Colorado’s Deion Sanders will enter his third year at the helm in Boulder as college football’s seventh-best head coach, according to a recent ranking by Ari Wasserman of On3.
Despite just a 13-12 overall record in his two previous seasons leading the Buffs, Coach Prime has made a profound impact, bringing Colorado football from undisputed irrelevance to the national spotlight. The Buffs finished with an impressive 9-4 record in 2024 while qualifying for their first bowl game in a full season since 2016.
Notable names Sanders beat out in On3’s ranking include Kalen DeBoer of the Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 9), James Franklin of the Penn State Nittany Lions (No. 15) and Lane Kiffin of the Ole Miss Rebels (No. 17). Sanders placed one spot behind two-time national championship-winning head coach Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers.
Coach Prime was also the highest-ranked head coach in the Big 12, although Utah’s Kyle Whittingham was close behind at No. 8.
Here’s some of what Wasserman wrote on Sanders:
Serious question: How many coaches on this list would have enjoyed this much progress at Colorado in a short amount of time? The answer is very few. Though it’s uncertain how Sanders would fit in an already-established program who have built-in expectations for competing for national titles, he unquestionably is one of only a few human beings on planet earth that could have had Colorado on the verge of the CFP in year two.
Now coaching without his son and star quarterback Shedeur Sanders, along with the Heisman Trophy-winning phenom Travis Hunter, Coach Prime will enter 2025 under the microscope to prove he belongs alongside the country’s most elite head coaches.
Contact/Follow us @BuffaloesWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Colorado news, notes and opinions.
This article originally appeared on Buffaloes Wire: Deion Sanders sits strong in new college football head coach rankings
