Rumors regarding Coach Prime leaving CU heat up after Florida State fires head coach

The leaves are falling in Boulder, and so are the rumors. Speculation about Deion Sanders’ future at the University of Colorado picked up this week after Florida State, where Sanders became a college football legend in the late 1980s, fired head coach Mike Norvell. The Seminoles now have an opening, and Coach Prime’s name ended up on social media and on several “who’s next?” lists almost right away.

There’s some history here. Sanders has said he interviewed for the Florida State job before the school hired Norvell in 2019, and he later said, “I knocked it out of the park.” Things got awkward after that. As head coach at Jackson State, Sanders flipped the nation’s top recruit, Travis Hunter, away from the Seminoles, and some Florida State fans were upset enough to burn his old No. 2 jersey. Now there’s a fresh rumor on the FSU side. A 247Sports insider told CBS Sports that while there’s “an appetite for someone who is an ‘FSU guy,'” the people in charge have signaled that “some of the baggage that comes with Deion is not desired.”

The Boulder side is just as complicated. Reports have said first-year athletic director Fernando Lovo might want to make a change. CBS Sports reports Sanders is 18-25 overall in his fourth season and 3-12 in his last 15 games. But it would cost a lot to part ways. Colorado would reportedly owe more than $25 million to fire him, and any school hiring him away would reportedly owe CU about $10 million. That’s a lot of money even by college football standards, and some national writers say the buyout is the biggest thing keeping everyone where they are.

So is Coach Prime packing his bags? Nobody knows yet, and Sanders hasn’t weighed in on the rumors. For now, he’s still the head coach of the Buffs, with games left to play and a fan base that’s very used to having him in the headlines.