Colorado’s Deion Sanders Explains Reason for Bad Blood With TCU

The new Buffaloes coach will lead his team against the No. 17 Horned Frogs in both teams’ season opener Saturday.

New Colorado coach Deion Sanders has a bit of a history with his team’s season-opening opponent, TCU.

Sanders was a finalist to replace Gary Patterson as TCU’s coach two seasons ago, only to be beaten out by eventual hire Sonny Dykes. Dykes took TCU to the CFP national title game last season, and Sanders got the job with Colorado this offseason. But that’s not where the bad blood lies between Sanders and the Horned Frogs.

It instead has everything to do with one of his sons, Buffaloes starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Deion explained the reason for the “bad blood,” which dates back several years to when Shedeur was being recruited by Florida State, during “The Colorado Football Coaches Show” on Thursday afternoon.

“[Shedeur] could have gone anywhere,” Sanders said of his highly touted son. “His problem is he’s impatient like his dad. He didn’t want to wait. He’s like, ‘I ain’t waiting two years to get on the field.’ … So he chose FAU because he had a relationship with Willie Taggart that derived from FSU when he was gonna go there.

“But the coordinator that we’re playing against this week was there, and he didn’t treat [Shedeur] kindly. So there’s a lot of blood in that thing,” Sanders continued. “There’s a lot of bad blood in that thing.”

The coordinator Sanders is referring to is TCU offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, who previously coached at FSU under Taggart.

Shedeur wound up playing for his father at Jackson State instead of attending FAU. He transferred to Colorado after Deion accepted the Buffaloes coaching job.

The friction with Briles adds another intriguing storyline to Colorado’s first game under Sanders, where the Buffaloes are a 20.5-point underdog.

Colorado and No. 17 TCU will kick off shortly after noon ET on Saturday at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.