For Deion Sanders and his sons in Colorado, the Alamo Bowl loss provides a bittersweet ending

SAN ANTONIO — As much as anyone in sports, Deion Sanders has been the face of college football the past two years as it stormed into a new era of portal and playoff, NIL and evolution.

From taking over a 1-11 left-for-dead Colorado program to proving so many skeptics wrong to developing a Heisman Trophy winner to transforming Colorado into must-see television that became not only a rating machine, but also a Top 25 team, Coach Prime has been like nothing this sport has ever seen – with his own camera crews documenting every moment along the way. And yet, a few minutes before kickoff of Saturday night’s Alamo Bowl loss to BYU, we saw him like we’ve never seen him before.

Speechless.

Deion Sanders, with his sunglasses on, headset around his neck and head bowed, was overcome with emotion as all the memories came flooding back from years of coaching sons Shilo and Shedeur, from pee-wee football to Jackson State to reviving Colorado. He had just walked onto the field with his sons, as he has done countless other times, but it never felt like this.

On camera, ESPN reporter Taylor McGregor asked what brought up the emotions. The 57-year-old suffocated for a few heartbeats.

“The journey,” he said. “It’s been a huge, tumultuous journey.”

Sanders knew this moment was coming. He admitted a day earlier that he had been trying to avoid this reality. It seeped into his mind before his sons’ final home game at Colorado, but it wasn’t their last college game together.

What made it even more difficult was that it wasn’t just Shilo and Shedeur – it was his other “sons” as well. It was Travis Hunter, the two-way player and Heisman winner who shocked the college football establishment as the nation’s No. 1 recruit decommitting from Florida State to follow Sanders to Jackson State. And it was Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig, the heartbeat of the Buffaloes’ defense, who had played for him when he was the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian High School in Texas when Shedeur was the QB. Silmon-Craig had decommitted from FAU to follow Sanders to Jackson State.

“I was upset with Shedeur yesterday,” Sanders said Friday with a laugh. “I told him we got 48 hours, son, then all this is over.

“It’s going to be something to watch. I don’t know how to handle it. I know Travis is going to trigger me because he always does. He’s going to bring tears to my eyes. I’m not looking forward to it, but it does me because it means they’re going to another level, another chapter in life, and they’re going to soar. I’m grateful that I feel like we’ve equipped them with all the tools they need to be successful.”

It’s been hard for Sanders not to get nostalgic. He had a legendary career as one of the most exciting players the sport has ever seen. He has won two Super Bowls and made the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also played Major League Baseball and once hit over .500 in a World Series for the Atlanta Braves while playing with a broken bone in his foot. But it feels like this is hitting him differently.

“This is a tremendous calling that God has given my life to be around these kids, to raise these kids to such a level as this,” Sanders said Friday. “When you think about your steps being ordered, I’m thankful. I’m thankful that (Colorado athletic director) Rick (George) gave me the opportunity. We wouldn’t have had a Heisman Trophy winner. Several other guys will definitely get drafted. It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t taken that call. So I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given. Man, that’s one blessing. I take no moment for granted.”

Sanders, who has insisted he plans to stay in Colorado after his sons are gone, continued in a stream of consciousness as he opened up about how he felt and talked about his bond with many of the other players, who bought into his vision to be with him along the way at CU.

“We’ve all had moments in my office or on the field that could bring you to tears if you really knew those moments,” he said. “Cam Silmon, who has played for me since he was a sophomore in high school.”

On Saturday night, about a half hour after Colorado was overwhelmed by underdog BYU 36-14, it was Silmon-Craig who sat to the right of Sanders, with Shedeur to the left of his father, at the postgame news conference where almost everything went wrong for the buffers.

Silmon-Craig is not a show stopper in the secondary. It’s Hunter, of course. But if you ask multiple coaches who their favorite player on this Colorado team is, the former two-star recruit is ranked No. 212 in the class of 2021 their answers.

He was also the guy the Colorado staff knew would say all the right things to his teammates when they needed it most after the Buffs lost at home to Kansas State in mid-October when the coaches knew they the next six weeks would define this. team. And he said all the right things. They went on to win the next four games and five of their next six en route to finishing 9–4.

“He’s everything you want in college football,” defensive coordinator Robert Livingston told me, enthusing about Silmon-Craig’s toughness and character. “He’s phenomenal.”

Silmon-Craig, who had six tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and an interception Saturday, smiled when asked how he will remember his time helping turn the Buffaloes around.

“I want to think about the work, about the brotherhood we built,” Silmon-Craig said. “I love those guys in that locker room with all my heart. They mean a lot to me.”

Shedeur Sanders, the quarterback projected to be a top-10 pick in the NFL Draft with Hunter, said for him the reality that this was the last game playing for his father in Colorado with his large extended family, has not started yet. Maybe it will be in the next week or two when they are not all together.

“I want to be able to go back and think about those times,” he said.

But there is great pride for him in what they have accomplished in Boulder.

“It felt great to represent Colorado and bring (the program) back to where it was before,” he said. “I feel like we were able to realign the foundation of the program so now it’s able for the other players coming in to pick up where we left off.”

Saturday’s lopsided loss isn’t how anyone in the locker room, least of all Deion Sanders, thought this night would go. But Sanders said a tough night, even in their last game together, won’t overshadow or diminish everything they’ve accomplished on their journey over the past two years.

“It won’t,” he said. “It’s a wrap. It’s over. They’re on to the next thing. They’re going to have a great career. They’re moving on. They flush it out. They can analyze it on the way home. I know Cam will think about it and think about plays he made and plays he didn’t make. They want to flush this out and then relax a little to get their bodies back in preparation for combines and pro days, and Cam will play in the East-West (Shrine ) Game, so he has to stay focused on that too.”

One of the final questions Sanders was asked was about his program leaving a footprint on college football in terms of how schools recruit, market and present themselves, and what that meant to him in terms of legacy.

“I don’t think we’re considering it at all,” he said. “We really don’t care. We’re just trying to develop these young men, win games, make sure they’re consistent men in the community with their relationships, with their families and in school. Trust me, we don’t think about it that way.”

His response to that question reminded me of something he had said the day before, as his perspective sounded so much like parenting, not just coaching.

“It’s unfortunate that they move on, but you pray you pour enough into them that when they move on, they move up,” he said. “They don’t just pass by. They move on and they move up. You’ve blessed them with knowledge and support and love and compassion in those moments. The most vital moments aren’t even about the field. It’s about what happens in life , that you are able to be there for them.

“Those are the things that I love passionately about a lot of our seniors that I can’t wait to see them soar.”

(Top photo: David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)