Alabama fans' reservations about Colorado football HC Deion Sanders taking Tide job

Alabama fans were not overly thrilled about the prospect of Coach Prime leaving Colorado football to take the vacant Crimson Tide head coaching job opened up by Nick Saban's shocking retirement on January 10.

The Messenger's Ryan Nanni revealed the results of his Alabama fan survey asking Tide fans what they felt about the prospect of several different coaches being hired. Needless to say, fans are not convinced it'd end well.

“Hardest coach to rank," one said of Sanders. "Might struggle to tame Bama’s boosters but not for any failing of his own.”

“Has the ego to handle following Saban and being the school’s first minority head coach," another prefaced before saying, "Can recruit skill players. I don’t know if he would build something sustainable.”

“I'm not sure Deion The Brand and Alabama The Brand can coexist," mic-dropped another.

Alabama won't pursue Colorado football HC Deion Sanders due to red flags

Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde and Richard Johnson believe that the numerous red flags that popped up during Coach Prime's first season at Colorado will keep Sanders' name out of the Crimson Tide coaching search.

"It’s hard to see a program like Alabama hiring someone with a 4–8 FBS head-coaching record, even if that record was an improvement over recent Colorado history," the SI pair wrote. "Sanders remains an unproven in-game coach and program organizer at the power-conference level. Roster and staff churn at Colorado might raise red flags with Alabama."

While the red flags exist, the SI duo does believe Sanders checks a few boxes for what Alabama would be looking for in their first post-Saban program head.

"Sanders certainly has the persona and charisma to handle the biggest of jobs and has proven to be an elite recruiter," Forde and Johnson wrote.

It'd take many big-name coaches turning down the Tide job to get to a point Sanders is a realistic option.