As Deion Sanders spoke Tuesday on The Pat McAfee show, he did so with a wall behind him covered in various quotes and sayings.

I don’t use cologne. Confidence is my natural odor

Stay right even when the crowd goes left

They’re not necessarily ones he has repeated for years – some he’s only recently heard and liked – but their presence in his office in the team’s facility is a sign that the Colorado football program is very much becoming his own about one month into the job.

It’s the challenge he accepted when he agreed to come to Boulder, transforming the worst Power Five team in college football into something much greater and so far, he’s trying his best and working his hardest to do just that.

Sanders joined McAfee’s popular show Tuesday to discuss a variety of topics, a number of which centered around Colorado and his new position there. Even as they spoke, the barrage of news didn’t stop. Sanders noted that one of his coaches popped his head into his office to give him some news.

“I’m pretty darn sure he’s talking about a commitment,” Sanders said. “Pretty darn sure.”

On the more newsworthy end, Sanders said former Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer and former Florida State coach Willie Taggart are “going to walk through that door at any moment.” While neither coach has been officially added to his staff yet, their names were connected with various roles within the program and based on his most recent comments, it seems likely they’re going to come aboard soon, most likely in roles like analyst.

Additionally, Sanders said he was offered other jobs this cycle and that Colorado wasn’t his only opportunity.

“Colorado was the best job and the perfect job for me because of Rick George, because of the AD, because of his spirit and what he spoke to me,” he said. “He touched me, man. It was him. I was offered more money, of course, but money don’t move me. Connectivity and the spirit and being in the right place and doing the right thing, that’s what moves me and motivates me. If money was it, I’d have lost this a long time. You don’t come to work because of the money. You come to work because you love doing what you’re doing and the money follows you. That’s been my formula.”

Below are more highlights from the interview, which lasted about 30 minutes and can be accessed in full via McAfee’s podcast.

On his approach to building a roster and recruiting thus far:

“We’re living out of the portal. We’ve got some high school kids that will be able to contribute. We’re living out of that portal, man. We’re 40-40-20 – 40% grad transfers, 40% portal, 40% high school. That’s the way we go about it to build a team.”

On how he went about putting his coaching staff together:

“It comes from relationships. I’ve got to have a relationship. There’s nobody where I can say ‘Well, I’m just going to go grab him’ where it may not be a fit. It has to come from a relationship, a friend who validated this friend that I had a tremendous relationship with. Coach Sean Lewis that’s coming over from Kent State, that was a relationship from a friend who recommended him. He is phenomenal.”

On his response to people who say Colorado will stink because they’ve stunk for so long:

“That’s not my natural odor, baby. If you get close to me, it’s gonna smell like Dolce, but my natural odor is winning. It’s confidence. That’s my natural odor. And that’s what we’re going to do.”

On why he got into college coaching after years of coaching youth and high school football:

“After high school, I’m just sitting there and all the kids are about to go. My kid graduated from SMU [Deion Sanders Jr.], Shilo was at South Carolina and Shedeur was getting ready to play for Coach Taggart [at Florida Atlantic]. Then I started getting the calls. The phone started ringing. I was like ‘Let me really consider that.’ I had a couple of interviews. I knocked them out of the park, but it wasn’t the time. I accepted the Jackson State challenge. It was a tremendous challenge. I had never been to Jackson. HBCUs, I didn’t know a lot about. I had to do my homework. I accepted the challenge…It just became a wonderful thing.”

On his coaching philosophy:

“We’re not friends of the kids. Everybody talks about how these kids are different. The kids aren’t different. The coaches have changed. The kids ain’t no different. They’re the same old kids. Coaches have changed. Quit pacifying these kids. They want discipline, man. They want structure. They want to be told what to do and where to go and how to do it.”

On why he’s not afraid to coach that way:

“I don’t know no other way. I’ve been doing this with youth [football], kids who are five or six years old. I don’t know no other way. I refuse to start you if you have three Fs on your report card. That’s the way it was done to me. I’m not starting you, even at the college level. I’m not doing that. You’re not smart and you’re not disciplined. Why would I put you out there knowing at some point in time that I’m going to need you to make the right decision within the confines of the game and you’re not going to do it because you’re not even doing it for you. So how are you going to do it for me?”

On how he finds out if a recruit has the right mental makeup:

“Just the interviewing process and meeting the parents, as well. Parents will tell you everything. Kids will lie. Parents will tell you everything, especially the mothers. They’re not going to lie. They’re going to tell you straight up. Daddy is gonna kind of pacify Little Johnny. They’ll lie a little bit. But the mom is going to tell you everything. If you ask Little Johnny and pinpoint him down and back him into a corner, he can’t help but tell you who he is. We want those types of kids who are smart, tough, fast and disciplined with character or we’re going to clash. I don’t even want to bring a kid on a visit and I don’t even want to offer a kid if he’s not our type of kid. But when we sit down and get down that road with them, I’m going to be able to tell. There have been kids coming here on recruiting trips that we got here and all they wanted to talk about first was the NIL. That’s not my kind of kid. I want you to have a passion and a purpose to make it to the NFL and then I want to know why you’re doing it. You’re trying to get your mom out of the hood or you are trying to do this for the family. Tell me it’s bigger than you. Because if it’s all about you, that’s going to be a problem because you’re doing to sustain an injury at one point in time in your life or you’re going to face some adversity and if it’s about you and you’re not stable enough, you’ll shut that thing down when it’s dealing with you. But if it’s about momma or that brother or that friend or that sibling or somebody more important than you, you’re not going to quit on them.”

On his first meeting with Colorado players and being honest with them:

“That’s just like asking somebody if you have a problem being honest. I don’t have a problem being honest. I’m not going to sugarcoat nothing or placate anything. I’m going to be straight up with you so that you can move on to the next level or so that you can come here and understand the deal and understand how we move and how we work and how we go about our business. I was challenging those kids to understand there’s going to be change. Everybody says ‘We want to change the culture. We want to change the team.’ Well, you’ve got to change the darn people. How are you going to do that if you don’t change the people? You’ve got to change the people to change the culture and every darn thing. Change is inevitable in this world. Some people can’t grasp it or hold on to it or fathom it.”

On how long will it take to build the culture he wants at CU:

“I’m not going to say I have to build a culture because the culture, it comes with me. The culture comes. They know who I am. It’s not like they have to Google to find out who this coach is. You’ve journeyed through my life with my ups and downs, my ins and outs. They know who I am. But our style and what we’re trying to accomplish on the field will change. We’re going to have a good time. We’re going to play some music. We’re going to have different celebrities who are going to come visit because they’re my friends, for real. We just do things a little different, even dressing. I had to tell my guy that I don’t wear collared shirts, man. I don’t coach with a belt. Why do you coach with a belt? Who got ready to coach and said ‘Let me put on this belt’? Nobody does that. We wear sweatpants, we wear fitted pants with no belt loops. We’re not tucking our shirts in because we’re coaching. We want to be comfortable. That’s a whole different feel. I’m going to wear a hoodie or a crew neck shirt with a pocket in the front so I can put my tablet in when I write stuff down like ‘Remind yourself to yell at this kid at halftime.’”

On whether he ever wants to coach in the NFL:

“Never. I can’t coach a rich man that don’t love the game. It’s a 53-man roster. I would go in at halftime and come back out with about 22 guys. I can’t do it.”

On the difference between recruiting transfers versus high schoolers:

“Easier. Grad transfers want it right now. They’ve got one or two years left and they want it right now. They ain’t got time to be playing no games. They ain’t got time to be making mistakes with their careers and futures. They don’t have time for knucklehead kids to be running around and not doing their assignment or being where they’re supposed to be. I love it. Guys in the transfer portal, you have to find out why. You have to do your homework and your due diligence. You’re saying they wanted this and they wanted that, but if I called them, what are they going to say about you? Tell me because I’m going to make the call. I’d rather not make the call, but tell me why. There’s a reason you left. There’s a reason you divorced the situation or the situation divorced you. You’ve got to find out all about those guys. High school guys are a little bit different. You can mold them. You can shape them. But a lot of coaches don’t have two years to build them and shape them because you’re going to mess around and get fired trying to develop that kid. You’ve got to have a perfect balance of older and younger guys and mid guys, as well. But make sure you’re not dealing with a youngster behind center, you’re not dealing with youngsters at tackles, you ain’t dealing with no youngsters on that island, at corner…I like kids on the line with parents. Offensive linemen, I like dual parents because they’re much more serene, they’re much more understanding of family, much more understanding of assignment. When a man talks to them or yells at them, they don’t trip because they’ve always had a man in their house. Defensive linemen, man, get me the kid from the trailer park, from the hood, from small beginnings. I want him hungry and ready to hunt. I want guys with a darn pick-up truck and a deer on the back of it. I want guys ready to hunt, ready to go get it, man. I want the guy in here crying ‘My momma, I’ve got to get out the hood.’ That’s what you want on those defensive linemen. There are different attributes that we look for, that we want. Hopefully, they’ll get us to where we need to go and we’ll get them to the next level being successful as a professional.”