Deion Sanders and his Colorado football team suffered such a huge loss against Stanford on Friday night that "Saturday Night Live" made fun of it a day later in a segment featuring actor Kenan Thompson in the role of “Coach Prime.”
Thompson dressed in a white CU hat and a white Colorado hooded sweatshirt with sunglasses as he took questions from "Weekend Update" anchor Colin Jost on NBC. The segment lampooned Sanders, his trademark confidence and his 46-43 double overtime loss to Stanford after taking a 29-0 lead in the first half. Colorado is 4-3 after starting 3-0 in the first year with Sanders as head coach.
“We just keep winning, man,” Thompson said in the role of Sanders. “Every game, every minute. We winning at life.”
“Yeah, you’re also 4-3, so you have lost a few,” Jost told him.
“Colin, look at me, man,” the fictional Coach Prime said. “What about me makes you think that I care about what you think about me? You don’t understand that my team has it all, man. Coaching? Genius. Offense? Explosive. Defense? Trying. It’s a complete package, man.”
“Yeah, well millions of people are watching your games,” Jost told him. “You’ve obviously turned the program around. But it’s not perfect. I mean, just last night you lost to Stanford in double overtime.”
“Wasn’t that crazy?” the SNL version of Coach Prime said. “Man, we went up 29 to nothing at the half, so I went home and fell asleep. I woke up this morning as shocked as anyone … Nobody’s perfect. Name one team that’s undefeated.”
Jost then named several.
“See that’s exactly my point,” the fictional Coach Prime said.
The segment then delved into Sanders’ departure from Jackson State, a historically Black university where he coached three seasons before taking the job at Colorado in December.
The fictional Coach Prime said, “Coaching is a higher calling.”
“That’s right, you started your coaching career at Jackson State, which is an HBCU or a historically Black college, right?” Jost said.
“Very good, Colin,” the SNL version of Coach Prime said. "Very good. You know, I truly believe that God called me there, and he said, 'This is your destiny.'"
“Right, and then three years later you went to Chicago, I mean Colorado,” Jost said.
“Yeah, that’s right,” the SNL Prime said. “Because God called me again and was like, `My bad.’ And then he showed me the promised land of Colorado. I had these visions, Colin, a place where there was white people, like every single person was white … Not many people know this, but Colorado is an HWCU, or historically white college, kind of like where you went Colin.”
“Well, I mean, Harvard is pretty diverse, you know,” Jost said.
“Colin,” SNL Prime said, eliciting laughter from the audience.
Colorado has a bye week next week before resuming play Oct. 28 at UCLA.
