Why Deion Sanders and Joey McGuire share one of college football's biggest bromances

Texas Tech and Colorado football enter their Week 5 matchup with conflicting goals.

The undefeated Red Raiders are aiming to successfully defend their Big 12 championship and get back to the College Football Playoff after yet another offseason of high-priced acquisitions out of the transfer portal. The Buffaloes, meanwhile, have dropped two in a row after a promising 2-0 start to the season and are looking to salvage what they can before things unravel any further.

More: Deion Sanders tried benching, booting and motivating. None of it saved Colorado vs Baylor

As much as the teams’ respective coaches hope to pick up a much-needed win, they share a relationship that goes beyond football.

Even as conference foes in a ruthlessly competitive profession, Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Colorado’s Deion Sanders have forged a close bond with one another over the years, one that goes all the way back to the Texas high school football scene in the late 2000s.

As the Red Raiders and Buffs prepare to face off on Saturday, Oct. 3 at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado, here’s a closer look at the friendship between McGuire and Sanders:

Deion Sanders, Joey McGuire college football bromance, explained

On the surface, McGuire and Sanders have little in common beyond their obvious connections to football. McGuire’s a coaching lifer, someone who has been roaming sidelines since graduating from college more than 30 years ago. Sanders, on the other hand, is one of the most iconic athletes in American history, someone whose on-field excellence, magnetic personality and marketability made him into a cultural symbol.

Eventually, though, their paths crossed in the sport they love.

From 2003-16, McGuire was the head coach at Cedar Hill High School in suburban Dallas, where his teams won three state championships. In 2009, he coached Sanders’ oldest son, Deion Sanders Jr., during his freshman year. Though the younger Sanders transferred schools after that season, the experience his father had with McGuire stayed with him.

“He was like the ‘Grand Poobah,’ the magna cum laude of the district of coaches,” Deion Sanders said in 2024 ahead of Colorado’s game against Texas Tech. “I’m definitely going to look him up to try to embrace with him. I’m just happy that I’m getting the opportunity to be on that stage with a man that I’ve respected for quite some time.”

That year at Cedar Hill was also impactful for Sanders Jr., who has gone on to start a YouTube channel in which he chronicles behind-the-scenes footage from the Colorado program.

“From Cedar Hill to Texas Tech - It’s a Beautiful thing @JoeyMcGuireTTU!” Sanders wrote in a post on social media in July 2026, along with pictures of him and McGuire embracing at Big 12 Media Day. “I asked Coach for help expanding, he told me I could come record at Texas Tech during spring workouts and etc. … I never got around to it, but thank You for ALWAYS looking out for me since I was 14.”

The feeling was mutual between McGuire and the Sanders family.

In 2025, McGuire recalled a moment during that 2009 season when Cedar Hill was facing Texas prep powerhouse DeSoto in a sold-out game that drew 12,000 fans. Knowing space inside the stadium would be limited, McGuire reached out to Sanders to see if he needed him to assure him of a seat. Sanders responded that he was fine and that he’d simply sit in the extra seats in the end zone.

“The one thing that I was always so impressed with Deion is what kind of dad that he is,” McGuire said in 2024. “Being a high school coach, I dealt with a lot of helicopter parents and he is the farthest thing. I think the world of him.”

REQUIRED READING: Texas has a $50M roster and a TikTok mindset | Opinion

Sanders was a Texas high school head coach during McGuire’s Cedar Hill tenure, as well, serving as the head coach from 2012-13 at Prime Prep Academy, a school Sanders co-founded that closed in 2015 amid financial woes and regulatory violations.

The close relationship between the two doesn’t get in the way of some jokes.

At Big 12 Media Day in 2025, Sanders made some light-hearted barbs when asked about Texas Tech’s offseason, in which it made some of the splashiest — and most expensive — moves in the transfer portal.

“Joey’s got some money. Joey, where you at, baby?” Sanders said, with a smile. “Spending that money. I love it. Once upon a time, you guys was talking junk about me going in that portal. Now, when everybody goes in the portal, it’s OK. It’s cool when they do it, but it’s a problem when I do it.”

Even then, though, Sanders was quick to pivot to praise.

“I love me some Joey McGuire,” he said. “One of the best coaches in our conference. I’ve seen him excel from high school all the way to where he is now. He’s a winner. I absolutely love it. You know why I love him? Because he’s a man of standards.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Deion Sanders and Joey McGuire share one of college football's biggest bromances