Southern California head coach Lincoln Riley walks on the sideline during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Stanford in Los Angeles, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

USC's Lincoln Riley and Colorado's Deion Sanders dole out flowers instead of barbs

Ryan Kartje

Sept. 26, 2023

Deion Sanders emerged as the larger-than-life epicenter of the college football universe, calling out any haters in his orbit, taking a flamethrower to the sports long-standing norms and attracting a level of attention to

Colorado that would far exceed the otherwise rigid bounds of the sport. Along the way, Sanders made a point of stacking whatever slights he could find to fire up his team.

Deion Sanders Over a thrilling four weeks in which he emerged as the larger-than-life epicenter of the college football universe during a thrilling four weeks, calling out any haters in his orbit, taking wielding a flamethrower to the sports long-standing norms and attracting a level of attention to

Colorado that would far exceed the otherwise rigid bounds of the sport. Sanders ,

Deion Sanders made a point of stacking whatever slights he could find to fire up his team.

When Colorado upset Texas Christian in its opener, Sanders told gathered

reporters after the game that hed kept receipts and wondered aloud if now 

they believed. The next week, he riled his team over four-month-old comments Nebraska coach Matt Rhule made about the transfer portal, only for Nebraska to add its own

fuel to the fire when it gathered pregame

on the midfield

Colorado logo at midfield before the game

.

Before long, as the spotlight on Sanders and the Buffaloes brightened, opposing coaches simply couldnt help themselves. Colorado States Jay Norvell took a shot at Sanders for not taking off his sunglasses and hat when talking to reporters

. Oregon coach Dan Lanning made sure to invite cameras into the locker room before thepre

game as he declared Colorado was fighting for clicks, [while]

were fighting for wins.

But as Lincoln Riley and USC prepared to share the stage Saturday with Sanders and Colorado, there were no potshots, no sarcastic slights, no bulletin board material of any kind. Caleb Williams and USC receivers are perfecting 'the art' of the deep pass

Instead, Tuesday became a battle of which coach could offer the more glowing praise of the other, as Riley heaped compliments on his counterpart for helping transform Colorado from a hopeless 1-11 program into the biggest story in sports.

I think

Hes done a great job, Riley said. I mean, look at the results. At the end of the day, our job as coaches is to do whats necessary to help make these programs that give us an opportunity the best we possibly can. Thats kind of the end of it.

A few hours earlier, Sanders took the same approach, route as with Riley, unpromptedly

expressing his

admiration for USCs coach at the top of his news press

conference.

I have the utmost respect and love and appreciation for their head coach. This is a bona-fide winner, Sanders said. Hes one of the upper-tier coaches, and I admire him tremendously.

The two

coaches have yet to meet, but the admiration clearly flows in both directions. While some detractors have made known their distaste for Sanders brash approach, Riley deemed it very genuine.

Everybody has got different personalities, Riley said. When youre fake and youre someone youre not, people see right through that. Regardless of what your characteristics are, of your personality, if youre yourself, you can be a great leader. He certainly seems to do that, seems to be very genuine, and certainly his guys have responded to that.

Tuesdays fierce battle of compliments between the two

opposing Pac-12 coaches took on a distinctly different tone than Sanders has been accustomed to since taking the job at Colorado

. Even before his larger-than-life personality rankled some across the sport, his bold approach to rebuilding Colorados program

through the NCAA

transfer portal had

upset many observers

. others.

Upon his arrival from Jackson State, Sanders wasnt exactly

shy about pushing out dozens of Colorado players in order to restock the roster with his own recruits and transfers. When all was said and done, he added 86

new players, including a record-setting 53 transfers.

The approach wasnt all that different from what Riley engineered at USC, albeit on a much larger scale and with a camera crew recording.

Weve all seen it here, Riley said. Theres a lot more similarities in the transformation here and what coach has done at Colorado than theres not. I see right where hes coming from. Hes done a great job with the roster. USC vs. Arizona State takeaways: Will defense once again shatter CFP dreams?

Whether that rebuilt roster can match up with what Riley has built at USC is another question entirely. With its brightest spotlight yet last Saturday, the Buffaloes were Colorado was

silenced by Oregon 42-6. After the game, Sanders said that his team had played like hot garbage.

Could the loss and their coachs own

words be enough motivation for Colorado players team

previously powered by potshots? That remains to be seen. But if the Buffs were looking for bulletin board material from USC to help matters

, they weren't going to get it from the Trojans'

coach.

We haven't been focused on opponents or any of the outside things, Riley said. To each his own, and we've got to stay focused. We've got plenty of things that we've got to get better at and be ready to handle that have to do with us, and if any of our focus is going anywhere else then that's not the big thing for USC."