BOULDER, Colo.—I’m not exactly sure what I expected to find here at the Deionization of football, but I am happy I came on this weekend, to see this USC-Colorado game, to see two future NFL quarterbacks, to run into some 6:25 a.m. tailgaters, and to mingle with the glitterati on the Colorado sideline. This week: Warren Sapp, Michael Irvin, Jaylen Brown, C.C. Sabathia, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and some music stars I am much too old to know.
I was blown away by one of the quarterbacks, and his name may surprise you: Shedeur Sanders. It’s obvious that USC’s Caleb Williams could (and probably will) be a franchise quarterback at the next level. But I give Shedeur Sanders, son of Deion, immense credit for taking a beating, for putting some blame for Colorado’s 48-41 loss to USC on his shoulders, and for making the kind of vital desperado throw on fourth-and-five in the fourth quarter that Patrick Mahomes might nod respectfully at and say, “That’s a throw most NFL quarterbacks can’t make, young buck.”
Lots going on in in the Big League this weekend: Miami failing to climb Mount Buffalo and take AFC East supremacy, Damar’s back, the Pats embarrassing themselves, 0-3 Bowls in Chicago and Charlotte, Eagles and Niners the last unbeatens, Mike Tomlin seethes, and more.
But this scene, this game, this coach, the reigning Heisman winner (Williams), maybe a better future quarterback (Shedeur Sanders) … I came to Boulder out of curiosity, plain and simple. Who doesn’t want to see what’s going on out here in the shadow of the Rockies, in the land Deion Sanders is resuscitating? I wasn’t alone. “Huge Deion fan,” said Sabathia on the packed pre-game Colorado sideline. “I just had to see it.” I do believe this is the first time in the 27-year history of this Monday column that I’ve led with a college football game. But the way I see it, this was a hybrid day: part big-ratings game of the day in college football, part 2026 NFL preview.
Shedeur Sanders and Caleb Williams likely will be starting NFL quarterbacks. They’ve both pledged allegiance to college football, but USC’s Lincoln Riley (and perhaps offensive aide Kliff Kingsbury) and Deion Sanders will both get NFL feelers, probably soon. Can you imagine Riley and Williams teaming up to revive the Chicago Bears? Be still, Michael Wilbon’s heart. And the receiving talent on these teams is likely bound for the next level: Tahj Washington, Brenden (son of Jerry) Rice and Zachariah (grand-nephew of Cliff) Branch on USC; Omarion Miller, Xavier Weaver and two-way player Travis Hunter on Colorado. (Branch and Hunter missed the game with injuries.)
Williams and Sanders could be the top picks in the next two NFL drafts. On a sun-splashed perfect day in the land that time is remembering, they combined for 10 touchdown passes, 774 passing yards and zero disappointment among the 30 NFL scouts crammed into Folsom Field with the biggest media contingent—892—ever to cover a game here. No one left yawning.
Williams has a much better front wall than Sanders, and Sanders faced more pressure than Williams all afternoon. That’s one reason I came away thinking Sanders could well be a better pro. Having a better supporting cast and stronger D shouldn’t penalize Williams, of course. But I saw more of what a quarterback needs to do in the NFL from Sanders, at least on this one day.
Sanders aced the short anticipatory out-routes that are staples of modern NFL pass games. He processed under pressure the way he’ll have to do if, as is likely, he goes to a losing team in the pros. He brought his team back from 41-14 to nearly win the game. He threw the best pass of the day (the season, probably) on a pressurized fourth-and-five with 12 minutes left, evading a sack, running right and finding a pinhole of a window into airtight coverage for a nine-yard TD. An amazing, amazing 22-yards-in-the-air dart that hit Miller right in the hands.
His negative: Sanders took far too much time when he should have played faster, down two touchdowns in the last five minutes. But I liked how he took the blame for it post-game, saying he’d rather not snap it fast when he thinks two or three teammates aren’t sure of their tasks. That’s more of a total-offense and coaching issue, but Shedeur Sanders took the heat for it all.
There was a moment in the post-game media session that showed the command and the confidence of his father. With true frosh Miller seated next to Shedeur, I asked him about the lasered TD throw to (my pronunciation) “O-MEER-ee-on” Miller.
“It’s ‘O-MARE-ee-on,’” Sanders said. “This is my man ‘O-MARE-ee-on.’ He went for a lot of yards today.”
Sticking up, sort of, for his teammate and friend. Giving him the spotlight. Shedeur knows smart quarterbacks do a lot of giving and a lot of deflecting. Walking off the field after the game, he gave too. Shedeur took his wristbands off, sought the right recipient in the first row of the stands next to the Colorado tunnel, and handed them to a 10-ish-year-old boy.
“His name in my phone is ‘Grown,’” said his father and head coach, Deion Sanders. “G-R-O-W-N. He’s very mature for his age. He’s very confident. He never gets flustered. He’s been built and reared for this his whole life. I’m proud to be his father and his coach.”
*****
A few other notes from Boulder:
The fans. Ran into Jerry McCarthy, 71, and Preston Moxcey, 45, both CU grads, setting up a tailgate for 100 people at 6:25 a.m. McCarthy got up at 2 and arrived at 4 to begin set-up. Moxcey paused loading the Modelo into an ice chest and McCarthy came out of his tailgate-equipment van with the huge buffalo on the side to talk about the change in college football, and the change in Colorado.
“This is pure business,” Moxcey said. “This is the minor leagues. The U.S. is a weird country. We’re the only people that have college athletics and it’s not built for the real world. I think there’s going to be a college football premier league and Colorado wouldn’t have been in it but now maybe they will. There will be 20 or 30 teams that matter. And there’ll be a bunch of teams that don’t. There’ll be a Tier 2 and a Tier 3. Colorado and a bunch of other big schools have to decide which way they want to go.”
“Once they did transfer portal,” McCarthy said, “that was one thing. NIL opened the floodgates. Showman that Deion is, he’s totally embraced the portal and NIL where other coaches were very apprehensive about NIL. Look at us—back on the map in the biggest way possible in college football. Huge TV ratings. Far and away first in media coverage. Everyone on the planet knows Deion.”
I barely have to interject anything. They’re on a roll and the sun’s not up yet.
Moxcey: “This circus can move anywhere. Who wants to do it next? We proved you can take the worst team in the country, switch 80 athletes, and you can win anywhere. Just appreciative that it’s here for a while.”
McCarthy: “It’s gonna be here a long time. Deion’s not going anywhere. We’ll pay him whatever he wants.”
“What happens,” I ask, “if Jerry Jones comes here in three years and offers Deion the moon and say, ‘It’s your destiny to coach the Dallas Cowboys?”
McCarthy: “He’s not leaving. Whatever check Jerry Jones is bringing, we’ll match it. If we have to tackle him and hold him down …”
Now it’s light enough to clearly read Jerry McCarthy’s black hoodie. Small letters on top, big letters on the bottom.
coach
PRIME
On Deion. I remember when he came out of college, he started the “Prime Time” thing in a major way. Cornerbacks didn’t get paid like quarterbacks, but he intended to change that. By 1995, he had. The Cowboys signed him to a deal worth an average of $5.0 million a year in ’95. At that time, Super Bowl-winning quarterback Steve Young was in the midst of a $5.1-million-per-year deal. Same thing with being a two-sport player. You can’t play football and baseball at the same time! He did, and at a high level. He homered off Orel Hershiser—twice. He went 8-for-15 in the 1992 World Series, moonlighting for the Braves while a Falcons corner. He figured out how the system worked, and he beat it.
Same thing with the circus on the sidelines now. How cool is it for 19- and 20-year-olds to see the same music acts they listen to just a few feet away from them on the sidelines? It’s got to be a recruiting edge. Warren Sapp told me Saturday he went to Colorado’s first game at TCU and wasn’t into the ear-splitting music played in the locker room before the game. But he looked around the room, saw some kids bopping to it, and some looking over their assignments for the game. “Elevator music,” Sapp said. “Kids are so used to it.”
“Deion figured it out,” Sapp said, meaning Sanders understood the way he thought the kids functioned best. “He met the kids halfway.”
Not all of them. Sanders the coach can show his hard side. He hasn’t been happy with the top corner recruit in the country this year, freshman Cormani McClain. Asked during the week why McClain wasn’t playing much, Sanders said, “Study, prepare, be on time, show up to the dern meetings.” McClain played some against USC and Sanders was asked if McClain took his coach’s criticism seriously. “He’d be a fool not to, because you’re not gonna play if you don’t [listen to the coaches]. I’m not gonna change.”
There are still some on-field issues holding Colorado back. Special teams is awful; they do a lot of weird formation shifts on punts and placements, along with odd running punts. There’s really no excuse for the molasses-slow offensive play-calls the offense had late against USC. That’s got to be fixed. The front seven doesn’t bring much pressure, and the offensive line needs upgrading. But Boulder wasn’t built in a day. There’s excellence at a lot of positions, particularly at quarterback. One more recruiting season and trip to the transfer portal, and Colorado should be significantly better next year.
Caleb Williams. His reputation, well-earned, preceded him to this game, and his six touchdown passes for USC on a big stage reinforced that he’s very likely the top prospect in the 2024 draft. And deservedly so. I’m going to nitpick here, but I believe it’s worth noting. Williams’ most spectacular TD came late in the first quarter when he waited, surveyed the field, rolled left, waited, and launched a strike across his body to Tahj Washington for a 71-yard score. It was the kind of throw and sudden strike that makes the internet explode. And it did. Comparisons to Patrick Mahomes abounded.
Caleb Williams out here making video game throws for TDs. That’s some arm talent. pic.twitter.com/R09Y0IO6mg
— Max Olson (@max_olson) September 30, 2023
A couple of things. Williams had 7.42 seconds between the time he took the snap and the time he threw. That’s an inordinately long time to ponder one’s options. And when Washington caught the ball, the nearest defenders were eight and 11 yards away from him. The combination of those two variables may never happen for Williams in the NFL.
I asked NextGen Stats to look at Mahomes’ career numbers on time to throw. Through Sunday night, Mahomes has thrown 3,136 career regular season passes. On only 17 has he had 7.42 seconds or more to throw. So once per each 184 passes as a pro, Mahomes has had that much time.
This isn’t to say Williams won’t adjust supremely well to the pro game. But he has a very good line and an excellent corps of receivers. If you look at his possible landing spots next spring—assuming he comes out—it’s doubtful he’d have very good position groups on the line and at receiver.
One perfect pass. After the game, Shedeur Sanders wasn’t going to help glorify the best pass I saw in football, college or pro, this weekend. Nor was his father. So I’ll do it myself. Fourth-and-five for Colorado, USC nine-yard line, 12 minutes left, Trojans up 48-27. This fourth-down has to be converted, or game over. As happened all afternoon, Shedeur Sanders got flushed and nearly sacked. As he rolled to the left, Omarion Miller came back, left to right, midway in the end zone, with USC safety Bryson Shaw covering him so tightly that Shaw seemed like yoga pants on Miller.
Sanders, from his own 16-yard line, threw an Aroldis Chapman fastball, on the run, toward a diving Miller six yards deep in the end zone. Shaw leapt over Miller’s back trying to deflect the ball; you cannot play the ball any better, at any level of football, than Shaw played it. Miller looked screened, or at least he didn’t have a clear view of this BB coming at him. And the ball velcroid into Miller’s hands maybe eight inches off the ground.
“There was NO SPACE for that ball!” Michael Irvin enthused later. Absolutely. But Shedeur Sanders fit it in. Having the physical tools to be able to do that is impressive enough. But doing it with one of the biggest games in recent school history on the line, on fourth-and-five, knowing the game’s over on an incompletion, well, that increases the degree of difficulty. By a lot. I saw one game, and one game cannot be enough to be rock-solid in one’s opinion about a player. But if Shedeur Sanders can’t play on Sundays, and play well, I’ll burn my know-it-all card.
Read more in Peter King’s full Football Morning in America column.
