There’s no better college football coach in America than the man quietly working a miracle in Colorado, and we’re certainly not talking about Deion Sanders, the brash and bold king of clicks.
Troy Calhoun will never move the needle for short-attention-span America or sell sunglasses the way Coach Prime can. But in his 17th season as coach at the Air Force Academy, Calhoun has made the undefeated Falcons twice as good a football team as the mediocre (at best) Buffs.
Why does this matter?
Maybe it doesn’t, unless you cling to the belief that college athletics should be about more than money.
Sanders is building his brand, using the gorgeous CU campus and the picturesque Flatirons as a backdrop for his Growing Up Prime reality show, starring his sons, Shedeur and Shilo.
Calhoun does not give a hoot about where the Falcons are ranked in the national polls, much less about boosting his national Q Score with an Aflac commercial. His primary mission is to turn young football players into Air Force lieutenants worthy of serving our country.
While Sanders has leveraged the riches of name, image and likeness with the transfer portal to make the Buffs buzzworthy overnight, Calhoun takes pride in saying that players entering the academy aren’t ready-made stars.
Calhoun and Sanders, born within 12 months of each other in the mid-1960s, demonstrate there are two perfectly legitimate ways to build a Top 25 college football program in 2023. You can painstakingly develop one from within your own walls. Or go out and poach one from schools across the country.
“If you’re all-in on your players and you’re completely committed to your coaches and everybody’s growth and development, then you’re always trying to show them where they can be better. That’s really where we put our energy, our time and our thoughts,” Calhoun explained during his weekly news conference, as his 17th-ranked Falcons prepared for a date Saturday in Denver with arch-rival Army.
Now, let’s compare the responsibility Calhoun feels for overseeing his players’ growth to the frustration Sanders didn’t hesitate to express after CU’s quarterback, who also happens to be his son, got sacked seven times and took an unmerciful beating during a loss to UCLA that dropped the reeling Buffs’ record to 4-4.
Sanders put his offensive linemen on blast. “The line has to improve,” Sanders insisted to my Post colleague Sean Keeler. “The big picture? You go get new linemen. That’s the picture and I’m gonna paint it perfectly.”
Yeah, we get the picture, Deion. After Shedeur gets sacked, you threaten to fire the offensive line. That reaction sounded more like an angry stage father than the responsible adult in charge of a college football program.
Depending on which estimate you want to believe, Shedeur Sanders might reap in the neighborhood of $5 million from name, image and likeness earnings this year, give or take the cost of a Rolex.
So what’s a struggling Buffs offensive lineman who knows Prime will dump him in a hot minute and go hunting in the transfer portal for a replacement supposed to do? Grin and bear it, while cheering for the CU quarterback to get richer?
With the ability to transform a regional tiff between his Buffs and the CSU Rams into a bigger made-for-TV spectacle than the opening game of the World Series, Sanders is a viral soundbite waiting to happen. In that regard, Calhoun could learn a little something from Prime, because he is too grouchy to promote an Air Force program deserving of more applause within its home state.
But the fact Sanders is on the watch list alongside Calhoun for the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award as coach of the year? That’s no contest. It’s also a joke on all of us, the result of our obsession with style over substance.
Not only have the Falcons opened the season 8-0 for the first time since 1985, when Calhoun played quarterback for the academy, but they are in serious contention to play a traditional powerhouse along the likes of Oregon or Alabama in a New Year’s Six Bowl.
If you’re old school enough to believe W’s and L’s count more than TV ratings and mentions on “Saturday Night Live,” what Air Force can achieve this season is beyond CU’s wildest dreams.
On the brink of falling off the college football map, the Buffs made a brilliant hire in Sanders, a master of the business’ new rules. With 129 victories to his name, Air Force is blessed with the stubborn curmudgeon that is Calhoun, who could’ve cashed in on his success and moved on to greener pastures long ago.
There’s not a bigger football celebrity in America than Coach Prime.
There’s not a better football coach in the USA than Troy Calhoun.
If the difference no longer matters, college football has sold a little piece of its soul.
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