Middle-of-the-road Pac-12 team rebuilding the same way Colorado is
Much as Deion Sanders rebuilt the Colorado football roster, following a 1-11 season and a Karl Dorrell firing in Boulder, Washington State head coach Jake Dickert is looking to rebuild what has been a mid-tier Pac-12 roster since taking over for Nick Rolovich after his COVID-19-vaccine-related dismissal. Dickert admitted as much on July 21 at Pac-12 Media Day while also defending Coach Prime from the media’s harsh reactions to his methods.
“We’re building a program a lot like (Sanders did),” Dickert said (h/t Buffs Beat). “The narrative around it is false. I don’t think there’s a head coach in this world that doesn’t do what he thinks is best to rebuild a program. And whatever way that is, I’m sure he’s doing the way he’s best equipped to be successful.”
Many coaches go about recruiting, including the painful transfer portal suggestions, much in the same way Sanders did; the obvious difference is that every Coach Prime does is under an enhanced spotlight. Dickert, like several other Pac-12 coaches, spoke up and defended Sanders when they didn’t have to. Evidently, respect among his peers is very much something “Prime Time” has in the Pac-12 — though that’s not something that has always been the case in Coach Prime’s career.
Before his Colorado football coaching hire, Deion Sanders had enemies in the SWAC
Before Sanders became the head coach of Colorado football, he was the center of attention in the SWAC with Jackson State. Coach Prime made a famous enemy of Alabama State’s Eddie Robinson Jr. after the two teams played on October 8, 2022, when the Hornets HC shoved Sanders following a 26-12 Tigers triumph. Robinson was hot about Sanders’ behavior late that game, accusing him of trying to run up the score and later blasting Coach Prime for “disrespectful” behavior all week.
“Me being up front, I thought it was a lot of disrespect the whole week, so, we not going to be disrespectful the whole week in the media,” Robinson Jr. said (h/t NoleGameday). “We [Robinson Jr. and Sanders] didn’t talk in the pregame, I was out there the whole time at the 50-yard line. He walked through our whole huddle in our end zone and came the long way around to get to his side of the field in pregame. I thought that wasn’t classy at all.”
Sanders didn’t see it the same way in his rebuttal.
“My exact words was, ‘Hey man, you had them ready to play, good game,'” Sanders said (h/t The Clarion-Ledger). “Shook hands and tried to embrace and he pushed off. That was it.”
Either way, nothing but respect and support has come from the Pac-12 thus far; a nice change of pace from Coach Prime’s dramatic first act in the SWAC.