Colorado football: Coach Prime did nothing to be qualified for Alabama job, says analyst
Mike Farrell Sports' Scott Salomon believes Coach Prime did nothing with Colorado football during the 2023 season to warrant consideration to replace Nick Saban as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
"Coach Prime might have worked with Nick Saban on the AFLAC commercials that we see on television, but that is as close as he will ever get to being in the same sentence as the Greatest College Coach that ever roamed the sidelines," Salomon prefaced before saying, "Riddle me this Batman. When the initial list of possible replacements for Saban came out why was Prime on that list? Prime has done nothing in his one year of Power 5 football that qualified him to take over a finely-tuned championship caliber football team like the University of Alabama."
Salomon is 100% right here. Had the feel-good vibes of the first three weeks, with a brief return in Week 6, stayed for the entire season, there'd be justification to hand the keys of Saban's program (not Dodge Charger, good guess though). But with Coach Prime unable to navigate his figured-out coaching staff out of CU's disastrous six-game losing streak to end the season, Alabama fans would've vocally, and likely vehemently, rejected the hiring.
Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders linked to Alabama by Stephen A. Smith, few others
Stephen A. Smith, who's plugged into the NBA and has inside sources and clearly watches the game, and maybe doesn't have that same level of attention to detail with college football, was one of the notable talking heads to link Deion Sanders to the University of Alabama's opening.
“The reason why I feel (Sanders is a candidate) is because I’m thinking of today’s generation of players, catching the pulse of the players,” Smith said (h/t Montgomery Advertiser). “I’m thinking about NIL. I’m thinking about the transfer portal, which are obviously things that Nick Saban had some degree of a problem with.
"And then I'm thinking about Deion Sanders. He's got the top-ranked transfer class right now. This is the second year that he's pulled that off. So if you look at it from that perspective, the ability to recruit talent, I think if you're going to replace the greatness of a Nick Saban, it starts and ends first and foremost with being able to recruit. And you can't tell me if a big-time program like Alabama, somebody like 'Primetime' goes there, that you ain't going to have athletes that will not follow him."
Kalen DeBoer ended up as the Tide's new coach. Don't believe anyone who said the Colorado football head coach was ever in the running. Any bookie who took action on Coach Prime becoming the Crimson Tide's next leader should feel some shame.
Not suggesting to feel any refunds or anything, but you know, definitely feel free to feel a bit of shame. You know what you did.