It's a wild time to be a college football coach this year as the likes of Billy Napier, James Franklin and Brian Kelly have been sacked by their respective schools amid their disappointing seasons. Could another high-profile name, Deion Sanders, be next?
Sanders is nearing the end of his third season at the helm of the Buffaloes and has earned just three wins in 2025, one year after his son Shedeur and Travis Hunter left for the pros. Following a respectable '24 campaign in which the Buffaloes went 9-4 before losing their fifth straight bowl game against BYU, some thought Sanders could actually turn Colorado's program around, having already lifted the school to national recognition by virtue of his fame alone.
But Sanders followed that up with a dud in '25 going 3-7 (and 1-6 in Big 12 play) with two games left in the season, and the Buffaloes are set to miss out on bowl eligibility for the second time in Sanders's up-and-down coaching tenure in Boulder.
In the wake of Colorado's woes, a fan posted a recent video of Sanders talking about why he's the "right man" for the job, and wrote in the caption that Sanders's seat was "getting hot." Colorado AD Rick George replied to the fan with a simple and blunt message:
"The seat is not hot," George wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
George added, "We believe in what is ahead for the this program."
The seat is not hot. We believe in what is ahead for this program. https://t.co/ZJqGgDiTYY
— Rick George (@RickGeorgeCU) November 18, 2025
In today's day and age when no coaching job arguably feels safe, Sanders can at least sleep easy knowing George has his full support. This past March, the Colorado coach inked a five-year, $54 million contract extension that runs through the 2029 season that would suggest he's around for the long haul; if fired without cause, Sanders would be owed roughly $33.6 million in his buyout, according to USA Today.
“Please understand, if anybody is built for adversity, I am," Sanders said in Tuesday's press conference. "If anybody is built for change, I am. If anybody is built to overcome situations and trials and tribulations, I am. You’ve got the right man. I promise you, you do. And I’m going to prove that to you."
It's worth noting that George, who has been the AD in Boulder since 2013, is stepping down at the end of the year, with no clear timeline at the moment for his replacement hire.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Colorado AD Addresses Deion Sanders’s Coaching Future With Simple Blunt Line.
