Coach Prime's Colorado Circus; College Football Roundup; Aiyuk Saga Finally Ends

Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes took the college football world by storm last season, opening with surprising victories over TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State, before falling back to earth and finishing 4-8.

Sanders' approach was basically to run off virtually all the players from his predecessor's 1-11 team and to bring in 53 transfers, including his son, quarterback Shadeur Sanders, and two-way star Travis Hunter from his previous stop at Jackson State. This year, another 65 players transferred in.

The Sanders' era has attracted lots of fans, sponsorships, and TV crews to Boulder. But this year, it has also brought scandal and dishonor.

Four months ago, the coach's son, Shilo Sanders, a safety on the team, filed for bankruptcy after being sued for nearly $12 million for an alleged assault on a security guard at his high school.

Then several former players described a violent culture of "fights, guns, and money" at Colorado. Reportedly, coaches encouraged fights between players on the field, with other altercations in the locker room arising from disputes over guns and gambling debts.

Then Sanders accused Oregon of gaining unauthorized access to his practice footage, supposedly facilitating the Ducks' 42-6 romp last season.

More recently, Sanders has reacted to criticism from a local columnist like an immature schoolboy.

Last week the school announced that no members of its football program could answer questions from Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler because of "a series of sustained, personal attacks" on Coach Sanders. 

Keeler had referred to "the Deion Kool-Aid" and called Sanders a "false prophet," "the Bruce Lee of B.S." and "Deposition Deion."

Apparently, the thin-skinned Sanders has a clause in his contract that stipulates he must only answer questions from "mutually agreed upon" members of the media.

Reporters and columnists who attend his press conferences must first give their name and affiliation, then wait anxiously to see whether they're approved for a response. In other words, everyone has to kiss the ring of the 57-year old bully.

My reaction to this is pretty simple. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Anyone in the public eye these days, especially a high-profile coach earning $6 million, is going to attract criticism and second-guessing. 

I know a little bit about this, albeit on a less prominent level, having received my share of abuse as head of a women's pro basketball league and a college football bowl game.

It's not always easy, but when it happens, you have to stand tall, shake it off, and move on.

If Sanders really wants to mentor young men and provide a positive role model, he needs a major attitude adjustment.

Hunter's Heroics: On a more upbeat note, Colorado boasts perhaps the best athlete in the country in defensive back/wide receiver Travis Hunter. The top high school recruit of 2022, he signed with Sanders at Jackson State and then transferred to Colorado when his coach changed jobs.

In last Saturday's season-opening 31-26 win over North Dakota State, Hunter caught seven passes for 132 yards and three touchdowns, including one of the most acrobatic catches I've seen in some time. He also excelled on the defensive side of the ball.

Don't be surprised if he gets into the Heisman conversation.

Stanford Opener: Stanford showed some life, but ultimately fell short, in a season-opening 34-27 loss to TCU. The Horned Frogs outgained the Cardinal 457-281, but kept Stanford in the game with silly unnecessary roughness penalties and untimely turnovers.

The game was won in the trenches. TCU kept pressure on Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels throughout the game, forcing him to throw too quickly or off target, while the Cardinal was unable to put any pressure on TCU QB Josh Hoover, who threw for 353 yards and two scores.

Flemming Shines: Stanford alum Dave Flemming, who got his start on campus radio station KZSU, handled play-by-play for the TCU-Stanford telecast on ESPN. Fleming is one of the rising stars on the network, and is well known locally as one of the San Francisco Giants announcers.

He and analyst Brock Osweiler did a terrific job.

Disappointing Crowd: Stanford announced the attendance as 36,000, but that must've been referring to the number of empty seats. It looked more like 15,000.

Unfortunately, without any traditional rivals on the home schedule--no Cal, USC, UCLA, Oregon or Washington--it's going to be a challenging year at the gate for the Cardinal.

Cal Triumphs: Cal opened with a 31-13 win over UC Davis that was closer than the score indicates. The Aggies actually led 13-7 before the Bears took control in the second half.

However, star running back Jadyn Ott, who scored two touchdowns, left the game in the third quarter with a leg injury and didn't return. If he's lost for a significant amount of time, Cal's hopes for a successful season will take a serious blow.

Bulldogs Romp: Georgia, who we picked to win the College Football Playoff in last week's predictions, looked every bit the part of a national champion in a 34-3 win over No. 14 Clemson.

The Bulldog defense is loaded with future NFL players and quarterback Carson Beck will contend for all the major post-season honors.

Clemson, on the other hand, appears to be in decline. The Tigers, who played in four National Championship games in five years between 2015 and 2019, winning two, were 9-4 last season, including a 4-4 record in ACC play.

Coach Dabo Swinney has been slow to adapt to the NIL and transfer-driven reality of today's college football universe, basically refusing to bring in transfers to strengthen his team. His was the only program other than the service academies not to sign a single transfer this year.

Swinney's principles may be admirable, but if he wants to compete with the Georgias, Ohio States, and Oregons of the world, and once again contend for playoffs and national championships, he's going to have to work the transfer market.

At Georgia, meanwhile, coach Kirby Smart has embraced NIL and the transfer portal, and he has a boatload of talent to show for it.

Ducks Wobble: Our prediction that Oregon would be the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff looks mighty shaky after Saturday's unimpressive 24-14 win over Idaho, a lower division (FCS) team.

The Ducks were favored by 43 points

Transfer QBs Star: Miami rolled over Florida in the Swamp, 41-17. Quarterback Cam Ward threw for 385 yards and three touchdowns.

Ward, who transferred in from Washington State, after previously transferring to WSU from Incarnate Word, is one of 43 transfer quarterbacks to start for the 68 power conference teams, according to Yahoo's Ross Dellenger. Other prominent transfer QBs this year include Oregon's Dillon Gabriel, Notre Dame's Riley Leonard and Ohio State's Will Howard.

Irish Start Strong: Notre Dame impressed with a 23-13 win at Texas A&M. 

The Irish are likely to be favored in all of their remaining games. They'll probably slip once, but without a conference championship game to contend with, would definitely reach the playoff with an 11-1 mark.

Trojans Impress: Overlooked by many because of its defensive struggles in recent years, No. 23 USC scored an impressive win over No. 13 LSU last night to establish itself as a potential playoff contender.

Ayuk Signs: The Brandon Aiyuk drama ended last week when the 49ers' receiver signed a four-year, $120 million deal.

For most fans and media, the reaction was a sigh of relief that the ugly saga was over. Aiyuk behaved like a spoiled child for several months, posting angry messages on social media, demanding a trade, claiming the 49ers didn't want him, and "holding in" by showing up at camp but not practicing because of an alleged back injury.

The team let this silliness drag on far too long, refusing to recognize how the wide receiver market had changed, and at the same time failing to stand up to Aiyuk's antics.

My old friend, former SF Chronicle and Santa Rosa Press-Democrat columnist Lowell Cohn, summed it up accurately over lunch last Friday: "Both sides mishandled it."

Hopefully Aiyuk will fare better than last year's 49ers' holdout, Nick Bosa, who after finally signing four days before the opening game, went from winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors in '22 to a sub-plar season in '23.