Former Colorado Football Star Admits He's 'Not A Fan' Of Deion Sanders

There's no denying that Deion Sanders has had a big impact on the University of Colorado in the three years since he took over the program. But not everyone is a fan of the way he's been running the program, and some are publicly speaking up about it.

Appearing on Tuesday's episode of the Zach Gelb Show, former Colorado football star Christian Fauria - who won a national title with the Bill McCartney in 1990 and two Super Bowls with the Patriots in the 2000s - revealed that he's not a fan of Coach Prime. He said that Sanders seemed to have "a lot of people brainwashed" and doesn't like his style or messaging.

“I’m just not a fan of the coach. I’m not. I’ll never be a fan of the coach,” Fauria said. “I love the school, and this isn’t me picking on Deion Sanders, because I picked on Joe Gibbs. The worst coach I ever had was Joe Gibbs. So me picking on Deion Sanders is nothing. I just don’t like the way he coaches football. I don’t think he’s very bright. I don’t think he can manage a game. I think there’s a lot of flash but there’s no substance. And he’s got a lot of people brainwashed.

“And we’ll see what he can do. But I’m just not a fan of him. Not a fan of his coaching style, not a fan of his messaging. There’s a lot of things internally that I know about that I’m not a fan of. And it’s just not worth my energy to sit there and follow it and go back and forth with the emperor has no clothes crowd that support him regardless of how stupid he is sometimes. So yeah, that’s the way I feel about it. And it bugs me that a lot of alumni just don’t speak up about it. They don’t say anything. But I will.”

Fauria's son Caleb played at Colorado for three seasons - one of which was under Sanders - before transferring to Delaware in 2024. He said that he initially supported Sanders but now finds that the team doesn't have goals beyond simply selling out games and getting people talking about the team.

“If relevancy and having a sold-out crowd and having people talk about you on Twitter, if that’s what you want, then congratulations, you’ve achieved it,” Fauria said. “But I just don’t know if that’s — is that the end goal? Just to be relevant? To have a new scoreboard? To have people talking about you? Or do you want to win games? Win games. The way you win games, the way you recruit, know everybody’s name, give everybody the same attention. Sing the fight song. Learn the fight song. I would say then you’ve got business. But right now all your victories are hollow in my book if all you care about is relevancy.”

Wins haven't really come that much easier for Colorado under Sanders than for many of his predecessors. Aside from his 2024 campaign, which saw the team go 9-4 and finish 25th in the AP poll, the Buffaloes are just 7-17 in their two other seasons with him in charge.

For the amount of money that Coach Prime is being paid, that's not a great return on the investment - even if they are enjoying the money he's bringing into the program.

Will more and more Colorado alumni start speaking out against Deion Sanders?