Nebraska vs. Colorado Represents Clash of Civilizations

Let me say this: I don’t hate Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, aka Coach Prime. I actually find him kind of intriguing, and he’s always entertaining. If he wasn’t coaching at one of Nebraska’s most hated rivals, I think we would all enjoy watching the Coach Prime show from afar. 

I’ll take it one step further: I’ve enjoyed watching some of the clips of him as a coach, going back to his time at Jackson State. When he talks to his teams, I see a man preaching old school values: hard work, accountability, doing your job, no shortcuts. You can see why he was such a successful athlete in multiple sports. 

But you also have to wonder what’s going on behind the scenes in Boulder. There was the news over the summer that Coach Prime doesn’t go on recruiting visits. At the same time, he seems to be keeping up his schedule of corporate speaking engagements and TV commercials. I’m all for a man making money, but that’s time that’s not being spent building a championship program. There was also the time his two sons who play for Colorado – quarterback Shedeur Sanders and defensive back Shilo Sanders – missed team activities to participate in a fashion show, apparently with the coach’s blessing. There appears to be a fascinating contrast between Deion Sanders, highly successful athlete and coach (which he was at Jackson State; it remains to be seen if he can get there at Colorado), and Coach Prime, the flashy self-promoter. 

Rhule vs. Prime

As Nebraska’s much anticipated matchup with Colorado nears, it’s hard not to notice the differences between how Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule goes about building his team vs. what we see from Deion Sanders. Rhule is invested in every small detail of the program, from recruiting to player development to game planning and more. He consults with athletic director Troy Dannen on big picture issues like scheduling, NIL, and the future of college football. He is fully invested in building a winner in Lincoln, and it appears he wants to be here for the long term. 

Contrast that with the Prime approach. There was a clip going around last fall where it appeared Sanders didn’t know the name of his own starting center. Players who have left the team have been critical about how the program is being run, and then those players have been harassed by members of the Sanders family. An offseason report focused on the chaotic culture in Colorado’s locker room. Maybe some of these reports are overblown, or even untrue; maybe we’re not getting the full picture; maybe he’s running a well-oiled machine. But it’s certainly different from most of the reports you see coming out of Lincoln.    

Perhaps the most glaring example of this contrast in styles is on display when it comes to roster construction. When Sanders was first hired at Colorado, he held a meeting with the team where he sent the message that he would be bringing in new talent, and some of those players would be moving on. He wasn’t lying: since taking the reins as head coach, the Buffaloes have had 97 total transfers. This story from CBS Sports laid out some glaring numbers: in their 2023 recruiting class (Coach Prime’s first class), he signed 72 new scholarship players, the majority of which were transfers. 61% of those players have already left the program. Just this year, over two dozen players have entered the transfer portal since it opened in April. 

This approach is unheard of in the history of college football. Before the transfer portal came into existence just a few years ago, it wasn’t even possible. Judging by what I’ve seen on social media, Colorado fans believe their coach is a pioneer. Bringing in new talent in the form of dozens of new transfers every season is the wave of the future, they argue, and Coach Prime is ahead of the curve. Given that the Buffs finished 4-8 last season, it’s safe to say that’s still an open question. 

It’s certainly not the approach Matt Rhule is taking. When he took over in Lincoln, he sent the message that everyone was welcome to stay. He has prioritized high school recruits, bringing in 59 players from the high school ranks compared to 21 transfers. What’s more, much has been made about how Nebraska has been among the teams with the fewest players leaving for the transfer portal. 

In the era of the transfer portal and athletes being able to make money through NIL and revenue sharing, programs have to stay nimble. I’m certainly not advocating for a stubborn refusal to evolve and adapt. At a place like Nebraska, you have to turn over every rock to find any advantage you can. But I would much prefer the type of approach Nebraska is taking versus what we’ve seen from Colorado under Coach Prime. Rhule wants to recruit mostly high school players and develop them over many years, while supplementing from the portal at positions of need when necessary. Sanders seems content to have a revolving door, cycling through players and cherry picking talent from the transfer portal.  

We’ll see how that pans out; I don’t believe it’s a recipe for long term success. In basketball, you can add one or two impact players and change the entire course of a season. Football requires building: building a foundation, building a culture, building a roster. Winning college football teams have pretty much never been constructed any other way. 

We’ll Learn a Lot on Saturday

Coach Rhule was asked this week about some of the differences between the two programs, and he didn’t take the bait. Both coaches have remained respectful of the other team in the run-up to the game. Make no mistake, though: it’s impossible to miss the differences between the two as we barrel toward game day. The philosophies of the two coaches could not be further apart. It’s a true clash of civilizations; the two approaches are completely incompatible with each other. 

It will take longer than Saturday’s game to learn which one is ultimately more successful, but we will still learn a lot from the game. As I wrote in a recent article: 

Husker fans want to believe these are two programs heading in opposite directions. Matt Rhule has established a solid foundation; his culture is built on substance, hard work, no shortcuts. Coach Prime and his revolving-transfer-portal-door of a program are all flash, capable of the occasional highlight reel play but ultimately a house built on sand, poised to crumble at the first sign of distress. That may be true, but Nebraska needs to prove it on the field. 

As always, GBR for LIFE. 

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T.J. Birkel

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