From Louis Luggage to now: Why we're witnessing the beginning of the end for Deion Sanders at Colorado (Part 1)

Editor's note: This is part one of a six-part series entitled "Why we're witnessing the beginning of the end for Deion Sanders at Colorado

Following the most recent loss to Texas Tech, Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders told the local media to write whatever they wanted after that game. All but daring the media personnel in the room to say what they believe the issues are with the program. Ask and you shall receive.

Almost every story has a beginning, middle and end. Some have acts and some have chapters. No story moves from good to bad in an instant. There is always a buildup or a process that carries the evolution of that story. The Buffaloes are in one of those build-up periods in the Coach Prime story.

The ship has not sunk, but it is taking on water. The current trajectory of the Colorado football story in 2026 is the promise that never came. On December 4, 2022, there was one thing said that created optimism and conceived a hype threshold still not yet realized.

“I truly understand what you want,” Sanders said. “All you want is an opportunity to win, to compete, to dominate, to be amongst the elite, to be amongst the best and darn it… I'm going to give you that.”

That quote breathed life into a fanbase starving for any version of ‘good’. It also conceived a belief driven by hype that good was coming. Not just for a moment or a season, but sustained levels of ‘good’. Language is an interesting construct where word choice matters. “Dominate” is a very specific term, not open to varied interpretation. If a team has an opportunity to dominate, that idea suggests the bad times are behind you. They were not.

“Before Prime”, a term Sanders likes to use often, the Buffaloes fans experienced three seasons of eight wins or more in the previous 20 years. Two of those were under Gary Barnett (2002, 2004). The only double-digit winning season at that time came in 2016. The 20 years before that included ten seasons of eight wins or more, including six double-digit winning seasons under Barnett, Neuheisel and McCartney. Coach Mac has a statue outside Folsom Field.

It hasn’t been all bad. The hype that began in 2022 would carry the program until 2024. The first three weeks of the 2023 season were memories for fans. The famous Louis Luggage speech fed into an offseason of slogans and optimism. Those first three games created a short-lived idea. The coach, who kept saying “We Coming”, had arrived.

That unbridled optimism and the belief the head coach speaks so highly of lasted exactly three weeks. TCU proved that they were a far cry from the team in the National Championship game the season before. Nebraska wasn’t better than the middle of the road. Colorado State is still just Colorado State. USC and Oregon ended the 2023 hype train before the midpoint of the season.

The presence of future Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and an elite passing season from Shedeur Sanders in 2024 made 2023 feel better than it was. However, it would become a good season that fell short of what it could have been. Losses to Nebraska, Kansas State and Kansas would come back to bite them in the winter.

Objectively, there were no staggeringly difficult opponents that year. The season ended with a bad, 23-point loss to BYU in the Alamo Bowl. One of two programs on the 2024 schedule that are still contenders today.

Check out the rest of the series with part two.

Shilo Sanders bankruptcy trial: Day 1 from inside the courtroom

Colorado football reportedly spending $20 million for 2026 roster

Tempers flare in Shilo Sanders bankruptcy trial: Day 2 

John Darjean takes the stand in Shilo Sanders' bankruptcy trial: Day 3