BOULDER, Colo. >> The pep talk Deion Sanders gave his players at the University of Colorado after a short practice in November could have been delivered by Knute Rockne or Woody Hayes, legends from a bygone era of college football. “You need to be dominant,” Sanders proclaimed from within a circle of young athletes, addressing the defensive linemen before turning to the tight ends.

Everything else was contemporary maximalism thanks to Sanders, who for more than three decades has mastered the attention economy as an athlete, broadcaster and coach.

Colorado Buffaloes players have their social media handles stamped on the backs of their practice jerseys. Deion Sanders Jr., who wriggled into the scrum to document the exhortation for a YouTube video, is perhaps as vital to his father’s mission as his brother Shedeur Sanders, the team’s starting quarterback.

College football has always been about perception. Star high school players flock to established programs like Georgia and Notre Dame, eager to compete in storied rivalries and increase their chances of a huge payday from the National Football League.

Deion Sanders tested that model when he took over a Colorado team that had lost 11 of 12 games. If he promised his athletes fame, whatever that means after a monumental shift from communal television broadcasts to fractured social media platforms and streaming services, would victories follow?

A generation was introduced to Sanders, nicknamed “Prime Time,” on bulky televisions in the 1990s, when sportscasters narrated the defensive back’s preternatural interceptions and high-stepping jaunts into the end zone. The high school athletes Sanders now recruits follow him on sleek smartphones via a YouTube channel, motivational posts on the social site X and several seasons of “Coach Prime,” an all-access Amazon Prime Video docuseries.

Sanders, 57, walks gingerly after having two toes amputated because of blood clots. His beard is graying. But his athletic credentials are exemplary — no one else has played in a Super Bowl and a World Series game — and he has dexterously stayed in the spotlight.

With his come-one-come-all invitation to anyone with a camera, Sanders has transformed the Colorado Buffaloes, a program nestled in the affluent, predominantly white Denver suburb of Boulder, into appointment viewing.

Two seasons into the Sanders experiment, Colorado is 9-3 and ranked 20th in the country by The Associated Press. It plays Brigham Young University in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night and its star two-way player, Travis Hunter, recently won the Heisman Trophy, college football’s top individual honor.

Whether the Buffaloes can break into the 12-team playoff in coming years is the next test. What is not in doubt is Sanders’ confidence.

“I’m in the third quarter of my life and I’m winning,” he said.

At Sanders’ first team meeting in Colorado, he told the players eager to be coached by him that they were a waste of space.

Instead of a warm introduction, he instructed them to transfer elsewhere to create room for his preferred recruits, including his sons Shedeur and Shilo, a safety.

The on-field ramifications for Colorado were important. So was the realization that Sanders was comfortable sharing his team’s intimate moments with the outside world.

Deion Sanders Jr., who was filming as his father was crushing dreams, has been given permission to shoot at practices, in the locker room and on the sideline, primarily for Well Off Media, a YouTube channel with more than 500,000 subscribers. The football team’s Instagram profile has ballooned by more than 1 million followers.

Division I football looks like a professional sport more than ever before. Colorado did not want to be left behind. It returned to the Big 12 and gave Sanders a five-year, $29.5 million contract to coach the team. (The university declined to make Rick George, its athletic director, available for comment.)

Now Sanders can seem to be everywhere on campus. His face is on posters. He playfully danced with a 100-year-old fan, promising her a bowl game. He guest lectured to students in a sports media class inspired by him.

“There’s a time and a season for every activity under the sun,” Sanders said, paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 3:1. “And there’s times and there’s seasons for the different personalities. But at the core of everything, it’s me.”

Sanders began his college coaching career in 2020 by taking over the program at Jackson State, a historically Black university in Mississippi’s state capital.

Hunter was a top high school recruit in 2021 and had verbally committed to play at Florida State, which has a historically strong brand and consistently produces NFL players. But Sanders quietly recruited Hunter behind the scenes, where they bonded over their love of fishing. Sanders told Hunter he would allow him to play both defensive back and wide receiver.

Hunter flipped his commitment to join Sanders at Jackson State, the equivalent of Taylor Swift agreeing to perform in a high school gymnasium instead of a 70,000-seat stadium.

Shilo Sanders, 24, and Shedeur Sanders, 22, have been exposed to this media circus since they were children, when they appeared in episodes of “Deion & Pilar: Prime Time Love,” a reality TV show starring their parents.

Both players are expected to enter April’s NFL draft, and Shedeur Sanders, who set Colorado’s single-season passing yards record this season, said he was not distracted by the chatter that he will be one of the first picks.

Deion Sanders is getting NFL questions as well, repeatedly swatting away rumors that he is courting a coaching job at the professional level or a more prominent university. Gazing at the Rockies, he said he enjoyed the view and his situation too much to leave.

“Where do I need to step toward?” Sanders asked rhetorically. Frustrated that people do not believe his consistent response to the same question, his tone grew sarcastic.

“What stone do I need to get up on?” he continued. “I’m comfortable with where I sit. I’ve never needed a steppingstone in my life. I was the steppingstone and I am the steppingstone.”