Deion Sanders joins College GameDay in advance of the national title game

At the center of ESPN’s College GameDay set Monday at the College Football Playoff national championship was the sport’s most famous, dynamic and frequently discussed coach.

Nick Saban was even there, too.

Newly minted Colorado head coach Deion Sanders joined Saban, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and the crew in the hours leading up to the Georgia-TCU championship game matchup to briefly discuss the game, the challenge of repeating as a champion – something the Bulldogs will try to accomplish Monday – and Sanders’ approach to coaching.

Before that larger conversation could begin, there was an unavoidable subject – one of the teams competing at SoFi Stadium for the sport’s biggest prize is the opponent for Sanders’ first game as the Buffs’ coach. While Colorado is set to open the 2023 season at TCU, Sanders, while seemingly joking, said not so fast.

“Maybe,” Sanders said, with a laugh, about the Buffs opening on the road against the Horned Frogs next season. “That may change.”

It’s possible that Sanders isn’t talking about taking TCU off the schedule, but rather adding a Week Zero game. For what it’s worth, a Colorado spokesperson said “nothing right now” when asked for comment on whether there would be any kind of change to the first game on the Buffs’ schedule.

Where Sanders was Monday night was the kind of stage Colorado hopes to reach one day in the future. It’s why a school hires someone like Sanders – not only to generate excitement, but to try to build a long-term and sustained winner.

While he’s not Kirby Smart or Sonny Dykes, whose teams will face off for the title, what kind of words would the famously magnetic and inspirational “Coach Prime” offer to his team in the moments leading up to a championship?

“You have to get your guys, the main guys, to buy in,” he said. “This is how we do it. This is what we do. It’s consistency. It’s the consistency that has to be established, not only on the practice field, but off the field. You can’t get here and all of a sudden change. You don’t want to see a different mannerism of somebody, especially the coaches. Everybody’s talking about the players, but you’ve got to coach the coaches, too. The coaches cannot get complacent and they can’t look around and start thinking about jobs and going elsewhere and thinking about their next move. They have to be consistent, as well.”

The segment finished with Sanders not discussing his future, but his past.

GameDay panelist Desmond Howard, a former Heisman Trophy winner and Super Bowl MVP, offered up a story about when he and Sanders crossed paths in the professional ranks.

In 1992, as a rookie with the team now known as the Washington Commanders, Howard returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown to give his team a 14-0 lead over Sanders’ Atlanta Falcons in the second quarter. Watching from the sidelines, Sanders decided to take matters into his own hands on the ensuing kickoff.

“I was so mad. I was so upset,” Sanders said. “I wasn’t even returning [kicks]. I told the kickoff returner ‘Get off the field. I’ve got this.’ I took it to the house and looked over at Desmond and said ‘What?’”

Indeed, Sanders scampered 99 yards for a kickoff return touchdown, just one of three over the course of his illustrious career. You can check it out in the first seconds of this video.

His team ended up losing the game, 24-17, but Sanders had his moment.

“He took it personal,” Howard said.