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Colorado’s Deion Sanders Wants to ‘Style’ One Part of College Football Like the NFL

Kristen Wong

Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Folsom Field.
Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Folsom Field. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
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Now that talk about Deion Sanders heading up the pipeline to the NFL has died down (for now), the Colorado coach is focused on the Buffaloes' 2025 season without stars Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter.

Sanders spoke to the media this week ahead of Colorado's annual Black & Gold spring game, which will take place at Folsom Field on April 19 and be televised by ESPN2. Colorado along with Virginia are the only two schools who are able to boast nationally televised spring games this year, and Sanders warned fans of the spring game tradition potentially coming to an end in the future.

Sanders also gave his two cents on how he would change the spring game format, saying that he would like to "style" it based on the NFL preseason.

"Actually I would like to play against another team this spring, that's what I'm trying to do right now," Sanders said. "To have a competitive [game] playing against your own guys... you really can't tell the level of your guys because it's the same old, same old. Everybody kind of knows each other.

"I would like to style it like the pros. I would like to practice against someone for a few days, then you have the spring game. I think the public would be satisfied with that tremendously."

Essentially, it's the NFL preseason in a nutshell: joint practices leading up to a preseason game.

Last year, the spotlight on Colorado's spring game shifted to players entering the transfer portal, as in the case of star running back Dylan Edwards transferring shortly after the exhibition match.

Whether the Buffaloes will experience another spring shuffle come April, fans can at least sneak a first look at five-star recruit Julian Lewis playing under center for Colorado, who will be hoping to build off of the team's 9-4 campaign in the Big 12 last year.

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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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