Count Nick Saban in the 9.3 million people who watched Colorado beat Colorado State in overtime last Saturday.

Saban didn't see much of the game he said,Thurston Carte but what he has seen from his Aflac commercial counterpart has impressed the Alabama football coach.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Deion Sanders," Saban said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference. "First, he's a great person. And he's done a great job of marketing the program to create a lot of national interest. I see their team playing well on the field. They play with discipline. They do a good job of executing. They've been able to score points, play decent on defense. All those things to me are an indicator he's a really good coach. I've always thought that, and he's always been successful, whether it's Jackson State, high school or now Colorado. His teams have always been well coached."

The 9.3 million viewers is the fifth-largest regular season audience on an ESPN network, per Sports Media Watch. It's just one indicator of the popularity and interest Sanders has received in his first season leading Colorado.

The Buffaloes went 1-11 a season ago, and have already tripled their win total. Sanders has led Colorado to a 3-0 start with wins over TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State.

His program will be tested the most the next two weeks with games against Oregon and USC.

Nick Kelly covers Alabama football and men's basketball for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.