Calls Mount for Deion Sanders’ Immediate Firing After Colorado HC Kicks Out 3 Players From Roster
from Essentially College Football
For more than two years, Northwestern had been making do with a temporary home by Lake Michigan. Saturday was supposed to be its final football game there, a last memory before the Wildcats moved into their new $862 million Ryan Field. Instead, they left the old place with one of the loudest sendoffs possible: a 41-7 demolition of Colorado. Then, there was the detail that made the afternoon even more awkward for the Buffaloes.
Before kickoff, Colorado safety Ben Finneseth had been caught on video mocking Northwestern’s temporary stadium, calling it a “f***ing library.” By Tuesday, the joke had lost all of its bite. Finneseth was standing beside Deion Sanders, apologizing for what he called a childish and stupid remark, while Sanders talked about a different problem from Saturday night, players who could apparently still find something to laugh about after a 34-point loss. That was when Sanders revealed that several Colorado players were no longer on the team.
That sparked wild reactions across social media. One Colorado fan bluntly wrote, “Colorado needs to pull the plug from coach Prime.”
Sanders, though, did not present the dismissals as a reaction to one bad night. He said the problem had been building, and that he was unwilling to let it linger the way he believes it did a year ago.
“Those guys could tell you, I’m the most loving and giving and forgiving man you could ever meet,” he said during his press conference. “But when you start being conduct detrimental to the team, that would set us back, and things you’re doing that you don’t care about the team, you care about you, I have a problem with that.”
The distinction matters. Sanders specifically said, “It’s never one [thing],” and tied the decision to what he described as a broader standard for the program. He also connected it to last season, admitting, “A year ago, I didn’t put my foot down in it enough. It lingered a little bit. Then it imploded.”
That makes the move less about one viral video and more about Sanders trying to prevent another season from slipping away in the same fashion as 2025. Colorado went 3-9 last year after its 9-4 breakthrough in 2024, and Sanders made clear Tuesday that he does not intend to let problems inside the program sit unresolved again.
There was another telling moment at the same press conference. Linebacker Tyler Martinez acknowledged that losing teammates was difficult, but did not push back on Sanders’ decision. “When you look in the big picture, if it’s gonna help us win, we gotta do it,” Martinez said. Defensive back Randon Fontenette echoed that standard, saying that if someone is not living up to it, “you gotta address it.”
That player response gives the dismissals a different context from the social-media backlash. Inside the program, at least publicly, the message was about protecting the team rather than simply punishing players for the Northwestern loss. Sanders said some team leaders had even approached him about being proactive in identifying problems, asking, “Tell us who may be next on that list.”
Deion Sanders did not provide a number either. That left plenty of room for speculation about the program. A report from Uncle Neely on TMR LIVE put the number at three, while also stressing that the situation could still change.
“It’s three, but I wouldn’t be surprised to wake up tomorrow morning, and it’s two,” he said.
And that uncertainty is important. Colorado later told Pete Nakos that the potential roster changes had not been finalized, with the school saying an updated roster would be released later in the week. So while three has been reported, it should not yet be treated as Colorado’s final number.
What is clear is that Sanders is trying to draw a harder line after a season in which the Buffaloes repeatedly struggled to hold things together. The 2026 roster was already heavily rebuilt through the transfer portal, with Colorado bringing in more than 40 transfers, essentially replacing large portions of last year’s roster. That makes the current reset another layer in a program that has undergone constant turnover under Sanders.
Colorado is 2-1, but the Northwestern game was a gut punch. A program that had opened the season with a narrow win over Georgia Tech suddenly looked miles away from the team Deion Sanders wanted it to be. The Buffs committed four turnovers, failed on three fourth-down attempts, and gave up 41 points. Their offense managed 348 yards, but the game was effectively out of reach long before the final whistle.
And the loss was not merely ugly on the scoreboard. It was the fifth-worst defeat of Sanders’ Colorado tenure, while the Buffaloes have now suffered three losses of at least 34 points in their last eight games dating to last season. Northwestern also forced four turnovers and stopped Colorado on all three of its fourth-down attempts.
Yet Sanders did not place the entire burden on his players. He also said he was “taking full responsibility for what transpired” and promised to correct what went wrong. That matters when the conversation around the dismissals turns toward accountability: Sanders has publicly put responsibility on himself while simultaneously demanding more from the players and coaches around him.
Colorado finished 3-9 in 2025, and this is now Deion Sanders’ fourth season running the program. The Buffs are 18-22 during his tenure. The results have not matched the attention that followed him into Boulder, particularly after the spectacular turnaround and national spotlight of his first season.
That uneven run is the backdrop to the current frustration. Sanders went 4-8 in his first season, exploded to 9-4 in 2024 and then fell back to 3-9 last year. Colorado is now 2-1, meaning the Northwestern loss arrived just as the program was trying to show that 2025 was an aberration rather than the start of another slide.
Colorado also gave Deion Sanders a five-year, $54 million extension in 2025, keeping him under contract through 2029. There has been no announcement that his job is currently in danger. But that has not stopped the frustration from spilling into the open.
The contract also puts the current criticism in perspective. Colorado extended Sanders after the 9-4 2024 season, when the program had gone from 1-11 before his arrival to a nationally watched contender. There is no reported indication that the school is preparing to reverse course now, but the size and length of that commitment make the program’s current performance a much bigger conversation than one bad Saturday.
One fan dropped a blunt comment, “He should fire himself.” The reaction came after the Northwestern blowout and how quickly things can unravel at the players’ expense.
Colorado has now suffered three losses of at least 34 points in its last eight games dating back to last season. Then came another blunt prediction from a fan who added, “Lmfao, Deion will be gone in less than 4 months.”
There is no evidence that Colorado has set such a timeline. But fans are clearly starting to judge Deion Sanders through the results and his decisions. “Why is @DeionSanders still on the team?!” another fan asked.
Those reactions remain exactly that: fan reactions. There is no evidence of a four-month deadline or an announced move by Colorado to remove Sanders. What the backlash does show is how quickly the conversation around him has shifted from the players’ behavior to the coach’s responsibility for the program as a whole.
One more reaction took aim at Deion Sanders’ off-field business ventures. “Maybe focus on coaching instead of hawking fishing rods, sunglasses, depends, reality shows etc. Self-promotion and material lust is the antithesis of a pious man,” they wrote.
That criticism is separate from what Sanders actually said Tuesday. His own message was narrower: change the standards, address problems sooner and avoid allowing another season to implode.
Now comes the part Sanders cannot control with a press conference. Colorado opens Big 12 play at Baylor on Sept. 26, with the Buffaloes entering Waco at 2-1. The roster may still change before then, but the next test of Sanders’ reset will come with the players who remain on the field.