Barry Switzer addresses Deion Sanders' future with Colorado football
Legendary longtime Dallas Cowboys and Oklahoma Sooners head coach Barry Switzer sees Deion Sanders' Colorado football program as a stepping stone for Coach Prime -- noting the differences between his own loyalty to OU and Sanders' desire to go where he wants to go and do what he wants to do.
"Deion is going to go what fits Deion," Switzer said on OutKick’s "Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich." "I don’t say he is tied to Colorado; he is going to try and establish himself there, but Deion is going to go what fits Deion, and I understand.
"All coaches do that. I didn’t when I was at Oklahoma. Hell, I had one of the best jobs in the country when I was here in the ‘70s and ’80s. I wasn’t going anywhere. I wished they paid me more, but it was different times and a different era."
Barry Switzer doesn't want to coach in NFL for same reason Deion Sanders doesn't
When asked if he'd return to NFL coaching, Switzer's answers sounded exactly like Sanders'.
"I'm good. I would never coach pros," Switzer prefaced before saying, "You played with guys that was getting a handsome check that didn't want to play. How am I going to handle that as a coach? … Here [in college], I can regulate that. At the next level, come on, man. These cats don't even want to practice no more.
"I think the game is getting better and better because the athletes are phenomenal nowadays, but I can't do it. I love the college game. I love still having influence on the minds and the games of these young men. I love shaping them and molding them. I couldn't do that on the next level."
Sanders believes he and NFL players would butt heads if he were to take his coaching talents to the pros.
“I’m old school,” Sanders said (h/t On3). “I’m not gonna say they’re too soft, but we might collide with the thought process of even getting to the game. My disruption is going to start on Monday when we’re watching that film of the previous game. Then we gotta flush that and then you’re off Tuesday. And so, I’m gonna give you off Tuesday, but that does that mean you don’t come in? What does that mean? Because if you wanna be great, most guys come in there.
“Then Wednesday — how you approach this new test, this new challenge. When we display the gameplan to you, are you tentative about that? Like here [at Colorado], every Friday I put up film times of the entire team. Who all watch film? So, if you don’t watch any film on that Friday, you ain’t playing. Because there’s no way you’re prepared, it’s no way you can help us because you aren’t prepared. … So, I’m old school to that aspect that I want unity, I want these guys to want this and on social media, you know we got that like button. I want a love button in this game. I don’t want you to like this, I want you to love this.”
Sanders and Switzer do most things differently when it comes to, well, everything, but something they have in common is preferring to coach at the collegiate level over the NFL.