Coach Prime accused of ‘breaking the spirit’ of cut 2022 Colorado players
As we’ve gone over time and again, there are not many nuanced takes when it comes to Coach Prime, whether on the positive side or with a negative spin — and Mike Farrell Sports’ Scott Salomon took the latter to a new level by accusing Deion Sanders of “breaking the spirit” of the 2022 Colorado football team with controversial comments about their “dead eyes” and wavering love of the game.
“(Coach Prime) cheated the system once he got to Colorado, and he did everything that he could do to break the spirits of players who gave their bodies for the Buffaloes in 2022 and fought and scratched their way through an ugly 1-11 season,” Salomon prefaced before saying, “Would the players that he let go love to play for Coach Prime? Probably? Who wouldn’t? Unfortunately, due to the win-now mentality, those players will never know what it is like to play for the NFL Hall of Famer or run onto Folsom Field again. Perhaps a year of coaching from Prime and his staff would have made them better players. We will never know.”
Salomon has made it a habit to take aim at Sanders, unlike Mike Farrell, Salomon’s publication’s figurehead; who has evolved into someone close to the middle when it comes to judging Coach Prime’s Buffs.
2022 Colorado football players dealt with what most players who get new coaches deal with
To paint Coach Prime as someone who committed unprecedented acts of aggression and cruelty to the 2022 Colorado football recruits he didn’t invite back to the 2023 team would be dishonest. What happened to those kids wasn’t ideal, but it happens every year all over the country at every level.
When a team is as historically futile as the 2022 Buffs, drastic change happens. The turnover was extreme, but it’s clear that Sanders wanted to bring in his own recruits from Jackson State, FSU, and elsewhere, and that strategy has paid off immensely.
With the success CU has had this season, the 2022 team should be on the backs of the minds of very few. But the media outcry after Coach Prime’s famous “jump in that portal” speech has given the haters something to cling to in any scenario.