Colorado's quest for a spot in the Big 12 title game became a bit more difficult Saturday following the Buffs' 37-21 loss to Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium. CU's run defense had problems against the Jayhawks and eventually allowed over 300 yards on the ground.
After the game, head coach Deion Sanders addressed the concerns up front and broke down where things stand with his team heading into the final week of the regular season.
Opening Statement: “Great game by KU. They have a tremendous football team that is resilient. They have a wonderful coach who is one of my favorites in the Big 12. I feel as though we have a tremendous relationship, he’s checked on me when nobody was. We exchanged pleasantries before the game and I told him that his team is resilient. They’re a reflection of who he is. They fight to the end, they’re very physical, they’re tough, they’re tenacious. They ran the heck out of the football which we couldn’t stop today. Period. We started smelling ourselves a little bit. That’s what I just told our team. We got intoxicated with success. We got intoxicated with the multitude of articles and the assumption that we’re this and the assumption that we’re that. We did not play CU football, therefore we got our butts kicked. It is what it is.”
On the mood on the sideline during the game: “The mood was let’s stop the run. We gotta do something. They didn’t punt one time. 331 yards rushing was alarming. You can’t win when a team has rushed for 331 yards on you. That’s not indicative of who we’ve been and who we are. That is certainly not who we are, and we could not stop the bleeding. We tried. Consistently. But we could not stop the bleeding. That’s hats off to them. They were physical. They out-physicaled us, they outplayed us. They wanted it a lot more than we did.”
On the missed tackles: “That’s not what we do. That’s not our identity. We usually get to the ball at an alarming rate and we’re very physical when we get there. The first screen pass that went for a touchdown, I believe it was 51 yards, I was like ‘Oh Lord, here we go.’ Here we go with the dumb stuff. That’s not who we are. When that happens, you know we’re on some dumb stuff today. We’ve gotta do better. We’ve gotta do better. We’ve gotta do a better job as coaches, we’ve gotta do a better job as players. We’ve just gotta do a better job period.”
On telling the team about its goals being farther away now: “Already did. Already did. Trust me. We just did. When you’re in control of your own destiny, it’s a phenomenal thing. I don’t just think about football, I think about life. So, the message to these young men is if God were to grant you every darn thing you needed in life, all the ability, the thought process, the connections, the visuals, and you don’t do nothing with it? That’s on you. That’s where we are. We controlled our own destiny and we fumbled it.”
On why Kansas was more physical than Colorado: “They wanted it more. We were smelling ourselves. They wanted it more and that’s on me. I can’t let a team that I coach start feeling themselves. Can’t do that.”
On the frustration of another slow start for the offense: “Well, 21 points in 19 minutes of possession, I’m good with that. I’ll take that. We gotta do better defensively. That was not the offense today. I understand what you’re saying but we’ve gotta be better defensively. They didn’t punt one time.”
On the low hit on Shedeur Sanders: “He’s good. Shedeur’s been hit his whole life. This kid is tough. He’s one of the toughest young football players that I’ve ever seen.”
On Drelon Miller: “He’s phenomenal. Especially a freshman in games of this magnitude, he’s showing up and showing out. The moment is not too big for him. He plays hard, he practices hard, he’s smart, he doesn’t make too many mental errors. I love the kid. We want to recruit more of those types of young men.”
On handling a team not performing like it’s capable: “Practice. That’s a tremendous thought process that I’ll have from right now all the way until we land and probably all day tomorrow because it’s hard for me to flush things. I carry them because I’m a perfectionist, I try to see what’s the problem and administer to the problem and hopefully provoke change within the problem. That’s not who we are. Especially defensively.”
On if adjustments were made defensively and if they didnt work: “Rob called a good game. We gotta do what he called. He called a pretty good game. I’m hearing the stuff and I’m seeing what’s supposed to transpire and never did. They didn’t punt, man! He called a pretty good game.”
On if he saw this performance and the players “smelling themselves” coming: “We try to handle it in the meetings. We handled it tremendously. Some folks you can’t put behind microphones and you can’t give them podcasts. You can’t do that because they get intoxicated with the success and you know who that is. You try your best to eliminate that, but they can’t stop reading the stuff about who we are. That’s tough. So you try to humble everything around you, including yourself. You try your best to do such, because you know what you have in your locker room. I know my kids. I know all of them.”
On how hard it is for the players to handle success: “That’s tough. All of them are different, man. Some are different. Travis handles it pretty darn well. LaJohntay, Will, some of the other guys do. Some guys don’t. Some of the guys that have never really gotten it, but now they’re getting it, that’s intoxicating to them. Attention is intoxicating to some people. We gotta fix that. That’s on me, I’ve gotta fix that.”
On if he has confidence the team can respond: “I never give up. I never do. Until that last second ticked off the clock or when I knew they were kneeling, that’s when I knew it was over. But I never give up on these young men because I know we have the propensity to come back given the timeframe on the score clock. That just wasn’t us today. Make no bones about it, they forced us into some situations that were tremendous. They did a great job. They had some trickery involved in certain things and the timing was impeccable, we just didn’t do our job.”
On if the team can bounce back next week: “I pray so. I’m always confident. I’m never un-confident. I know what we have in that locker room. I trust those young men to do what they need to do to recover. It’s a terrible feeling. I just saw their faces. It’s a terrible feeling, it’s a terrible sentiment, it’s a terrible mood. They’re not happy with themselves. Now they’ve gotta go read about it and hear about it and think about it. But sometimes it’s the best thing to happen to people. Like after the Nebraska game, I think that was a blessing in disguise to us, truly.”
On the continued struggles on third down: “If I knew, we would’ve done it today. Trust me. That’s on me. We’ll get it together. We’ll look better next week I promise you. Much better.”
On how hard it is when the opposing offense is having success on first down: “That’s tough on a coordinator. It’s not like we didn’t know what they were gonna do. Every play that was called, you could hear it in the headset. You knew what was coming. We just gotta take care of it. We’ve gotta do a better job of preventing it and we did not do that today.”
On preparing on a short week: “We’re thankful that we have one less day. We’re thankful. Because now you’ve just gotta flush it and get it on and let’s go to the next window. The thing about this week is you’ve really got to guard the young men’s minds because family comes in town, and friends and loved ones come in town. You’ve gotta keep them focused. And you’ve got the other team leaving away from their family, friends and loved ones, and they’re coming in to be spoilers. So you’ve gotta refocus your young men and let them understand that this isn’t about turkey and dumplings and cranberry sauce. It’s not about that. It’s about football.”
On his relationship with Lance Leipold and what they share: “His optimism. His passion for the game. He’s always positive. I’ve never talked to him and he’s not positive. And this was with them starting out bad as well. He was focused on me and making sure I’m okay, and I made sure he’s okay. He’s a stand-up guy. Great young man.”
On Phillip Houston’s injury: “We’re hoping he didn’t tear an ACL. That’s what we thought. That’s the thinking right now. I’m hoping that’s not the case, but thank God we have depth. We have tremendous depth on the offensive line.”
