The Colorado Buffaloes put on a Senior Day show last Friday.
Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter starred once again as Colorado comfortably beat the Oklahoma State Cowboys 52-0.
The day was extra special for coach Deion Sanders too, ahead of the regular-season finale he walked his sons Shedeur and Shilo across the field, as is custom in a Senior Day ceremony.
Coach Prime also made sure another one of his players was able to enjoy the moment too.
Senior wide receiver Jimmy Horn Jr, whose father is in prison, needed a parent to walk out with him at Folsom Field when his name was called.
So he asked Sanders to be by his side, and the two-time Super Bowl winner obliged, leading to a heartwarming moment that has since gone viral on social media.
“Jimmy is like my kid, I love him that much,” Sanders told reporters on Friday.
“We’ve talked about some personal things throughout his couple seasons here. I want to go with him Sunday to see his father as well. But he just turned around and asked me.
“So that’s how that transpired. And I said, ‘You don’t have to ask me twice. I got you. I got you’.”
His latest show of compassion proves why it is college football, and perhaps not the NFL, that Sanders is best suited.
There has been plenty of speculation that the legendary cornerback will one day make the jump from Colorado to the professional league, especially with the college football season drawing to a close.
In recent weeks he has been linked with a return to the Dallas Cowboys – where he played five seasons and won Super Bowl 30 – and even legendary quarterback Brett Favre has suggested he should be a leading contender if Mike McCarthy gets fired.
While he remains a hot topic around the NFL, Sanders has already suggested he will remain in Colorado next season.
And part of his reason to stay goes deeper than football.
Sanders has repeatedly expressed a deep connection to the mentoring aspect of coaching.
At Colorado, he has the chance to shape the lives of young athletes, and instill values both on and off the field.
The NFL, perhaps, would not offer him as much of that aspect.
“I don’t want to think about it too much because I’ll get emotional,” he said on Senior Day.
“I don’t just coach these young men. I love these young men like they’re family. I just want them to soar.
“Not just from the football aspect, but as young men in life.”
Sanders has even previously suggested his recruitment tactics at Colorado run deeper than football, and that he promises parents he will help set up their children for adult life.
“I really want these parents to understand that if they send their boy, I’m going to return him a man,” Coach Prime said last September.
“He’s going to be a professional, not just football, he’s going to be a professional young man. He’s going to do something with his life.
“I promise you, he’s going to make an impact in his community, with his family, friends and loved ones.”
It’s statements like those – and moments like the one he shared with Horn Jr on Senior Day – that show exactly where Sanders should be.
And even the pull of the NFL might not be enough to take him away from college football.
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