Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders isn’t throwing NIL money at his Buffs players like he did when Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, and Shilo Sanders. Those guys were top earners in the sport. Jordan Seaton is No. 45 on On3’s NIL Valuation rankings and Julian Lewis is No. 90.
To compete with schools like Ohio State that throw millions to players up and down the depth chart, USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer revealed Coach Prime’s financial strategy for his coaching staff – focusing on the specific investment in Colorado’s offensive line coaching personnel.
He’s doing so strategically, taking advantage of the loosely-enforced rules set by the NCAA.
“In theory, major college football teams can hire as many assistant coaches as they want now. They’ve just got to come up with the money to pay for it while also coming up with the money to pay players soon under the terms of a pending legal settlement. The three offensive line coaches for CU still earn less combined than what some individual offensive line coaches make around the county, including Jim Harding at Utah ($850,000 last year),” Schrotenboer wrote.
“In Sanders’ case, his strategy has been to hire prominent former NFL players in coaching roles, hoping their NFL backgrounds and name recognition help bring in recruits even if Colorado might not be able to pay as much to players as teams in richer leagues, such as Ohio State.”
Making Coach Prime’s strategy even more unique, as Schrotenboer points out, is how Sanders is building his coaching staff. Guys like Marshall Faulk were hired for name value despite lacking coaching experience.
“In recruiting, major college football teams are still limited to having only 11 ‘countable’ coaches who are allowed to recruit off-campus. Sanders has employed a unique strategy of not recruiting off-campus at all as head coach. Several of his new coaching hires also have no apparent previous college coaching or recruiting experience, including Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk (running backs),” Schrotenboer wrote.
Sanders has proven doubters wrong before, bringing on guys like Warren Sapp and Phil Loadholt, who improved the OL from a nation-worst performance in 2023, last season. He turned a four-win team into a nine-game winner. Of course, CU was 1-11 in 2022 before “Prime Time” arrived.
Coach Prime deserves the benefit of the doubt until the pendulum swings the other way. If it ever does.
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