College Football coach with nine wins takes job in Colorado, may have eyes on replacing Deion Sanders

College Football coach with nine wins takes job in Colorado, may have eyes on replacing Deion Sanders originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

UConn Huskies head coach Jim Mora is leaving Storrs, Connecticut, to take the Colorado State Rams job, with UConn offensive coordinator Gordon Sammis taking over on an interim basis for the program’s bowl game.

The Huskies went 9-3 in 2025, picking up wins over the ACC’s Boston College Eagles and Duke Blue Devils, the latter of which was still in contention for the ACC Championship up until Week 13.

Mora’s decision was a shocker in the College Football world. BuffZone’s Brian Howell labelled it as such, revealing Mora once wanted the Colorado Buffaloes job before Deion Sanders arrived.

“Wow! Really good hire for CSU. Mora has loved this area for a long time. Really wanted the Colorado job several years ago from what I was told then,” Howell wrote.

There are questions about Coach Prime returning to the University of Colorado Boulder every offseason. Eventually, that job will open up. Being in Fort Collins, Colorado, now gives Mora the inside track if he can lead the Rams to relevance in the rebuilt Pac-12.

CSU will join the San Diego State Aztecs, Fresno State Bulldogs, Boise State Broncos, Texas State Bobcats, Utah State Aggies, in the Pac-12, which already features the Oregon State Beavers and Washington State Cougars as members, in 2026.

Is Deion Sanders leaving Colorado after this season?

Julian Lewis redshirting the 2025 season, sitting out the team’s finale against the Kansas State Wildcats, could mean Sanders wants an extra year of the Carrollton, Georgia, product or that Lewis wants to preserve his eligibility with a new school. It’s unclear what Lewis’ decision means just yet.

Coach Prime has had serious health issues, so any time he wants to call it a career, he can do it with a built-in reason. There isn’t much smoke right now for that happening, since Sanders navigated his health issues with minimal issues this go-round.

We’ll see how that changes if the team finishes 3-9 in its first year without Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. That’d be the worst record of the “Prime Time” era in northern Colorado.