Josh Pate Shares Blunt Assessment of Deion Sanders' Job at Colorado

Sanders arrived at Colorado following a brutal 1-11 campaign in 2022, gutting the roster and building an unstoppable hype train that saw the Buffaloes sell out Sanders’ first spring football game with the program.

To start 2023, Colorado looked unstoppable, winning its first three games, one of which was the Rocky Mountain Showdown against the Colorado State Rams. That game saw College Gameday arrive in Boulder for the first time since 1996.

However, the Buffaloes fell apart after that third game, losing all but one of their remaining contests to end the season 4-8, missing a bowl game.

But Coach Prime and Colorado bounced back in a major way in 2024, going 9-3 in the regular season and making the Alamo Bowl to face the then-No. 17 BYU Cougars. 

Although the Buffaloes lost that game, the season was a major success. Colorado saw its second Heisman Trophy winner in school history as wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter took home the award. Additionally, star quarterback Shedeur Sanders finished with 4,134 passing yards, the fourth-most in the nation.

But with the departures of their key players during the offseason, the Buffaloes’ roster was a shell of itself by Week 1 of 2025. That, combined with Sanders battling cancer during the offseason, led Colorado to a disappointing 3-9 record in 2025.

Josh Pate Doesn't Hold Back on Colorado

Despite an overall record of 16-21 during Coach Prime’s tenure, Pate believes it has been an overall success. In his opinion, the 2024 season alone was enough to secure that fact.

“I really think, the second season, going 9-4, was just a miracle,” Pate said. “If you had watched Colorado football for any length of time, for them to go 6-6 would’ve been a miracle…[Sanders] could go on the rest of his time there, not win another game, and he has vastly overachieved.

Pate’s claim tracks, as it took Colorado five seasons to win 16 games prior to Sanders’s arrival.

But this begs the question: why do most analysts and fans have a negative or disappointed view on Coach Prime’s tenure?

Pate answered that question by defining the term “the recalibration of expectation.” It is his way of describing how the expectation of a team in the public eye shifts based on results.

Well, after all the hype generated by Sanders’s arrival and the success of the 2024 season, Pate believes that too many people shifted the expectation on Coach Prime and the Buffs.

“The second season made everything worth it,” Pate said. “But then the second season also had a little poison pill because it set a trap…too many people recalibrated the expectation.” 

Colorado is gearing up for Sanders’s fourth year in the program, and with an overhauled roster from the lackluster 2025 season, there’s new hope for success in Boulder.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook for the latest news.