The vast majority of attention in college football has centered around Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes, and since the beginning of the season, multiple people have trash-talked Sanders and his squad. Nebraska’s Matt Rhule seemed to criticize any coach that exploited the transfer portal - like Sanders - while Colorado State coach Jay Norvell ridiculed Sanders for how he dresses in post game interviews.
But the coach that’s gotten the most attention for his smack talk against the Buffaloes coach and program is Oregon skipper Dan Lanning, who unleashed a tidal wave of fighting words before the Ducks matchup with Colorado this past week.
The motivation seems to have worked, the Ducks obliterated Colorado 42-6. But now, he’s facing flack from Skip Bayless who’s accusing all white coaches that have played against Sanders for having racially motivated jealousy towards what the Buffaloes have achieved (starting at the 9:19 mark).
“I’ve tried to tell you guys for two weeks there is a deep-rooted, venomous vengeance that is starting to manifest itself against Deion among white coaches. And I’m not gonna say they’re all white because we saw what Jay Norvell did just two weeks ago. It’s deep-rooted and seeded because Deion didn’t pay any dues that they all had to pay,” he said.
Now Bayless does recognize that it's not just white coaches that have called out Sanders, as evidenced by Norvell’s comments. But even suggesting that white coaches hate Sanders’ success because of his skin color doesn’t make any sense.
In Lanning’s case, he might have simply felt overlooked for what his team has done so far this year. The Ducks were ranked 10th in the country heading into the Colorado game, yet all of the media attention was on the Buffaloes. Wouldn’t that get you fired up to prove everyone else wrong?
Thankfully, Lanning is not backing down from his comments and even called out Bayless for starting this narrative.
Here's what Dan Lanning had to say about the outrage about his pregame speech and Skip Bayless pic.twitter.com/kpV3Ex3lPL
— Tsunami (@Tsunami_TS) September 26, 2023
The fact of the matter is, everyone wants to take a shot at someone who’s winning. It's part of the burden of being successful in sports. But calling out a successful black coach doesn't make you racist just because you're white, and Skip has no business suggesting otherwise.
