As the first couple of weeks of the 2023-24 college football season rolled by, there have been some upsets over ranked teams that caught Brenner’s attention — starting with Colorado beating TCU and Duke beating Clemson in Week 1. While he’s impressed with the roster building and management it took for these programs to do this, he says “How these two teams have built their rosters could not be more diametrically opposed. They are literally at different ends of the spectrum.”
He highlights how Colorado completely reconstructed their roster and coaching staff whereas Duke had 19 returning starters and the same continuity throughout the coaching staff.
Brenner then begins the show by posing a question — which is the better model if you’re looking to turn your program around?
Golic Jr. praises Deion Sanders’ ability and magnetism when it comes to the recruitment process but also highlights how he still managed to bring on a competent coaching staff. He then mentions that other programs will absolutely try to follow Coach Prime’s method of program turnaround because it allows you to reset the foundations of both the roster and coaching staff.
Keating agrees with both and adds that Coach Prime has a different type of confidence than other college coaches and that’s why he’s had early success.
Brenner then argues that Duke’s model is harder to do in the current college football landscape because it’s difficult to be able to maintain a consistent roster season-to-season and much easier to use the Colorado model and completely start fresh.
Golic Jr. agrees with Brenner that it is harder to maintain continuity but also brings up Colorado’s use of the portal by bringing up other examples of programs that found their healthy dose of transfers that fill the holes on their rosters. He then says, “It depends on what you inherit because with Colorado, you inherit a 1-11 team and, one of the most misleading stats in college sports is ‘returning production from a prior season’ or ‘games started from a prior season.’”
Keating presses the Colorado point again by mentioning how much guts the program had to embrace the “nowhere to go but up” mentality, something most teams don’t ever do in college football. He then laments about how there are those teams that are stuck in their old ways and always end up bottoming out because they hire the same coaches and embrace the same things.
Golic Jr. immediately agrees with Keating and brings up Kansas’ success after bringing in coach Lance Leipold and embracing change and shying away from their traditional route. He even mentions Coach Prime’s success coming from a small school like Jackson State.
On the topic of small schools and HBCUs, Keating asks Golic Jr. about his thoughts on them and he says they are underrated but wouldn’t be surprised if they started to receive more recognition soon because of the focus on the transfer portal. “I’d imagine you’re going to have more departments with all these analysts focused on scouting and finding quality players.”
Want to hear more from Underdogs? Check out the full episode which includes a breakdown of how Coach Prime has completely changed the college football landscape, how it affects our betting landscape and even a quick betting tip for those interested in the Rugby World Cup!
SHOW BREAKDOWN
The Deion Sanders Effect on College Football Betting FT. Mike Golic Jr.
- It’s Coach Prime Mania in the college football world! Deion Sanders and the University of Colorado have become the biggest story in the sport over the past few weeks, but what does that mean for your CFB betting strategy? Mike Golic Jr. joins Jordan and Peter to give his take on the new-look college football landscape and serve as the guest picker for week 2 of the Underdogs’ Underdogs contest. The guys end the show with a quick betting tip for the Rugby World Cup.
Watch the full episode below!
VIDEO:
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