.”
Maybe so. Probably so. That’s life in the Big 12, after all. You just never know what’s going to happen.
But the Buffs just haven’t become a consistent winner. Sanders has brought the program out of the depths, but contending for titles? That day still seems far away.
Climbing to that point already might not be realistic after where Colorado had sunk, but that’s the bar that Sanders set. As a player. As a coach. Winning has always been his standard.
Even though he’s dealt with some serious health issues over the past couple of years, Sanders has never been an excuse maker.
No passes for Prime.
The Buffs need to be better, need to win more. If you’re a Cowboy fan, of course, you want to put that on hold another week, but if you’re a Cowboy fan who wants the Big 12 to be as strong and healthy as possible, you should also want Deion and Colorado to go on a run as soon as they leave Payne County.
There aren’t many unicorns in sports, and everyone in the Big 12 should hope Colorado has reason to keep around the one it has.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Fire Deion Sanders? Why Big 12 teams should want Coach Prime to stay at Colorado