Fire Deion Sanders And Colorado Loses 90% Of Team Warns Superbowl Champ

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Super Bowl champion James Jones warns that firing Deion Sanders will cause a massive roster collapse at Colorado. Jones stated the team would lose 90 percent of its players if the coach is let go. This would send the program back to being awful and irrelevant. The Buffaloes are struggling now, but the cost of change is too high.

The Warning From a Champion

James Jones knows what it takes to win. He played nine seasons in the NFL and won a Super Bowl ring with the Green Bay Packers. He led the league in receiving touchdowns in 2012. Now he is speaking up for the Colorado Buffaloes. He sees the anger in the stands and he sees the panic on social media. But he says the fans are wrong to call for the coach’s head. Jones believes the university would lose almost its entire team if they fire Sanders.

He made his point clear and direct. “I HATE when people are not grateful. Before he got there, what were y’all? If you FIRE him, you gonna lose 90% of that team, and you are going to go back to being AWFUL,” Jones said, according to Yahoo Sports. The numbers back up his fear. Colorado has added around 169 transfers since Sanders arrived in 2023. About 167 players have left the program. That is a lot of movement. Most of those players came because they wanted to play for Prime. If Prime is gone, they will leave too.

Jones also pointed to the money in the seats. The stadium was packed before Sanders. Now it is packed because of him. The ticket sales are up. The national attention is huge. All of that excitement would vanish if the coach is fired. Jones called it the “stupidest decision to let Prime go.” He is not the only one saying this. Former NFL star LeSean McCoy agrees. McCoy said the fans should give the coach some grace. He reminded everyone that Colorado was irrelevant before Sanders arrived.

A Rough Start to the Season

The mood in Boulder is not happy right now. The Buffaloes have lost three straight games. Overall standing fell to 2-3 with a 0-2 record inside Big 12 competition. The latest loss was a 29-7 home defeat to No. 12 Texas Tech on Saturday. The team held a 7-3 lead at halftime. But they gave up 26 unanswered points after the break. It was a bad second half. Four turnovers and two missed field goals killed their chances.

Deion Sanders did not hide from the reality of the loss. He told reporters the score was not good enough. “We’ve been horrible, don’t sugarcoat it,” Sanders said after the game, according to Yahoo Sports. He did not want to make excuses. “Seven points? You’re not gonna win. Not gonna win. Don’t sugarcoat it no more. Just tell it what it is.” The offense is struggling mightily. They rank 124th in the nation in scoring. That is a very low number. The quarterback position is the main problem.

Two years ago, Colorado signed five-star quarterback Julian Lewis. He was supposed to be the successor to Shedeur Sanders. The plan looked great on paper. But Lewis was benched two weeks ago in a loss to Baylor. He was replaced by Isaac Wilson. Wilson has not done much better. Through two weeks, he has two touchdowns and three interceptions. He has completed only 56.3 percent of his passes. The quarterback room is a mess. Sanders alluded to this being the main issue but did not name names directly.

Sanders was asked about the benching of Lewis. He gave a cryptic answer that hinted at behind-the-scenes issues. “I’d love for Julian Lewis to come here and tell you what happened,” Sanders said, according to Yahoo Sports. He refused to say more. “I didn’t bench him. It didn’t happen like that. Julian Lewis didn’t play, so I won’t go there. I’m not going to say anything derogatory about the kid.” This lack of clarity makes fans nervous. They want answers about who will start next Saturday.

The Money Keeps Sanders in Boulder

Even if the fans want a change, the money might stop it. A five-year, $54 million contract extension belongs to Deion Sanders. It runs through 2029. If Colorado fires him before the end of 2026, they owe him a huge buyout. The buyout is $25.5 million. Some reports say the figure could be as high as $26.6 million if fired without cause before December 31, 2026. That is a lot of cash to pay for a coach who is on a hot seat.

Most analysts say a midseason firing is unlikely because of this cost. Athletic director Fernando Lovo holds the power, but he cannot just throw away millions. Rather than a direct firing, Sports Illustrated anticipates a mutual resignation post-season. The team might wait until the season ends to make a move. The schedule does not get easier either. Colorado plays No. 12 Utah next Saturday. Then they face No. 18 Oklahoma State on Oct. 24. The path to a winning season is steep.

The history of the program shows why the money matters. Sanders arrived in 2023 and turned a 1-11 team into a national story. The team went 4-8 that first year, but the excitement was real. In 2024, the wins caught up to the hype. Travis Hunter claimed the Heisman Trophy as Colorado finished 9-4. That was the peak. However, Shedeur Sanders and Hunter departed for the NFL last year. The foundation looked thinner. Suffering seven losses in the final eight contests, the Buffs fell to 3-9 in 2025. Now the same worries are back.

Can the Turnover Model Survive?

Colorado has been the most active program in college football for roster management. They bring in transfers and send them out at a fast pace. Four years saw an annual average of 42 transfer ins and 42 transfer outs. This model worked well when Shedeur and Travis were there. But it is hard to keep that going without star players. The constant change makes it hard to build a stable team culture.

Critics say the model is broken. They point to the quarterback carousel as proof. Since Shedeur left, the Buffs have cycled through multiple quarterbacks. Last year they used three. This year they have already used two. The lack of a reliable passer is hurting the whole team. “That’s the position that’s somewhat disabling us and disarming us,” Sanders told reporters. He knows the position is the problem. He said, “Somebody’s got to step up and take hold of it and get it done.”

Paul Finebaum, a well-known college football analyst, has a darker view. He said the team is taking on water. Finebaum believes the program is running out of time to save itself. He noted that the last image of a bad season was a quarterback throwing a pick-six in his own end zone. “When the last image of a program’s last breath is your quarterback in his own end zone throwing a pick six, it’s over,” Finebaum said. He thinks the move to Colorado was a mistake that felt too far from the coach’s core base.

Despite the criticism, the coach says he expects a win. He insists the score does not show who the team really is. “The score is not indicative of who these guys are and who we are,” he said. But fans are tired of hearing that. They want to see the team play better. The bye week gives them time to rest and fix the issues. The next game against Utah will be a tough test. If the team loses again, the pressure will grow even more. But as long as the contract stands, Sanders is likely to stay.

James Jones summed up the situation best. He said the fans should look at what they had before. “People on TV talk about Colorado. Why is that? Deion Sanders, man. Coach Prime,” Jones said. He argued that no one else could do what Sanders has done for the kids and the university. He asked for patience. The roster might be shaky, but the brand is strong. Firing the coach could break the brand and lose the players. That is a risk the school might not be willing to take.

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