Colorado secured a victory in thrilling fashion Saturday night after taking down Baylor, 38-31, in overtime to open Big 12 play at Folsom Field. After the game, CU head coach Deion Sanders met with reporters to provide this thoughts on the game and his team following its big victory over the Bears.
Below is everything he said in the postgame press conference.
Opening Statement: “Great, great, great, great, great win. Young men were resilient. They never gave up. They never surrendered. The coaches were still inspired. I mean all the way until the end they were still calling and devising things. Once we scored, we were already thinking, okay, we wanna defer if we win (the toss) because we wanna put our defense out first. But, they won the toss and it went from there. I don’t like how it played out but I love the results. I think we’re so much better than what we’re showing you at times. We keep showing you glimpses of a running game, we show you glimpses of us playing hard-nosed, tough football defensively. We show you we can throw the ball all around and then we stall for a series or two and surrender something foolishly. But I’m pleased, I’m thankful. One step closer to getting Ms. Peggy to a bowl game, so I’m really proud of that. I want to apologize to the opposition, the way we stormed the field I didn’t get an opportunity to shake the head coach’s hand, but I did try to go over to their locker room and wait it out until he came out but I don’t think they got the word to him. Because that’s not professional, I wanted to shake his hand and acknowledge him. I don’t like what happened at the end of the game, but I love what transpired at the end of the game. We have a fanbase that’s phenomenal. We have some young kids on this campus that loves and breathes CU football and I’m thankful. I walk campus every day and they give us so much love and respect and honor. Travis is here, he played a phenomenal role as usual, and he didn’t wanna come up by himself so he’s on my shoulders right now.”
On how much credit the defensive line gets for the win: “We didn’t play up to our capabilities or our ability whatsoever. We blew some things. When they went empty, they did quarterback draws, I think we saw that in practice a couple times this week and we knew that was coming and we thought we were prepared for that. They ran that play several times as well as in overtime. So we’ve gotta do a better job of that but overall, they were resilient.”
On the emotions of seeing “his guys” make the big plays: “It’s not just those guys, it’s some of the smaller things you don’t see. The line always gets ridiculed, but we scored on a run. We scored on a darn run. I think it was two back to back runs that we did it. And you’ve got your quarterback pushing the guy in from, to get in the end zone and he pops through there and it’s a touchdown. So, no matter what transpires, I love that these guys can just flush it and move on to the next play. That’s something that we’re trying to teach and something we’re educating them on and it’s something we’re proud of.”
On the special teams: “Special teams was horrible. Number one, we’ve gotta do a better job of covering. I think both of our guys were running a twist there and I think both of our guys may have gotten knocked off. That’s what I heard on the headset. But we’ve gotta do a better job. We have so much personnel that’s able and capable of doing it. Sometimes guys don’t take special teams serious, and at halftime I told them why do you think they call them special teams? You’re supposed to be special when you run down there and do it. And we’ve gotta get the ball in the end zone kicking off. We’ve got to do that. We can’t even give them an opportunity to return. You rarely see Jimmy Horn return the kickoff because they’re kicking the ball out of the farm stadium. We’ve gotta finna a way to do the same.”
On what was going through his mind on the Hail Mary: “First of all I saw them load up to our right side. That was really smart because now (Shedeur) is gonna have to boot to his off throwing hand. You don’t want a right handed quarterback rolling to his left, so that was very smart on their behalf. But as I looked, the whole team was over there on Travis, and you’ve got LaJohntay — how is there a one-on-one in that situation? First of all, let’s just dial it back a couple of plays. We should’ve had that one. You guys know what I’m saying. We should’ve had that one. It was a 50/50 ball, we should’ve had that one. But we caught the one we needed to catch, LaJohntay needed it as well. It was a great confidence booster for him. But it was tremendous. I mean, it kinda threw us back to last year a little bit, didn’t it? That nostalgia, that’s the way stuff was starting out last year. I’m like man I’m already gray, what you trying to do to me fellas? That was a tough one. I’m excited, because this press conference could be totally different right now, but I’m excited that we won.”
On how Shedeur and Pat Shurmur collaborate: “Tremendously. The main thing, coach listenes. Shedeur is out there. So when we’re saying get rid of the ball, we don’t know if somebody ran the wrong route. We do. You guys don’t. We don’t know if he was expecting something else and it was supposed to be a chip on that end. You guys don’t know that, we know that. So, they’re trying to fix it on the fly and do some things and we’re listening to the receivers, we’re listening to the guy Brett upstairs telling us what they’re doing so we can be more than able. Then, we start going back, I said coach you remember that dig and up we ran against Washington State? It’s about time we dust that thing off! Sometimes, we’ve gotta draw it in the dirt! But he already had it in anyway. So that’s what you saw, and Travis, I think he was 10 yards behind the gentleman but Shedeur got hit in the chest when he was releasing the ball. But he still made the play and we got a PI on it as well.”
On where this game ranks: “I don’t rank games, man. I just love the W’s man. I love the W’s. I really do. Any means necessary, I love them.”
On Omarion Miller’s touchdown and his tendency to make plays: “Well he’s hungry. He wants it. He’s sitting over there on the sideline, he don’t wanna be over there. When he gets in, he’s ready. He’s ready to go. Shedeur has a tremendous expectation of him. Sometimes he will say who he wants on certain plays and certain routes, and Omarion just came in there and did his thing. I’m proud of him that he wasn’t over there asleep, so when his number was called he was ready to respond. I’m very proud of that young man.”
On Cam Silmon-Craig’s big game: “I’ve been seeing this consistently since he was a junior in high school. Cam has played for us for a long time, so I’ve seen his progress, I’ve seen who he is. I just told a scout — he was asking me about unsung heroes — I said Cam is the kind of kid, if you draft him he’s not gonna get cut. He’s not gonna allow you to cut him. He’s gonna play special teams, he’s gonna do this, he’s gonna do that and he’s gonna show up on film. 13 darn tackles from the safety position. He has a nose for the ball and he practices like he plays. And I’m proud of him, tremendously.”
On Shedeur completing his 1,000th career pass and his growth and maturity: “Tremendously. Not from a freshman but from a baby to where he is now. But at this level, I expect it. I expect that when (Shedeur and Travis) are on the field together, along with the rest of the guys, I expect them to do something spectacular because they do it at practice. They practice with purpose and they prepare with purpose. So I have a tremendous expectation from him. I’m more tough on these guys than I am on anybody because I expect great things from them.”
On the coaches treating their players like sons: “We don’t only wanna coach them, we wanna grow them. We wanna mature them and love them and chastise them at the same time. We don’t just wanna pick them up and push them in the swing set, we wanna make sure we sit down and tell them what they need to know at that persistent time. We love these young men in a multitude of ways. And some of these young men have never heard those words from a man. So it’s vital that they not only hear it but we show it. (Travis) knows the way I feel about him, and the rest of three young men on the team, and we’re developing a tremendous relationship that goes much farther than just football. Isaiah Bolden is here, who played for us and is with the Patriots now. But just seeing his joy when we first saw one another. I said boy if you would’ve been here, you probably would’ve been a 2nd or 3rd rounder. He got drafted, I think 7th rounder. But the kid is 200 pounds and runs a 4.3 40. C'mon man. So, phenomenal. Just seeing them and embracing them and them coming up to support us and watching our guys that they played together with, it was phenomenal. So we love them, not just through them playing for us but forever and always.
“I appreciate you all. Thank you very much, this has been wonderful. We’re sorry to keep you up so late and keep you on the edge of your seats. But God be the glory, we got the victory. We got the victory. We got the victory and thank God we got the victory. God bless you all.”
