We should all be so lucky to find someone who believes in us like Mark Jones believes in Deion Sanders — even when the rankings don’t.
The ESPN play-by-play announcer has been a staunch defender of the Colorado Buffaloes’ head coach. When Sanders and the university barred Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler from asking questions, Jones claimed that Keeler crossed a line by attacking Sanders’s faith.
That was after a production meeting with the second-year Colorado coach, but there’s a relationship there. And Keeler wasn’t the only journalist Sanders clashed with in August. There was also a dispute with a local Colorado CBS Sports affiliate, with some suggesting it stemmed from editorial content.
CBS Sports had ranked Sanders as the second-worst head coach in the Big 12 and the 61st-best coach overall. Another article from the outlet labeled him more of an entertainer than a coach.
Phillip Dukes, who has a personal relationship with the Colorado coach, posted a different theory in a YouTube video, saying that Sanders was explicitly upset about a project or partnership that didn’t come to fruition. And Stephen A. Smith later gave further credence to this theory, reporting on his own volition that Sanders snubbed the local CBS affiliate for allegedly taking a story from a Black reporter.
While tensions have eased, Jones — and ESPN — revisited the CBS Sports rankings during Saturday’s Kansas-BYU game. With Mark Jones and Roddy Jones on the call, they scrutinized Sanders’ placement at No. 15. For context, Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, who led his Sun Devils to an upset win over No. 20 Kansas State that same day, ranked 16th — last on the list.
“They had Coach Prime at 15, Kenny Dillingham at 16,” Mark Jones said. “Those two guys have their teams in the thick of it right now, and they had (BYU Cougars head coach) Kalani Sitake at 11. They can get a do-over somewhere in the next year, maybe, because they missed on that one.”
“I’m not sure why you do that to yourself and rank the coaches,” Roddy Jones said. “They’re one good season away from looking like you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Deion Sanders at 15? Really?” Mark added.
ESPN shows a graphic on the Kansas-BYU broadcast of CBS Sports’ preseason rankings of the Big 12 head coaches.
“They had Coach Prime at 15!” – Mark Jones
“I’m not sure why you do that to yourself and rank the coaches.” – Roddy Jones
“Deion Sanders at 15? Really?” – Mark pic.twitter.com/xU5UyYqSES
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 17, 2024
Really.
And Jones isn’t alone in thinking the aforementioned list missed the mark — Colorado’s push for the College Football Playoff and a Big 12 Conference Championship speaks for itself.
[ESPN]
