Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders walks the sidelines as his team takes on the ASU Sun Devils at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe on Oct. 7, 2023. Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

What Deion Sanders, Bill Belichick Have In Common As College Football Head Coaches

Originally posted on Colorado Buffaloes on SI
By Jack Carlough | Last updated Sep 1, 2025 3:30 PM ET

They may differ in certain aspects, but Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders and new North Carolina Tar Heels leader Bill Belichick still have plenty in common as college football's two most notable head coaches.

As Belichick prepares for his UNC debut on Monday evening against the TCU Horned Frogs — the same team "Coach Prime" beat in his CU debut two years ago — ACC commissioner Jim Phillips likened the two head coaches in terms of television viewership. Colorado averaged 3.86 million viewers per game during last year's regular season, and Belichick's Tar Heels will likely be around that same number in 2025 if they earn enough national television nods.

Jim Phillips Compares Bill Belichick to Deion Sanders

"It's a little like the Deion thing at Colorado," Phillips said of Belichick, per ESPN. "He grabs your attention. It's made for television."

Unlike Colorado's first season under "Coach Prime," two of North Carolina's first three games won't be on national television. The Tar Heels will face TCU on ESPN Monday night before battling Charlotte on ESPN+ in Week 2 and Richmond on the ACC Network the following week.

The 73-year-old Belichick led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl wins from 2000 to 2023 but is now taking on an entirely different beast in the college game. With countless NCAA rules to follow, Belichick must navigate high school recruiting, NIL (name, image and likeness) and the transfer portal.

NFL Mindsets

Sanders and Belichick both have extensive connections in the NFL that they've now leveraged into their respective college programs. Along with Sanders, Colorado's coaching staff features two other Pro Football Hall of Famers in pass rush coordinator Warren Sapp and running backs coach Marshall Faulk. Several other assistants also played or coached in the NFL before joining Sanders' staff.

Belichick's staff may not be as littered with NFL greats, but he's also marketing UNC as a professional-minded program.

Upon his hire, Belichick immediately pushed a new tagline for Tar Heels football. They would be "the 33rd NFL team" and those early days included an influx of professional know-how, from (North Carolina general manager Mike) Lombardi to former Patriots nutritionist Josh Grimes and Moses Cabrera, Belichick's longtime strength and conditioning guru.ESPN's David Hale and Andrea Adelson

Oddly enough, Cabrera was an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Colorado in 2010 under coach Dan Hawkins.

Brett Yormark On Deion Sanders

Similar to Phillips and Belichick, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is in full support of Sanders' work at Colorado.

“I love the direction of the program and what he's building here, and it's become very foundational,” Yormark told Leo Rivera of Sko Buffs Sports. “There's only one place to go in that’s up. So I’m very excited about the future.”

This article first appeared on Colorado Buffaloes on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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