BOULDER, Colo. — Charles Barkley has another guarrrrr-an-tee to warm Front Range hearts: The NBA and broadcasting legend swears that the CU Buffs are going to be legit under new football coach Deion Sanders.
“(Sanders) is going to be successful,” Barkley, the longtime “NBA On TNT” analyst, told me recently when asked about Coach Prime.
“He’s been successful everywhere he’s been. And I like him a lot as a person. And you guys got very lucky.”
Barkley, 60, and Sanders, 55, go back almost four decades, a relationship that started when the latter was an All-American at Florida State.
The Chuckster went to bat publicly for his former school, Auburn, to hire Coach Prime away from Jackson State last fall to replace former coach Bryan Harsin. The Tigers fired the ex-Boise State boss in late October 2022 after just 23 months on the job.
“I’m happy for (CU) and happy for Deion,” Barkley continued, “but I really wanted him at Auburn.
“He’s going to do a fantastic job at whatever (opportunity) he decides to do. And I really wanted him at Auburn, and congratulations to the Buffaloes.”
From a distance, it wasn’t hard to imagine Sanders transitioning to the Plains, given the ex-NFL great’s recruiting ties and familiarity with recruits in the talent-rich SEC bedrocks of Florida and Texas. Coach Prime’s cool confidence and brash, flashy style would’ve made a fascinating in-state counterpoint to Nick Saban’s cold, monolithic Alabama juggernaut.
Barkley’s beloved Tigers hired Hugh Freeze instead. Why?
“I don’t know, man, I can’t answer that question,” Barkley replied. “I really wanted him to go to Auburn. But like I said, it is going to be great for (CU).”
While Auburn allegedly offered bigger everything — bigger money, bigger recruiting pool, bigger expectations — to coaching candidates, the Buffs presented something to Coach Prime that the Tigers could not and would not: autonomy.
Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman speculated late last year, when Sanders was expected to land a Power 5 vacancy, that Auburn’s behind-the-scenes “power brokers” felt “uncomfortable” with bringing Sanders aboard.
“When you get some of these people who almost act like they’re GMs of college programs, (the power brokers) feel like they want to have some control and some influence,” Feldman told The Rich Eisen Show. “And for a lot of these coaches, who they go golf with and who they kind of get on the phone when they need to, I think they feel like they have a little bit of control. Deion Sanders doesn’t need to kiss their ring.”
Combine Sanders’ presence in Boulder with the hiring of Sean Payton by the Broncos in February, and greater Denver now has two star football coaches, at opposite sides of town, who each command a national audience. No wonder the Chuckster sounds downright envious.
“You know, Sean is going to do a great job, a great job (with the Broncos),” the Turner Sports analyst continued. “But I can say, I think you guys (in Denver), both your college team and your pro team (have) got really bright futures with the two coaches you got.”
