Has Colorado coach Deion Sanders ever been to Pullman, Washington? Let him explain
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders apparently never visited Pullman, Washington before his team was scheduled to make the trip there for a game Friday night against Washington State.
But he seems to have a certain impression of it – as a remote, northern place where few Black folks have ventured.
He joked about it Wednesday on his weekly Colorado Football Coaches Show with host Mark Johnson.
“Have you been to Pullman before?” Johnson asked him.
“Yeah,” Sanders said in jest.
Sanders then changed his voice to make fun of the question as practically outrageous.
“You ask a Black man, `Have you been to Pullman?’ `Oh yeah. Yeah. Was just there last week,’” Sanders said, drawing laughter from Johnson.
Sanders then delivered his punchline.
“You know dern well ain’t no Black folks been to no Pullman.”
Pullman is in a remote, agricultural area of eastern Washington and has a population of about 32,500, including about 75% white and 2.9% Black, according to U.S. Census data from last year.
Sanders’ Buffaloes (4-6) have lost four straight after starting 3-0. They will face a Washington State team (4-6) that has lost six straight after starting 4-0.
Deion Sanders on what other schools are telling his recruits
Sanders again addressed recent speculation that he might want to leave for a more lucrative or high-profile coaching job as more of those jobs open up in college football. He said other schools are telling prospective recruits for Colorado that he’s not going to stay there very long, hoping they can persuade them to join their schools instead.
“All these other schools are telling these young men and their families I’m not gonna be here,” Sanders said on the show Wednesday in Boulder.
Sanders, who was hired at Colorado last December, said this kind of negative recruiting against him is an honor, in a way.
“They think I’m gonna be so successful that I’m gonna leave,” he said. “So they understand what we possess and the potential that we possess. But then that’s not true. I say, `I will be the first to tell you.’ I think my whole family has a anchor here right now. …. We absolutely love being here."
Deion Sanders talks Cormani McClain’s ‘surprise exam’
Colorado freshman cornerback Cormani McClain apparently was scheduled to be a guest on the same show Wednesday but didn’t show up. This triggered more humor from Sanders, who previously has noted that McClain, the nation’s No. 1 cornerback recruit this year, has had trouble being on time for meetings.
“I think Cormani is still on pace to get here?” Johnson asked as Sanders sat next to him.
“Oh God,” Sanders said, not knowing the reason for McClain's absence. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. …What happened?”
He’s "taking a test?” Johnson said after apparently being informed that was the reason McClain wasn't coming.
“So the test just snuck up on us today?” Sanders said, making fun of the excuse. “We had a surprise exam.”
Sanders later got right to the point:
“Nah, there was no test,” he said.
Sanders still was effusive in his praise of McClain.
“I’m proud of him,” he said. “He’s come a mighty long way. I really am proud of him, that he can contribute because he has so much talent and so much ability. But it takes more than talent and ability to contribute and be who we need you to be from down to down to down.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]