Coach Deion Sanders made it clear that despite the disappointment of falling short of the Big 12 championship game, his Colorado football team would be motivated and invested for whatever bowl opportunity came its way.
The Buffs learned their postseason fate Sunday, accepting an invitation to play in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28 in San Antonio against BYU.
The No. 20-ranked Buffs (9-3) will be vying for their first 10-win season since 2016 (which also ended with an Alamo Bowl appearance) as they take on No. 17 BYU (10-2) in a battle of Big 12 teams that didn't meet in the regular season.
"Just to be chosen, you've got to understand, coming from Colorado, to be chosen for a bowl and what was the goal -- to get Ms. Peggy [Coppom] to a bowl -- we are so happy," Sanders said Sunday in an interview with Alamo Bowl officials shared on YouTube. "... We have dreams and aspirations of winning and winning and winning, and when you win this is some of the perks that you get. I can't wait for our kids to land the plane there and see some of the festivities and how beautiful the city is."
Sanders had said back on Nov. 26 that he expected his top players to take part in the game.
"We got a bowl game," Sanders said then. "So it's not the last time you're going to see them in a Buff uniform."
Them meaning quarterback Shedeur Sanders, two-way star and Heisman candidate Travis Hunter, etc.
Deion Sanders reiterated that pledge Sunday matter-of-factly.
"We have a plethora of seniors that are pro-bound, and guess what? Every last one of them are going to play We don't tap out. We don't sit out," he said. "This is a blessing to play this wonderful game. Our kids are going to play. We got a kid that's probably going to pick up -- not probably, what am I talking about? -- he's going to pick up the Heisman Trophy this week, and he's going to play. We got a quarterback who picked up an award last weekend, and he's going to play. We have receivers that I know are going pro, and guess what? They're going to play. So we can't wait to put on our best suit and our best uniforms because we're going to come there to have a good time."
"We can't want them to go out there and play hard and we're just setting back there chilling," Shedeur Sanders said previously of playing in the bowl game. "That is something that dad talked to us about, and I was like, 'Okay.' It doesn't really make a difference to me because I always play almost every game of the season that I can."
This will be just Colorado's third bowl game in the last 17 seasons -- all being the Alamo Bowl, with a 38-8 loss to Oklahoma State in 2016 and a 55-23 loss to Texas in 2020.
Colorado has lost its last four bowl games overall with the last win coming in the 2004 Houston Bowl, a 33-28 victory over UTEP.
This is an intriguing matchup of Big 12 teams that were in the conference championship hunt down to the wire.
BYU started 9-0 before losing back-to-back games to Kansas (17-13) and eventual Big 12 champ Arizona State (28-23 on the road) before closing out with a win over Houston.
Colorado's Big 12 title hopes were also ultimately dashed with a late loss at Kansas (37-21) before closing the schedule with a 52-0 drubbing of Oklahoma State.
Considering that Deion Sanders took over a program coming off a 1-11 season and dramatically overhauled the roster before going 4-8 last year, to be where the Buffs are now is one of the stories of the college football season.
"We have a collection of young men that believe. It's easy to not believe in this inconsistent world that we live in, but these young men through all adversity, they believe," Sanders said. "They understand what we have inside that locker room, they understand what they have [with] the coaching staff and how wonderful these who mostly matriculated from the professional level, they came back to glean to them and give them some of the fruits thereof so they can flourish."
The teams shared seven common opponents: Kansas State (BYU won 38-9 at home, CU lost 31-28 at home), Baylor (BYU won 34-28 on the road, CU won 38-31 in overtime at home), Arizona (BYU won 41-19 at home, CU won 34-7 on the road), Oklahoma State (BYU won 38-35 at home, CU won 52-0 at home), UCF (BYU won 37-24 on the road, CU won 48-21 on the road), Utah (BYU won 22-21 on the road, CU won 49-24 at home) and Kansas (BYU lost 17-13 at home, CU lost 37-21 on the road).
The Cougars' best non-conference win was on the road at College Football Playoff team SMU, 18-15, back in September.
BYU, in its ninth season under coach Kalani Sitake, is led by redshirt junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff, who has passed for 2,796 yards, 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while rushing for 388 yards and 6 TDs. His top targets are Chase Roberts (51 catches for 843 yards and 4 TDs) and Darius Lassiter (43-679-4). L.J. Martin leads the rushing attack with 630 yards on 5.2 yards per carry with 5 TDs.
BYU ranks 44th in scoring (30.8 points per game) and tied for 20th in scoring defense, giving up 20.1 PPG. For comparison, Colorado ranks 22nd in scoring (34.5 PPG) and 38th in scoring defense (22.0 PPG).
"I'm really excited about the matchup we have against Colorado and Coach Prime. I've known Deion and been able to interact with him -- I'm a big fan of his," Sitake said. "It's been fun to be able to watch him lead his team this year. We've had some crossover games, so we've been able to watch their film and see how they perform and we've been really impressed with what they do on the field. I love the way he leads his team, I love the connection to him -- it's a great example to me as a coach to see the way he leads and the way he does it with his faith."
