Colorado HC Deion Sanders teases Pittsburgh HC Pat Narduzzi after stealing prospects from the Panthers

Colorado coach Deion Sanders arrived in the FBS in 2022 in flashy fashion. He went about stamping his authority on a program that had gone 1-11 the previous season by encouraging players to enter the transfer portal in a clip that went viral. Predictably, not everyone was happy with Sanders' methods and one of those people was Pittsburgh Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi, who criticized Sanders.

During the Colorado media days, the charismatic Coach Prime showed that he had not forgotten the criticism by trolling the Panthers coach. The Buffs acquired talented defensive linemen Samuel Okunlola and Dayon Hayes from the transfer portal via Pittsburgh.

Deion Sanders cheekily thanked Narduzzi for developing the prospects for the Buffaloes.

“First of all I want to digress a bit and thank the head coach of Pittsburgh for really preparing those young men for us,” Sanders said. “He did a great job. I love those two young men. They’re really great players and they’re gonna be pros … Thank you Pittsburgh. I appreciate everything. God bless you.”

Last year in an interview with 247Sports, Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi was critical of the rate and manner in which Colorado players were leaving the program via the transfer portal after the arrival of Deion Sanders.

"That's not the way it's meant to be," Narduzzi said. "That's not what the rule intended to be. It was not to overhaul your roster. We'll see how it works out but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country. The reflection is on one guy right now but when you look at it overall — those kids that have moms and dads and brothers and sisters and goals in life.

"I don't know how many of those 70 that left really wanted to leave or they were kicked in the butt to get out."

How Deion Sanders shocked CFB with his roster flip

In a viral clip posted by his son Deion Sanders Jr.'s channel, "Well Off Media," Coach Prime's first meeting with his Colorado team involved him telling the players that he intended to bring his own players.

By the end of the cull, 50 players had entered the transfer portal, a process that has repeated itself over the subsequent portal windows. In an interview with CBS '60 Minutes,' Deion Sanders explained his methods.

"You take a team that's won one game, and you fire the whole coaching staff. … So, who did the coaching staff recruit? The kids. So, the kids are just as much to blame as the coaching staff," Sanders said. "And I came to the conclusion that a multitude of them couldn't help us get to where we wanted to go."

Deion Sanders got a free hit last season as he settled into life in the FBS, but his second season in the Big 12 will bring a lot of attention and questions over his methods if results do not improve markedly.