Deion Sanders' new play-caller gets defensive: 'I'll try to be polite'

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders made a splashy move last December when he decided to hire a new offensive coordinator with a unique “Go-Go” system to help his team score more points and win more games.

Ten months and five games later, it hasn’t been working. Colorado is 2-3 after losing three games in a row and ranks 122nd out of 138 teams in scoring offense with 18.6 points per game under the new play-caller, Brennan Marion.

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, Marion faced questions about it from local news media and got a little defensive at times.

In one case, he paused several seconds before answering a question about sharing the ball among his running backs.

“I’ll try to be polite and answer the question without being an (expletive),” Marion said. “But to me, I don’t know why I’m getting asked run game questions when we’ve rushed the ball for, I don’t know, a lot of yards on my whole career. We were like, No. 1 in the country last year. We were No. 1 the year before, No. 2, No. 3.”

Marion does have a point. He’s had a history of success, including with top-10 running games at UNLV (2024) and Sacramento State (2025). He’s not even halfway through his first season at Colorado. As he also said Wednesday, he doesn’t decide who to play at quarterback. Sanders does.

On the other hand, this and other comments from him Wednesday revealed how Colorado’s struggles are “new territory” for him and that there’s no time to develop a young quarterback in college football these days, as he wishes he could with 19-year-old Julian “JuJu” Lewis.

“We gotta win now or get out,” Marion said.

Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders and his father Deion Sanders on the sideline before the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Huntington Bank Field on Dec. 28, 2025. Shedeur Sanders made seven starts during his rookie season with the Browns, going 3-4 in those games.

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Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders and his father Deion Sanders on the sideline before the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Huntington Bank Field on Dec. 28, 2025. Shedeur Sanders made seven starts during his rookie season with the Browns, going 3-4 in those games.

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Marion lamented that Lewis wasn’t getting more time to develop because of the pressure to win immediately in this new age of unlimited annual player transfers and players getting paid directly by schools.

Marion noted how Sanders’ quarterback son Shedeur blossomed at Colorado in 2024 after several years of development and bad blocking. The Buffaloes finished 9-4 that year.

“Nobody’s giving Ju that chance, because what?” Marion said. “We gotta win now or get out. So Ju’s just not having a chance to, like, be comfortable in his own, right? It’s like, right now, you better have it.”

Sanders pulled the plug on Lewis at halftime of a 23-13 loss at Baylor Sept. 26, when the Buffaloes were down 10-3. He hasn’t played since.

Marion made clear Sanders is the one making the call at quarterback.

“That’s Coach Prime’s decision as far as who he decides to put out there,” Marion said. “I do what the head coach tells me to do, and I make it happen that way.”

Colorado instead will start Utah transfer Isaac Wilson at quarterback for the second consecutive game on Saturday night at home against the Utes, Wilson’s old team.

Lewis started the first four games for Colorado, but struggled at times and it’s not clear when or if he’ll get another chance despite being a highly touted high school recruit out of Georgia last year at age 17. Wilson, Lewis’s replacement, threw three interceptions in the second half of his last game, a 29-7 loss against Texas Tech.

Wilson still had 42 yards rushing and 290 yards passing with one touchdown in that game.

“If you take away the turnovers, he’d probably be player of the week,” Marion said of Wilson.

Marion said he told Lewis he still believes in him. But he said there are other circumstances in the “society that we’re in.”

“There’s no time for him to have the progression to go through that you would as a freshman, as a young quarterback,” Marion said. “There’s not time when you’re in a win-right-now situation. Nobody cares about development. Everybody, as soon as you lose the game, it’s ‘fire the coach, change the quarterback.’ So, you know, it just sucks for the kids that are young and have talent, right? Because he has the talent.”

Marion also noted how college students these days “care about what people say to them online” and it “affects their spirit.” The criticism can be brutal after a bad game in the public spotlight.

“For Ju, he’s just got to get off the internet,” Marion said. “He’s got to continue to develop and work, and then when the opportunity rises again, he’ll rise up.”

Sanders hasn’t found an answer at quarterback – or offensive coordinator – since Shedeur Sanders last played for the team in 2024. Deion Sanders is 2-12 against Power Four conference teams since then. Sanders’ four-year record at Colorado is 18-24, including just two wins against Top 25 teams.

Despite this, Sanders maintained his trademark confidence Wednesday on the Colorado Football Coaches Show.

“I love where we are right now,” Sanders said. “I really do. I can’t wait to see it play out.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com