The former NFL player said in a podcast appearance Tuesday that he was “not a fan” of Sanders as the Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his fourth season in Colorado in 2026. Colorado went 3-9 in 2025 after a 9-4 season in 2024 when Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy.
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Through three seasons with Sanders in charge, the Buffaloes are 16-21. Sanders trained all season after being diagnosed with bladder cancer in the spring.
“I’m just not a coach fan. I’m not. I’ll never be a coach fan,” Fauria said on the “Zach Gelb Show” released Tuesday. “I love school, and I’m not the one picking on Deion Sanders, because I messed with Joe Gibbs. The worst coach I ever had was Joe Gibbs. So picking on Deion Sanders is nothing. I just don’t like the way he coaches football. I don’t think he’s very bright. I don’t think he can handle a game. I think there’s a lot of flash but no substance. And a lot of people have been brainwashed.
“And we’ll see what he can do. But I’m just not a fan of him. I’m not a fan of his training style, I’m not a fan of his messages. There’s a lot of things internally that I know that I’m not a fan of. And it’s just not worth my energy to sit there and follow him and go back and forth with the naked emperor, a crowd that supports him no matter how stupid he is sometimes.
“So yeah, that’s how I feel about it. And it bothers me that a lot of alumni just don’t talk about it. They don’t say anything. But I will.”
Fauria’s son Caleb played three seasons at Colorado before transferring to Delaware before the 2024 season. Caleb Fauria left after Sanders’ first season in charge of the Buffaloes and appeared in six games in 2023.
Christian Fauria admitted in the discussion that it was difficult to win in Colorado; Karl Dorrell won seven games when he was fired midway through his third season with the school in 2022. Colorado’s last 10-win season was in 2016, and the Buffs’ nine-win season in 2024 was their first winning record in a full season since that 10-4 year under Mike MacIntyre.
He also added that he initially supported Sanders’ hiring before becoming bitter about how Sanders’ tenure had gone so far. During the offseason, Colorado had the 28th-ranked transfer class in the country, according to On3, with 41 arrivals and 34 departures. Sanders has exploited the transfer portal almost as much as any coach since arriving in Boulder, although the Buffaloes lost star offensive tackle Jordan Seaton when he transferred to LSU late in the January transfer window.
“If relevance and having a packed audience and people talking about you on Twitter, if that’s what you want, then congratulations, you’ve done it,” Fauria said. “But I don’t know if that’s… is that the ultimate goal? Just to be relevant? Have a new scoreboard? Have people talk about you? Or do you want to win games? Win games. The way you win games, the way you recruit, you know everyone’s name, you give everyone equal attention. You sing the fight song. You learn the fight song. I’d say then you’re in business. But right now, all your victories are empty in my book if all you care about is relevance”.