College Football Fix: Deion Sanders, Colorado Buffaloes Head Coach

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That's ShipStation.com slash audio. We miss college football. Bennett takes the snap and the shotgun, throws for the corner. Brock Bowers, one-on-one. Caught. Touchdown.

He ate him alive. Falls down into the end zone. Six more for Georgia. We can't wait for the 2023 season. Caleb Williams throws the fade in the corner.

Oh, caught. Touchdown Trojans. And we're counting down the days to kick off. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? We said no. Are we there yet?

What's wrong with your ears? Here is your college football fix, only on the Zach Gelb Show. Welcome on in. It is the Zach Gelb Show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. Let's go out to the guest line and welcome in the new head football coach at Colorado, 10 days away from their first game up against TCU. And that is the Pro Football Hall of Famer on behalf of California Almonds.

And that is Coach Deion Sanders. Prime Time, how you been? How you doing? I'm really good, my man. How you doing? Well, I'm doing fantastic.

So, my sister a few years ago moved out to Centennial, Colorado. So, I'm hoping you bring the football team back. As I said, we're now 10 days away from the start of your football season. Just how has the job been going and how is the team starting to look?

Wonderful. If I could glance to the right now, I'm looking at a beautiful stadium, which is empty now, but I'm pretty certain it's going to be packed and sold out by the time we play our first home game. But I'm excited. I'm elated. The team is, we had a great day of practice this morning.

We practice morning every morning, but it's looking good. I like what I see and I see what I like. Something that I liked, and sometimes college coaches don't do this, but they go to a place and they don't embrace the community and they lose sight of that. You did that right away.

I love the social media content that you did, going to the restaurants and reviewing the restaurants and meeting with the people that run those businesses. Why was that so important to you, coach, to embrace the community that you were joining? Well, honestly, that's who we are anyway. I mean, that's our normal day. That's the way we move.

That's the way we do things. And, you know, my son runs all our social media, so he's with me all the time anyway. I'm blessed to have three sons on campus and my youngest daughter on campus. So four of my five children are with me on a daily basis. And it's just wonderful.

The people light up, you know, the energy, and they were anticipating what review would they get. You know, it was so hilarious. And now, I tell you what, we have grits everywhere. We have grits everywhere in Colorado now, so it's easy to attain. How about that? You've got to love it. Coach Deion Sanders here with us.

You talked about your family that you're trying to do this together with. Your son, obviously, the starting quarterback, Chidor Sanders. We all saw, or a lot of us saw, what he was able to do for two years at Jackson State.

For people that weren't able to see the big-time numbers that he put up, what kind of quarterback are they going to see when Colorado kicks off this fall? Well, Chidor is extremely smart. He's extremely intelligent. He knows where to go with the ball, what to do with the ball. He protects the ball tremendously. And he's just a darn serious ball player, man. He takes this thing really serious, and he loves the darn game and lives the game. Both of my kids, Shiloh, he starts at safety.

He's up here until 7, 8, 9 o'clock studying and watching film. So, they really embrace the challenges that they have before them, but they love the darn game of football, which I adore. To coach your sons, just what does that mean from the father perspective? Some coaches tell me they love it. Other coaches go, ah, I wish they kind of went somewhere else.

We don't know no other way. I've coached them their whole entire life since the first day they put on cleat, since the first interest they showed in football. I've been their coach. I've only not coached Shiloh. I think it was one year when he was at the University of South Carolina, then he came and transferred over with us at Jackson. So, that's all we know.

So, I love it. And all my kids, I've coached all my kids at certain levels. Coach Prime, Deion Sanders, the Pro Football Hall of Famer with us. Coach, everyone talks to me about culture and they never explain it. So, I want you to explain how you envision, what is the culture of Colorado football going to be?

You know what? When I was at Jackson, everyone talked about culture, culture, culture. And I'm like, what is culture? Like, what is the definition of culture?

How you envision the program to run is what I would say. That's your definition. Like a machine. Like a well-oiled machine. Like a darn California almond that, you see how I'm getting it? That's why you're one of the all-time great entertainers, Deion.

Like a California almond that helps me recover immensely, like that. But no, honestly, I want this to be an energetic place that is a pipeline to the NFL. Not only that, a pipeline to young men being great fathers, great men, you know, great siblings, great sons. Just a pipeline of success and not just athletic success. Just success in general. Don't you worry.

We'll talk about California almonds in just a moment. The head coach at Colorado, Deion Sanders, with us. Travis Hunter has also been someone that's name has been all over the place. He's a dog on both sides of the ball. For people that aren't familiar with him, using your coaching kind of analysis of it, what do you kind of see in the football player that Travis is? I feel like Travis is the most exciting player in college football on both sides of the ball.

Either side of the ball. I feel like Travis Hunter will be drafted first round on both sides of the ball. Travis Hunter is a problem. He's not only a problem for the opposing teams, but he's going to be a problem when he goes to the next level to figure out what he's going to do.

But he's going to tell you, I'm going to play both ways, because that's just who he is. Very dominant, workaholic, studies his butt off. And he just has a passion to be great.

A passion to be great. And he does not take plays off. He's a dog. Some coaches, and I'm sure your background factors into this, but some coaches would say, just go be perfect on one side of the ball.

Forget the other side of the ball. Why haven't you done that? Because that's who he is. Why would I change who the young man is and what he desires to be? It's my obligation and my job to enhance what he wants to be. And really help him and lead him and serve as his navigational system through life.

And that's what I'm trying to do. He just left my office probably about 10 minutes ago, trying to steal some shoes or something in here though. But that's just who he is. He's a young man. I call him a kid because he's like one of my sons. But he loves life and he loves the game so much.

And I wish I could just impregnate all my kids with that attribute. You're taking over a program and they need you. You only won one game.

Everyone, we talk about it all the time. What can people expect from Deion Sanders and this Colorado team in year one? So since I have you here, coach, what do you say to that question? We're going to win. We're going to win. We're going to win and we're going to minimize mistakes. We're going to play smart, tough, fast, disciplined football.

The guy's going to display character throughout the entirety of the game prayerfully. But we're going to win. We're going to do some things that hadn't been done.

We're going to get our players to the next level. It hadn't been a day that we practiced it. It hadn't been NFL scouts here. And that's a blessing to these kids when they look over and see a coach with a certain hat on representing the NFL team. They hadn't had that in quite some time. And now they see that.

So they understand there's opportunity as well. People have doubted you and people have questioned you your entire life. I've always been someone saying I want to see Deion Sanders get a big college football job. I was hoping it was going to be in the SEC when it was all that speculation. But what do you say to the people that before you've been playing a game up against TCU, go Deion Sanders.

He's not going to work at Colorado. Well, I think we've had this simulation all my life with doubt and ridicule and just ignorance and adolescence. So I embrace it. I adore it. I love it. I keep receipts from it. And I can't wait to display what we have. I'm like a kid on Christmas. I can't wait to open up this gift.

I really can't. I'll be looking forward to the clap back. There is no doubt about that.

You'll probably be like someone used to work with Dave Portnoy at Barstool popping up a bottle of champagne. I love my guy. I want Dave Portnoy. I love him to life. He is one of my favorites because he's unapologetically himself at all times. And I love him for that.

Tell me what you're doing with California Almonds, coach. Oh, we're having a good time. We shot a tremendous commercial. I started smiling because several of our kids on our team shot the commercial with me and one of our assistant coaches. But to see some of those guys and a couple of them were walk ons, man, you got to understand to see them, you know, shooting a national commercial and they're smiling. They're excited. They're happy and elated.

It was undurned believable. And I'm happy that California Almonds gave me that opportunity. But just overall understanding can help you recover from exercise. I'm trying to read my points to make sure I don't miss them. Help you recover from exercise. Being in your prime starts with being consistent and working hard.

That's what I've always done. I've always worked my butt off. I've always stayed in my prime and always been smart about recovery. You got to understand, I've had 12 surgeries over the last two years. So recovery is everything for me.

And I found out that eating a good amount of almonds helps me. I know you said, no, it can't. But no, it truly can.

It has been studied and it truly can. Well, I want to ask you one thing about the NFL before we let you run, because now you have the coaching background as well. Trey Lance, team that you played for, the 49ers was announced today. He's going to be third on the depth chart. People are wondering what's going to happen with his future. Just what advice would you give to Trey Lance? Because it was only a few years ago. He was the third overall pick in the draft. Yeah, you got to keep your head up.

You got to hold on because you could even understand how the season played out for them last year. And they went to what? The third quarterback, correct? Yeah. Right. I think the guy started. Right, right.

He started in the darn playoff game until he was injured. Like, come on, stand still, stand firm and work on your game. And if you truly believe you got it, invest in it. And I believe in the kid. I think the kid has it. He just has to put it to work and put it to use and let people see it consistently. But you can't count yourself out.

You never know how this life or this game evolves. And in that divisional round, it was the 49ers up against the Cowboys, two teams you know well. The Cowboys did a great job in the defensive side of the ball, but offensively, the Cowboys didn't deliver. If you were in that Cowboys locker room, would you look at Dak Prescott and say, okay, this is a quarterback that we could win a Super Bowl with?

Yeah, I like Dak. Matter of fact, one of the most famous Cowboys just walked out two minutes before we got on air. And that was Michael Irvin. He just walked out and he's in the hallway right now, clowning and having a good time. But he came to practice today and gave an unbelievable speech to the team.

And we, and soon, had a great practice. But I like Dak, man. I think Dak is a winner.

I think he's a proven winner. I just want that whole team to go to the next level. I love Jerry Jones. Jerry Jones is my guy, so I love Jerry. Well, I'll let you go enjoy some time with the Playmaker, and I'm sure you guys will enjoy some California almonds as well.

He's the head football coach at Colorado. Coach, good luck this year. We appreciate you doing this. Man, I appreciate you. It was an honor and a pleasure talking to you, man. I hope we do it again.