Shedeur, Shilo Sanders give CU Buffs a ‘dog’ on both sides

BOULDER — Other than a four-week period when he was in the hospital in 2021, Deion Sanders can’t remember a game that someone other than him was coaching his youngest son, Shedeur Sanders.

Outside of Shilo Sanders' two years at South Carolina, the same goes for his middle son.

With Coach Prime on the sidelines, Shedeur at quarterback and Shilo at safety, the Sanders family affair has made a home in Boulder.

“That’s the way it’s always been,” Coach Prime said. “You guys are just getting an opportunity to see it. My kids have always been with me.”

The Sanders family has always been together and they’ve always won — everywhere they’ve been. But now, with a team built from the transfer portal and in a loaded Pac-12 conference, comes the toughest test.

Shedeur and safety Shilo will likely need to be at the forefront of CU's success.

From what everyone has been seeing and saying at fall camp, the Buffaloes are in good hands. 

“We have an absolutely elite, I’m talking about top-level quarterback,” Brewster said. “The challenge for us offensively is to meet him on his level, from an intellectual level (and) physically. I’ve been around a whole bunch of good quarterbacks (and) this guy right here is playing with confidence, poise, he processes extremely well. He’s doing an amazing job.”

The head coach is seeing the same thing.

“Shedeur can play the darn game, man,” Coach Prime said. “Shedeur is smart as a whip. We’ve gotta take advantage of that. He’s been very successful before he got here. We just gotta protect the kid. If we keep him upright, I can’t wait ‘til you see what he does, especially with the receivers.”

On the other side of the ball is Shilo, whose personality on the field most closely resembles Deion the player. Playing in the secondary and wearing his dad’s famous No. 21 certainly helps, but the most similar trait to Deion that Shilo possesses is his mentality.

“Shilo is a dog,” Coach Prime said. “Shilo is a leader of men. Shilo is not shy in his words, he’s practicing his butt off, he’s trying to hit everything he sees out there. I’m proud of him.”

It’s also when Shilo does off the field that has been impressive to the defensive coaching staff.

“Shilo’s got a great personality,” said defensive coordinator Charles Kelly, who also coaches the safeties. “He’s very mature (with) how he goes about his business. He really comes to prepare. He spends a lot of time on his own. He’s got a group of guys that he takes and they all meet together, so by the time I’m watching film with them in the afternoon, they already have watched the video so now they’re absorbing the corrections.”

Together, they might be the most competitive players on the field. They’ve each said how much they like talking trash to everyone on the other side of the ball and now, since Shilo arrived in the summer, they’re back to arguing just like they did as kids.

“We talk the most junk and cuss each other out before practice and all that,” Shilo said. “That’s what we like to do. Whenever he sees me, he knows that I'm like that and I know he likes competing too. It just raises the bar for both of us.”

Come Week 1 against TCU, there might not be a snap on offense or defense there isn’t someone with the last name Sanders on the field for.

Shoot, it’s worked everywhere else so far.

“We’ve got a lot of doubters, I don’t know why,” Shilo said. “We don’t have an underdog mindset. We just need to go out there and do what we do.

“We’re here to dominate. That’s how we’re thinking, that’s how we’re preparing. We’re not preparing just to win because that’s not really enough.”

King's predictions

Record: 4-8

Offensive MVP: QB Shedeur Sanders

Defensive MVP: CB Travis Hunter

Breakout player: RB Dylan Edwards