"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - George Orwell, 1984
Deion Sanders remains defiant in his belief that Colorado is heading in the right direction, despite direct evidence to the contrary. That's a bold claim to make when you've lost the last two games by a combined score of 105-24 and are now 3-6 and sitting near the bottom of the Big 12 standings.
The truth is that Colorado has taken a massive leap in 2025. It's just been in the wrong direction.
Colorado has followed up last season's nine-win breakthrough by coming close to bottoming out this year. With three games remaining, there's little confidence that the Buffaloes can win any of them. Sanders is staring a 3-9 record right in the face, which could be a game worse than his debut season in 2023.
2023's 4-8 campaign was a lot more understandable, too, considering it represented a three-win improvement from the 1-11 team that Coach Prime took over. There's little reason for optimism right now.
In spite of being surrounded by fire, Sanders is the embodiment of the "This is fine!" meme. He's still smiling and telling Colorado fans to effectively ignore the product they've witnessed this season.
"We are trending, behind the curtains, in the right direction," Sanders said on Tuesday.
There's not a single shred of evidence of that being true. "Trust me, bro" doesn't work when you're 3-6 and just lost by five touchdowns at home to a mediocre Arizona team.
It also doesn't work when your 2026 recruiting class ranks 80th in the composite rankings and just lost its highest-ranked commitment.
Colorado is trending in the wrong direction, despite what Deion Sanders says
It's going to take more than words to turn things around in Boulder. I suspect that most Colorado fans still, deep down, believe that Coach Prime can steer the train back on the tracks. Perhaps some grace is needed with the litany of health issues Sanders has endured this year.
But his words ring hollow for Colorado fans right now. This is a results-oriented business, something that Sanders is intimately familiar with. The results haven't come. He's now just 16-18 as the Buffaloes head coach, and last season is looking like the outlier he hoped 2023 would prove to be.
Colorado remains a long way away from the championship program he hoped to build. The roster still needs a major infusion of talent. Sanders isn't recruiting well enough in the high school ranks, and that can't be covered by his work in the Transfer Portal.
Sanders took over a difficult situation in Boulder. But he's been given everything he's asked for. And the contract extension he signed in March has him as one of the country's 15 highest-paid coaches.
Colorado expects to get Top 15 results out of that investment. Currently, they're barely one of the 15 best teams in the Big 12.