The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Big Noon Conversations: Deion Sanders talks picking Colorado, Louis luggage comments, NIL & more

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

In the first episode of The Joel Klatt Show: Big Noon Conversations, FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt is back in Boulder to sit down with Coach Prime. The two discuss why Colorado was the right choice for Sanders and how he feels about the criticism he’s received. They get into how Prime’s now-infamous “I’m bringing my luggage and it’s Louis” line originated before Coach shares the story of what happened right after that meeting. Coach Prime also reveals what he likes and doesn’t like about the transfer portal and NIL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you surprised by the reaction from the outside of what people are saying about the exodus? No, not whatsoever because it's always been that way. I'm used to that. I'm accustomed to adversity. I'm accustomed to having an understanding ridicule. Most influential people in the sport talking about the sport globally. This time on the Joel Clatchezzo's Big Noon Conversations, I talked to Coach Prime about why he picked Colorado. Coach Prime.

Yes, sir. Thank you for being here, man. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This has been a really fun series to go around and talk with what I consider to be the most influential people in college football. I'm honored. Absolutely.

I'm honored. Absolutely. Now, to some degree, I should say like, welcome, because this is my home in a lot of regards. This is your house. Not my house, but I remember when I was, shoot, man, I was five, six years old, my dad bringing me and sitting me in the North stands here at Folsom for my first college game. That's why I fell in love with college football. That love has continued.

You know, it's why I love my job so much. It's unbelievable, man. Wanted to play here. So I know why I love this place. I'm interested just to hear, like, why Colorado? Why are you here? Why not? Why not?

First of all, our beloved A.D., Rick George gave me a tremendous opportunity. He laid something in front of me and I saw candidly a need. I'm a need to be needed type person. I'm sorry, I'm going to say it, I said it, okay? You showed me a need, I got you. That's right. You show me you don't need me? I got you still.

I won't be around. That was a tremendous need, a tremendous want, a tremendous desire of excellence. I love that. I love that challenge. That's what wakes me up in the morning. That's what gets me going. That's what makes me, you know, start moving and bouncing.

That here goes an opportunity for another challenge. Why do you think I went from Atlanta to San Francisco, San Francisco to Dallas? It's a challenge, man. I thrive on that type of stuff, and I love it. And he gave me this opportunity, and I took it and ran with it. You know, it's fascinating from my seat because I evaluate teams. I know what Colorado was. You know what I mean?

Here's the thing. I don't think a lot of people do. Yes, they do. Well, they see the record, right? They see one in 11, but there's other teams that had one win. They don't know what this was, man. They do. They just want to take a shot at me, and I'm good with that.

They do. They know what it was. But this is their opportunity to take a shot. But they better, they better shoot now. Sure. Because in a moment, you're not going to be able to shoot. This is a program that was 1-11, lost those 11 games by 29 points by average, 29.

Yeah. The next closest in the Power 5, by the way, was Northwestern. Right. 14 points. I mean, doubled them up. Right. And so when I saw what was happening, I thought to myself, good, all right, this is what needs to happen.

This is what the rules allow in your first year as a coach. You've got to turn over the roster. That's absolutely right. First, I was the genesis coming in. And now there's exodus. There you go. There you go. Are you surprised by the reaction from the outside of what people are saying about the exodus?

No, not whatsoever because it's always been that way. Even when I was starting out in sports, I was the one that was not voted most likely to succeed, undersized, this and that. It was always a problem. It was always always that until I got it then did it. Then, oh, oh, oh, we knew all along. He was going to, no, you didn't stop. So I'm used to that. I'm accustomed to adversity.

I'm accustomed to having an understanding ridicule and disbelief. From my seat, I think it's like almost like a prime effect. And the prime effect is that those that want to see you fail, everything that happens, they're going to take and make it a 10. So they're going to multiply everything that they say and do by a 10. And then there are people that also think everything that you do is, the best and they're going to multiply it by 10. So everything that happens, every bit of coverage that you get or have gotten now that you're at Colorado

has been multiplied by 10 one way or the other. True. To me, that's the prime. Somewhat. Yeah. You can say that, but some of it is without reason or understanding or intelligence of the matter. When the president gets the seat of being the president, what happens to the cabinet? He enacts his agenda, right?

So what am I doing? That's no different than any CEO or any person of standard of status that have claimed this position. I got to get it right. The problem is I value now so much that I ain't looking at yesterday and I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. Now. So my feeling and my thought and my understanding is I got to get it right now. Let's go get it now.

By the way, that's what the rules are built for that. Your first year, you can turn over like this. We did this before. Next year you can't. Right. So I'm interested to, and I know that, listen, you've got a lot, you know, you want to be where your feet are, you want to be now. Right. But as you start projecting over and you start looking at the 24 class, what will it look like moving forward?

Because it won't look like this. It bet not, because that mean we missed. Right. That mean we didn't assess talent properly. And we've missed on a few young men that we brought in with us. but they forgot to point it out that we got rid of them too because we missed we were wrong sometimes you gotta say okay I'm wrong okay we missed

and let's go get it right so now when we talk about smart tough fast discipline with character we mean that we don't need two out of five this ain't baseball okay I was gonna say I'll take two out of five I bet with baseball no this ain't baseball can't get two out of five we got to get it right So we're getting it right. And we're getting the type of kids that we want

and the type of kids that want to go to the next level, want to get a good education, and are humble in the point that, hey man, you guys got the blueprint, you guys are the navigational system. Take us where you want us to go. We've assumed those type of kids and they can flat out play.

And I can't wait to the public see them get down. I mean, take us into like, what do you think your team? will look like, feel like the identity of your team. Smart, tough, fast, disciplined with character. I walked into that. We're going to go get their ball, man. Like, people made a big stink out of who we let go,

but not a big stink out of who we brought in. You can start looking at really did eyeballing who we brought in and what they bring to the table. See, now there's competition at practice. forget offense versus defense I'm talking about versus the rush

ends the inside guys the linebacks you got to compete to even get on the darn field the secondary everybody

is six foot and above at the cornerbacks position that long arms jump out in the gym very athletic

and can house that thing if they get it safety's physical versatile cover the slot but they're bangers

not only that they can cover in their ball geters they go get the ball the receiving course is ridiculous

ridiculous. I'm excited about them. But then we got guys to block for him. There's only two guys in this whole organization that gets the record and their last name is Sanders. That's true. So we got to make sure

we take care of that one back there with the ball. That's right. And when we do that, he's going to make it necessary read the proper throws because he's very accurate. He's always been his old during life. And we're going to get some things none because we have those little intangibles that's going to make it work.

It's very rare that you have really good talent and a really good coaching staff and you don't win. Think about that. I have seen no one to disagree about the level of the coaching staff. So why would you find fault in the way we're going about acclaiming the kids? But you said, nothing about me assembling the coaching staff. So I'm good at that and not good of that? That's assuming the coaches have is harder than the kids. 100%.

That's what I'm talking about. 100%. Right. There's no way we're going to have this and not that. I would say though, you know, because I grew up around here, played here, and forever, forever. And remember now, this place has had one winning Senate season in two decades. Yeah, we know. Forever.

People are like, oh, it's tough to recruit here. Not to recruit. There's not a local recruiting. You gotta be kidding me, man. Well, that's, so what's been the experience? Are you kidding? Are you kidding? Are you kidding? What's been your experience? Right now, pretty tonia.

We've been probably, I would say 95%. You get a kid here. It's a rap. Yeah. And we don't have none for sale. We ain't selling nothing. We ain't selling you no dream or no vision. We ain't selling nothing.

It is what it is. I'm too honest and straightforward to be selling you anything. thing. When they get here, it's a rap. It's no way you can look out the windows of our offices and see how beautiful the mountains are, the landscaping, and the university and just the city, the just, it's the weather. It's no way you have to sell this place. It sells itself. I don't understand how you can say that. Not only that, I think we have, we're closing in on 20 young men from Florida. I love my Florida boys. That's right.

Okay. So in the south, the south, we love that part of the country. That's where all the players are at. Let's just say this. Who won't a national championship last year, Georgia? Who won't a year for that Georgia? Who won't a year for that Alabama? Who won't a year for that Clemson?

I may be wrong. I may be right, right. Where is that located? In the south. Well, we're talking about the South. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

But we, hey, I love. love my guys from another side of the country as well. And we couldn't say that one, that one, that one, that one, that one, that one, that one, that one from another side of the country, let's go. Have you been pleasantly surprised when you get those kids from Florida, from the south, and you get them from Texas? You know, I know you were in Texas for a long time as well coaching high school football. When you get them up here, are.

They're surprised like I am. Wait, wait, this is great. They're surprised like I was. First of all, man, I ain't never traveled nowhere. I've never been nowhere. I've only punched, I think, my passport maybe twice in my whole life. I'm a worker. I'm a home buddy.

I played baseball out here. You know, played football, I think, once against the Broncos. I've never journeyed here, been on vacation, seeing this kind of stuff. So the first walking in the snow snow, my first time was here. Once I got here, just seeing the mountains, I've never, never. Honestly, never. I never wanted a vacation on this. the country. I'm in Florida, who lives in Texas.

But seeing this and getting the opportunity to go to Vail and the views on the way there, I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. So you mean to tell me, Lord, I've missed all this time? What was wrong with me? Am I stupid?

What is wrong with me? So it's unbelievable and refreshing, man. And being able to tell some our Florida boys from our kids from the South, like, you've got to experience a whole other side of the country to really experience life. Yeah.

Because if not, you just, you're just drinking just a half of a cup, man. Yeah. I want to go back to one of your previous answers. You talked about assembling a great staff, which you have. You talked about assembling great talent, which you are doing currently. And that's active and ongoing. I would say, I think that there are questions about assembling a culture. What is a culture?

Well, you tell me. No, no, give me the definition. Everybody brings it up. When I was at Jackson over the last several years, they always talked about a culture. Let's explain what that means. And everybody's understanding of culture is different. I would explain culture.

Now, listen, I was raised by a Marine, was in Vietnam. He was also a high school football coach. The culture for me is the standard. There you go. And the standard is always going to be. what everyone has to reach for. Your definition is totally different than the definition where I just came from.

I love your definition. Thank you. Beautiful. And when you're talking about Marines and all that, that means you grow up with a lot of structure. That's right. That means you had to be early, not on time. That means it had to be like this, or it wasn't going to be. Shoes shine.

Exactly. Pointed in the right direction. That's right. So I love that. When I think about culture, I think of the way of life. Like I only know how to do things one way. And that's with every darn thing I got.

With everything I got in it. And to give unconditionally, to love without fault, and to want what's ever the best. That's it for me. And we make no excuses. We make no excuses. A bunch of like-minded men who want to get their education, who want to play with them,

pro football and want to win to me that's that's a coach yeah that's what we're building that that's the direction that we're going one one kid asked me coach uh with all these new young men coming how long you think it's going to take for us to get on one page i said it's a great question son did you ask your high school coach that no he did i say when you go pro are you going to ask your pro coach that because they get draft choices every for ages every year so it's virtually probably 40% of new team every year 30 maybe they don't do they only do that in college I say so it's not like that we have June July and August to get on the same page about the time September rolls around and we go down

to Fort Worth no when I say let's the rest of the team gonna say go we're going to be adamant about every darn thing that we have in tech at that point in time. I love that you brought up that game. And you're referring to your first game. It's going to be against the team that lost to Georgia in the national championship game, TCU. By the way, it's official. I'll be there. Gus will be there.

Big noon kickoff is going to be there. That game's going to be on Fox. Our premium window. And let's face it, like our premium window is going to be because of you. You know, and all the respect to TCU. Yeah, I'm not going to say that. I know you are. I will, though.

Like, I can say that. People all over are interested. They want to see. They want to know, feel, touch what's going to happen. I want that. I love that. I embraced that. I engulfed that.

I envision that. I expect that. Why wouldn't I? I'm a winner. Why wouldn't I? Why would I want? our kids on the largest stage in college football on that weekend. Why wouldn't I?

That's what they want. They want to be seen. They want to be heard. They want the light. They want the ooves and the awes. They want the claps. They want all that. And if they don't, you don't want them.

Exactly. I ain't built like that, man. A lot of coaches, you know, they give players offers. I tell us to have to offer a kid unless we want him. Because he's going to mess around and accept. We better want it. You better want it. All right.

And we don't want no one in that locker room that ain't like-minded. They got to want that moment. And they got to be ready to seize that moment and an opportunity, man. A lot of people are going to, well, and I think, again, there are people that they believe that this is just going to, like, overnight. What do you mean by it? You win a national championship overnight. What? What not think like that?

Listen. I would love to think like that. Why not think like that? I also know in my profession, coach, I know that a plus four or five in the wind column is a drastic improvement. Not for me. I don't think like that, man. I want it all. I don't want a sip.

Maybe I want it all. I want to get full. I don't want a sip. I don't want one spoon. Give me it all. Man, I don't need no pot pie where I got to put it in the oven for 45 minutes to take it out and poke. the holes and blow on it for another 15 minutes and wait to it cool off. Ain't got time for that process.

I want it now and I want it all. And I feel like we're assembling the type of young men in the staff to have it. I really do. I really do. So when we see you that opening week on Big Noon kickoff, you think you've got a team that can go down there and compete rather? I don't think. I know.

Yes. Yes. You guys think about what is the commonality that all the teams that went to the playoffs had last year? The one big, the one major thing. They had talent. Yeah. Didn't they have a quarterback? They had a quarterback. We got that. What's the second thing? You could just pick and choose anything. I was going to, I mean, listen, they all play so great on the line of scrimmage.

There you go. There you go. And they had athletes that was relentless. That wanted it and wanted to go get it. Length. Their physical. They could run. Athletic.

Athletic. Yes. That's what we brought into the house. So if we didn't see that, we opened the doors of the church. Said having a good Sunday. Hallelujah. God bless you. See you later.

This is the room, by the way. We're in the room. room where your first, listen, you've gone viral a lot. We don't try. I know you, I know you don't try. We're just being who we are. This one was the first one here at Colorado. You come in, you do the press conference.

The press conference was, I'd say, lots of energy. Lots of energy at the press conference. I mean, you could just feel it, even just watching it. And then you came down and you staring at all these faces. And a lot of those faces, by the way, ain't here anymore. We told him that. And that's, and you. Did we laugh?

You gave the line. And that line has become, I mean, almost infamous in and of itself. I'm bringing my luggage and it's Louis. Take me into the line. Did I lie? I don't rehearse this stuff. I was going to say, was it rehearsed? No, I don't rehearse nothing.

It just happens. Like, I'm in front of these kids every day and I give them a morning word or inspiration or something that I need them to identify and try to improve on. No. not whatsoever. You got to understand the thought process of that. Like I'm honest, man, to a fault. I mean, I'm honest. I'm going to say what I feel and I'm going to feel what I say. Now,

leaving this room, I went into the individual's position of the room. I walked into this one room and they had music playing. It's your first time meeting me. I just get finished telling you, I'm breaking my Louis. I go into this one room, music is playing. I said, excuse me, what is this? Coach, we are always bringing the broombox

into our position meeting room. I said, have you lost your mind? If you ever bring music into one of my means, I promise you we would never see each other again in life. That's what I walked out of this room. what I walked out of this room into. We always do that. Cell phone out, on the phone.

That's the kind of junk. That was going on. Yeah. And I get rid of that, and you got a problem? They have no idea what was going on in this mess with that kind of foolishness. They just build a narrative. After I just got finished challenging you as young,

men telling you this room right here would not be the room we go to Fort Worthwood. I promise you that. It's going to be a lot of changes. It's up to you. It's up to you to be one of those changes. And you gave it to me. You put it on a tee. You did short toss with me.

In the cage. You went outside corner of the cage. Oh, my God. So then you get in the portal. No one's been as active as you in the portal. No one's been as successful. as you in the poor, you know, and I'm going transfer class. So, in...

We did the same thing in Jackson, my man, but it was Jackson. Well, no. And they didn't give it that type of credit and that type of attention, but we did the same thing. I'm more interested, just overarching, okay, not specific to Colorado or the portal in college football. Free agency. Would you change anything about it? Yeah, there's some details about it. I would probably change.

but I like it I like it now I'm built a little different I'm old school I was raised and taught we're gonna make it work I'm not going to duck and dodge

and leave if I can't beat this guy out I'm gonna beat him out eventually we weren't built like that now hey man if you're dissatisfied just getting the portal just go now we got to do our homework to wonder, find out why you went.

Sure. What was that detail? What was inside of you that provoked you to leave? And is that still in you? Because if something don't happen right, are you going to leave again? Like, we got to figure out that, the intellect part of that

and understand smart, tough, fast this man. Yeah. With character. We got to really hone down and then ask you some real questions that may make you uncomfortable. To see if the fits right. There you go.

So then NIL as well. NIL. is not a problem with me. Collectors are. Let's talk about NAL. Name, image, and likeness. What kid out of high, let's just take care of high school part first, that is notable enough that a CEO of a major company is going to lay it on the line for a kid that ain't nobody know. Not many. There you go. So it's not NIL. It may be four guys in all of college football that we've seen on a commercial nationally. We happen to have probably two of them here.

Okay, Shador and Travis, NIL. They're killing it. Collectives, you could be Tom, Dick, Harry, and Larry, and you just put a bag together. Boosters or whatever, or whatever, whoever does it, and try to solicit these kids to come to your university. Who is that helping? I want the kid to get compensated.

I want him to be straight. by all means. But you got to balance the fine line. Is he still going to want it like that when you've just given him that and he didn't have to earn it? I wish it was a kind of a way to measure your ability in what you bring to the table. Yeah. Before. Before. And I have no problem whatsoever.

And I'm with you on that. I think that the inducement side of NIL is, it's not good for the sport. And I don't think it's good for the kids either. It might be getting a little bit of money. It ain't NIL. Collectives. It's collectives. There you go.

It's the inducement. There you go. The inducement to come to the place or the tampering in the portal. And I don't know if there's got agents, man. Like these kids got not only agents, they got the homies who's represent them, who's just trying to use them and playing them. They don't go to the school that they should. go to. They don't even ask questions about the defense or the offense or the scheme or the personnel or how you're going to use me. What am I going to get out? That's what you're going to get out.

You know what I'm saying? If that's your prerogative, your first thing, I don't want you. I want you to chase that NFL bag. Yeah, that's the real one. I want you. That's what's going to sustain you. This may maintain you for whatever. And now, Everybody is, it's crazy now, man. It's crazy. It really is. Although you say four or five guys in college that are on national ads, you know, I can think of a guy back in the 80s that would have been on national ads. It would have been nice.

You would have done really well. It would have been nice. But I had the game. You had the game. See, right now they put in the bag before the game. The game has to come before the bag. All right. We want to give it to you when you bought.

I wouldn't mind if it was play, like, objectives. Sure. Yeah. Almost contractual. There you go. Then you'll know. Performance bonuses, things of that nature. Yeah.

Most definitely. I would like that involved. Because I want them to be happy. I want them to be comfortable. I don't want them to be filthy rich. Yeah. I'm not going to lie to you. Because I don't want that taken away from this.

Because I want you to, longevity, man, I want you to get that NFL bag. I want you to get that Jalen Hertz bag, man. You know, that Lamar Jackson bag. I want you to get that. I want you to get to that point or even a quarter of that point. Well, as you know, that hunger and that drive that you're talking about, that fire deep, that has to burn for a while. Because that bag doesn't show up until you're four years in the NFL.

That's right. So it's not just what you get when you come in as a high school player or a transfer into college. You got to then get drafted, then you got to go and you got. You got to play for five, six, and seven years. Yes. Consistently. And be on your way up. You can't be on your way down.

You got to be on your way up because either you're coming and going in this world. It's one of the other. You either coming or you're going. We're coming. I was going to let you say. Oh, that was a good setup, wasn't it? We coming. It was.

Hey, one of the things I've really loved watching is the documentary. You know, Coach Prime, on Prime. Tell me what we can expect of, you know, the next season and the next iteration. I think it's bigger, better. The storylines that I know already with some of the kids that we've attained, it's unbelievable. You know, just following the journey, following some of our guys that came over from Jackson to see the difference thereof. Shador, of course, he's our quarterback.

Travis, what he's going to shoot. We got some receivers that out of this world, but they came from situations that is going to blow your mind. I mean, blow your mind. Like Jimmy Horn, man, when you hear about what he's come through to get to. And it's so many different storylines that even with some of the coaches, I came with for you, the country to meet Sal. The line coach, man. Sal is a national treasure. I have to hug him every day because he just brings so much joy.

And it's no matter. You don't know what he's going to say when he coaches his butt off. And he has the blueprint to success in the NFL as a defense alignment. And it's going to be intriguing because you got to understand the crowd's a bigger. Everywhere we're going to go, it's going to be sold out. Sure. You know that. Even at home now.

And I'm excited, man. I really am. Well, shoot. As a buff, I'm excited as well. Although I got to tell you, if I was sitting in the room, I was just a walk-on, right? I left baseball coming as a walk-on. Your Louis would have replaced me. When I heard that, I was like, man, I would have been one of those guys that I would have been on my way out.

You just had to go get it. That's right. You know what? We have a camp next week, a couple weeks from now, walk-on and junior college kids. We have over 300 kids, man. Love it. So they're gonna be one or two in there and guess what I'm gonna do you'll find them and guess what I'm gonna do for him I'm gonna give him scholarships on the spot I love it because I've held something back

for him so that's what you get when you make those changes because I already knew what I was gonna do down the street everybody don't understand the vision I've been you know a lot like you I played baseball you know and I've done a lot of cool things in my career not obviously like you but I will tell you this one of the most proud days of my life other than becoming a father of my life was the day I earned my scholarship. That's it. Because I had done it with those guys. They had seen it. They had seen the work.

They had seen everything that went in. So I love that. I can't wait to see them because you got to realize the numbers out of 300 kids. You don't think we're going to find five or six that can flat out go. We already know what we're looking for. But just to have the attraction for 300 kids to come and our youth camps are always a thousand and everywhere we go is it's crazy we loved it yeah it's a tremendous challenge but we love it well i'm excited for it i really am and i appreciate you ain't too hard to find isn't that what the

shirt is that's what the ain't hard to find isn't that's what the shirt says i'll see you in fort worth man i can't wait all right i'm telling you i'm going to have a swag out of this world when you see me i get you better because by that time i'm going to see i beat i have i would have been seen the blueprint of what's going transpire i can't wait appreciate your time thank you both Thank you. Thank you, everybody.