Deion Sanders has right combination to start QBU at Colorado

Coach Prime can truly rebuild the program as a top destination for QBs

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Your scribe recently caught the afternoon edition of ESPN’s “Sportscenter” while going down for a nap. The recovery from receiving an incredible gift from someone who shared their spare kidney and gave me a new lease on life has been good but sleep is still an issue and this 66-year-old takes frequent naps.

This edition of the show featured analyst Dan Orlovsky talking about the best collegiate quarterbacks available for next year’s NFL draft. You can only imagine who was the focus of much of the discussion between Orlovsky and the co-host Elle Duncan. The Buffs' Shedeur Sanders. The talented senior is a favorite of the ESPN analyst and other and many others. Some are suggesting he’s the first quarterback off the board. We’ll see after CU's first season back in the Big 12.

This much, apparently, is a fact. The strong-armed Dallas native is the most successful collegiate athlete when it comes to earning NIL money. Reportedly, Sanders is raking in about $4.8 million a year. Not bad for a college kid. Just one man’s opinion, The 6’2” slinger is the most NFL-ready quarterback in CU history. Is he the best?

I would say no. That honor will always be with Darian Hagan until somebody comes along and wins three straight conference titles and a national championship. That’s what the athletic California native did from 1989-91. As a reporter covering the team back then, I called him, “Mr. Magic.” Small but cat-quick and strong armed, Hagan never lost a conference game.

The University of Colorado is not known as “Quarterback U.” Last time a Buff quarterback was drafted? You got to go back to 1997, when the Eagles took Koy Detmer with a seventh-round pick. The Steelers plucked standout Kordell Stewart in the second round of the 1995 draft but the New Orleans native became known as “Slash” playing wide receiver and quarterback for Pittsburgh before ending his career with Baltimore as strictly a quarterback. After that? Must go back to 1984, when the Raiders took Randy Essington in the 12th round.

The University of Colorado has sent a lot of running backs, offensive linemen, tight ends, wide receivers, defensive linemen, linebackers, defensive backs and kicking specialists into the NFL. Quarterbacks? Not many. That will change next year when Sanders moves on.

Shedeur Sanders says he wants Julian Lewis to Coach Prime's "Son-in-Waiting"

But in this wacky and wild world of college football in which we live? It seems the Buffs could be poised to have a chance to change that reputation of being a wasteland when developing NFL quarterbacks. Why? Well, let’s start with the carrot of enticing a young man with the possibility of making $4-million a year calling signals at the foot of the Flatirons? Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders can recruit.

I would suspect the silver-tongued older Sanders is whispering into many a talented quarterback's ear, “The job is open next year. Come to Boulder, make great money and we’ll prepare you to move on to a successful NFL career.” Maybe five-star Julian Lewis? That message could be spread through the prep world and, since it’s okay to poach these days, quarterbacks who want to take the money and run toward fortune and fame. That’s the way it works these days.