King: Colorado's Deion Sanders, USC's Lincoln Riley Will Be Targeted for NFL HC Jobs

The numerous NFL scouting personnel on hand to watch USC beat Colorado 48-41 may not have been watching just the players on the field.

Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders and Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley "will both get NFL feelers, probably soon," according to NBC Sports' Peter King.

Riley has been on the radar of NFL teams for a few years. When reporting on his extension with Oklahoma in July 2020, The Athletic's Bruce Feldman reported he had declined offers to speak with "several" pro teams.

The 40-year-old has a lot of reasons to stay in college—reportedly $110 million of them—but the day might come when he's ready to leave the year-round grind of coaching and recruiting and coaching and recruiting behind.

Sanders, meanwhile, has seen his coaching stock rise so quickly that anything is possible. He silenced his skeptics by leading Jackson State to a 27-6 record over three seasons, and Colorado's 3-2 start has further burnished his reputation. The Buffs already have two more wins than they recorded across all of 2022.

When it comes to coaching in the NFL, there's little question about whether the Hall of Famer would immediately command a level of respect in the locker room, which is another mark in his favor.

Colorado has fallen back to earth with its defeats to Oregon and USC, and it still has three more ranked opponents (Oregon State, Washington State and Utah) on the schedule.

Perhaps the interest in Coach Prime from NFL teams cools a bit if the Buffaloes wind up finishing with a losing record. Should he lead the program to a bowl game, though, all bets could be off.