Deion Sanders has never been short on attention. The wins haven't always followed, and the latest national ranking makes that pretty clear.

The Sporting News released its rankings of all 138 college football coaches on June 10, and Sanders landed at No. 54 overall, a steep fall from No. 39 a year ago.

The ranking comes down to one thing. Sanders is 16-21 overall through three seasons in Boulder. He is coming off a disappointing 3-9 season.

Going by the Sporting News rankings, Sanders is below rival Big 12 head coaches like Arizona State Sun Devils' Kenny Dillingham, who is at No.30, and BYU Cougars' Kalani Sitake, who is at No.22.

Sanders has been dealing with outside noise all offseason and addressed it directly.

"Some of our past players have been commenting on us, and that's cool with me," Sanders said as posted by Dov Kleiman on April. "We're not gonna be provoked or coming back or say anything ignorantly back."

Last season backs up the criticism. Colorado went 1-8 in the Big 12, a huge step back from the 9-4 season before it. According to Sports Reference, Colorado ranked No. 116 in 2025 college football team offense, averaging 328.4 yards, as it was on its third offensive coordinator in four years.

Sanders landed just ahead of North Carolina Tar Heels' Bill Belichick at No. 56 and Baylor Bears' Dave Aranda at No. 55. He finished one spot behind Syracuse Orange's Fran Brown at No. 53.

However, this is not new for the Colorado head coach. Sanders took over a team that went 1-11 the year before he got there. His 4-8 debut in 2023 got treated like a stepping stone at the time as the team started 3-0, including an upset over TCU, and sold out every single home game for the first time in program history.

As Sanders walks into the 2026 season with a No.54 ranking, he is already showing potential for a turnaround.

Colorado rebuilt its coaching staff after the 2025 collapse

The 2025 season did not just damage the record. It took out most of the staff with it. Defensive coordinator Robert Livingston left for the Denver Broncos, and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur was demoted to quarterbacks coach.

Sanders responded by bringing in former Sacramento State head coach Brennan Marion to run the offense, with Chris Marve stepping into the defensive coordinator role.

Whether that overhaul translates into wins is the real test. Besides the coaching roster, Sanders has already been showing improvement in the players' roster.

As per On3's 2027 Football Team Recruiting Rankings, Colorado has landed 18 commitments. With this, the Buffaloes have surpassed their previous high of 17 commits under Sanders from the 2023 recruiting class.

With all these changes, do you think Sanders can bounce back from this ranking with a strong 2026 season? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Farheen Fathima

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar