There has been no shortage of speculation about Deion Sanders coaching this NFL team or that NFL team.

Speculation, mind you, not even rumors or anonymous reports.

In a media landscape desperate for engagement, you won’t miss out when you put, say, Coach Prime and the Dallas Cowboys in the same sentence. And then it snows.

Up in Colorado, where he coaches an 8-2 team that controls its College Football Playoff destiny, Sanders just smiles and waves it off.

“I’m happy where I am,” Prime said this week. “I’m fine. I’ve got a tripod down. You know what a tripod is? … It means I’m resting. I’m good. I’m happy. I’m excited. I’m excited about where I am. I love this.

The long list of college coaches who say they’re going nowhere who end up going nowhere — often at head-spinning speed — prevents anyone from taking Sanders’ statement at face value, no offense to him.

Tommy Tubberville, after all, once said he’d just leave Ole Miss in a “pine box.” He ended up taking a private jet to work in Auburn.

Still, the visuals of Prime content on his bike, his kickstand down, overview of all the good things happening around him right now, and seemingly into the future, are pretty compelling.

Consider that on Thursday, during an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show,” Rivals.com five-star quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis of Carrollton, Ga., announced. that he was on his way to Colorado. The former USC commit, who staged a late Georgia recruiting push, seemed eager to take over for Sanders’ son, Shedeur, who will enter the NFL Draft.

“I don’t think there’s a better person to learn to read coverage from than Coach Prime,” Lewis said.

Welcome to Prime 2.0 – at least as far as his Colorado era is concerned.

It began as a seemingly chaotic, and perhaps murderous, turnaround of the Buffaloes roster that turned a 1-11 team into a sensation last season that led to sold-out stadiums, massive television ratings and endless media coverage.

Can it work? Would it work? Should it work?

Now cruising along with success in the field, there is a proof of concept. Sanders will still go heavy on the transfer portal – but there’s a Moneyball-like strategy behind it. He will also, it seems, surgically strike in high school.

Lewis is expected to be the start of a train of commitments and flips over the next few weeks from highly touted prospects.

Next could be Carde Smith, a massive four-star offensive lineman from Alabama who decommitted from USC earlier this week. Then all recruiting eyes are on the half-dozen prospects — including Ohio State and Alabama verbals — who visited Boulder last weekend from Florida’s IMG Academy.

The talent Colorado could get is especially notable in the context of the Big 12, which doesn’t have big, traditional, recruiting brands … but does have an automatic playoff bid. It’s a pretty good situation.

There is no more charismatic coach in college football than Deion Sanders. Now that he can point to wins and fun and NFL development, it’s no longer about taking a flyer on him. That’s what Travis Hunter did when, as the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2021, he signed with Coach Prime at Jackson State. Three years later – and after following Deion to Colorado – he can win the Heisman and go top five in the draft.

Prime has been patient with high school recruits. He knew he wasn’t getting much right away at CU, so he hardly cared. Even now, he doesn’t fly around to visit prospects – they have to come to him – and doesn’t offer loads of kids. He only wants those he believes can contribute as starters. Otherwise, Prime thinks, why not just get an older, more experienced player from the portal?

“Let’s just say we get 25 high school players,” he explained last week. “How many will play their first year? At most, let’s say four or five.

“Now you’ve got 20 guys redshirting. So when you go through that spring with 20 guys redshirting, how many are you going to keep after that spring? How many are going to jump into the portal on you?”

Sanders said his research suggests half will leave.

“Why don’t I just focus on 10 (college recruits) then?” he said. “Look, when we take a rookie, we expect the guy to play. We’re not looking to just put clothes on you and develop you. No, no no. We’re looking for you to come in and play some football.

“So our strategy is somewhat different and heavily scrutinized, heavily criticized, but we know what we’re doing.”

The Buffaloes are now winning on the field in ways few imagined. They acquire talent the same way. There was no limit to the number of critics or skeptics who said this would bomb, or if it somehow succeeded Prime would bail as soon as Shedeur and Travis were done.

Anything can happen. This is college football. But Deion Sanders looks to settle in, not send out.

Kickstand down, the plan falls apart.