Colorado secured bowl eligibility for the first time since 2020 on Saturday as the Buffs defeated Cincinnati to move to 6-2 on the season. After the game, head coach Deion Sanders met with reporters for his postgame press conference, and you can read the full transcript from his time with the media below.
Opening statement: "Great victory. I'm a little upset because of the way we landed. I like to land a little cleaner, a little more smoother. We had a really good game going until the end with all the penalties. I don't like that. We're better than that. We have more structure, we're more structured than that. We have more discipline than that, and just the back and forth with the substitutions. I'm gonna take responsibility to that, but I promise you, you shouldn't see that again. So I'm a little disappointed in how we landed. Mata was phenomenal at the conclusion of the game, doing what he did. Like I always tell them, I don't care how high it goes through the uprights. They don't give you points for that, as long as it goes through. I'm good with that. Great team. They did not beat themselves. They played soundly. I mean, they weren't going to give up. We increased the lead at one point. They still didn't give in or give up. That's a testament to their coaches and their staff. Played their butts off. We had some guys fighting through pain, fighting through agony and all that. But they stayed out there and gave it their all until they couldn't do it anymore. But overall, love what we did running the football. We made a conscious effort in the beginning of the week that we were gonna run the football. Isaiah did a wonderful job, Dallan did as well. And, I mean, you look at stats, sometimes you go in at halftime and you're critical of some things, then you say he's what? He's 22 for what? It don't make sense, because we take it for granted how good this young man is, and I would be saying that even if he wasn't my son, but he just happens to be. Travis was phenomenal. Jimmy, he's very apologetic on the taunting penalty that got called. LaJohntay, we blessed him. He wanted number one when he came here. Number one ain't something you acquire. It's given to you. It's not a number that you choose for yourself. I'm old school, so we presented that, he earned it. So I gave it to him tonight, afterwards going into the bye week. Drelon was tremendous as well. Mark Vassett did the doggone thing, three inside the 20, I think three inside the five or the 10, something phenomenal like that. Cam Silmon did his thing. Overall, good game. Just not excited about the way we landed the plane. Peggy is fighting COVID Right now, and we wanted to give her love and appreciation and present her with the game ball, so we called her. Rick was gracious enough to call her, and she answered on the first ring in Peggy fashion, with plenty of energy and that umph that she has, and we told her that she is going to a bowl. Now, we want to make sure she goes to the best possible bowl that she could possibly go to, and that means a lot to us, that really does. And she was so appreciative and thankful, but she means so much to this program, so we're glad that we could honor her in that realm. Now, we just got to get a private plane to make sure she's comfortable on the way there. Yeah, we ain’t putting Peggy on the regular plane, I promise you that, but I'm thankful that we were able to do that for her."
On what becoming bowl eligible and what’s in the future: "It's cute. It really is, because we really want that. But that's not all we're after. That's one of the hurdles that we're jumping over, that we're going over. That's a tremendous hurdle, that we're happy, we're excited, but that's not the end goal for us. That's the beginning, but we are thankful and appreciative that the hard work is going noticed."
On the importance of the end of the first half: "It wasn't thinking about those type of things. You're thinking about the usage of your timeouts. You’re thinking about scoring and knowing we’re getting the ball back in the second half, and you double down on it. You get points and you come back in the second half and you score too. That's tremendous. We're excited with some of the things that we're doing. We really are. We still are a work in progress. And we're happy about some things. We're happy about some of the players and what they're doing. I got to see the film to see what everyone truly did and clean up some of the mistakes we made, tremendous mistakes we made, because we shouldn't have let that game get that close. But we got the dub. That's what counts."
On Travis Hunter's performance this week: "Well we never doubt Travis whatsoever. So him being himself is just what we expect. That's the only thing we expect. We don't expect to see anything else."
On shutting down Cincinnati's passing game: "We got some good DBs too. I mean, that's not taking nothing away from them, but I think we have three to four corners that can start anywhere. So I'm really satisfied with that, and we're improving each week, but the front end compliments the back end and vice versa. I think we're striving. We're making strides to be where we want to be and to do some of the things that we want to do."
On Shedeur Sanders’ performance: "Tonight was one of those nights. I mean that's what we expect. He's so darn good that we don't give him the credit that he deserves for some of the things that he does. See, you don't even know that stuff because you're into the game and you're coaching, you don't even think about that kind of stuff. I remember, I think he did that one time in Jackson, that he was phenomenal like that. But, wow. Wow. Wow. And they only mention him for the Heisman? He's not even mentioned? Oh, my bad. He's my son. That’s why."
On Alejandro Mata and his field goal at the end: "Well, the whole time we're sitting up there saying we got it. They put the flags up and they let me know what we got to get to for Mata time, and we had it. We were trying to steal a touchdown at the end because we knew they were going to be in Cover 1, and they ended up dropping an outside backer into one of the slant lanes that we wanted to hit a quick slant and try to house that thing. But we got what we wanted because we knew we had the three because Mata is clutch man. Mata is so wonderful, and we don't care about how high it goes through the uprights. We do not care, but it goes through the uprights. That's the thing that counts the most. And he's so consistent of a person. He's so consistent as an athlete and consistent as a teammate to his team."
On the importance of Isaiah Augustave to the offense’s balance: “I'm not just gonna say his success. I think the running game’s success, period. We got three to four capable backs that can do the thing in that manner. So just running the football period takes a tremendous amount of pressure off the quarterback, off the line, and now we have a lot more balance. I'm not going to say that wins games but it sure does help the situation. It gives Pat (Shurmur) more flexibility to call some things he wouldn't normally call if we couldn't run the ball. The line is taking initiative. They get sick of being talked about and saying that we can't run the football and they did a phenomenal job tonight from the beginning to the end.”
On if Isaiah Augustave’s performance could make him the guy moving forward: “Yeah. I mean, all those guys given an opportunity, I think all of them will produce. They're so different. They're so versatile. In some situations you need this type of guy, some situations you need that type of guy. And it was his turn tonight, and he performed. I mean, all those guys are hungry, all those guys want to contribute. All those guys just want an opportunity. And they all have gotten opportunity, and it was just his turn tonight, and he performed greatly.”
On possibility of being in the College Football Playoff: "Well, we ain't thinking about the playoffs right now. We go one game at a time. We don't even want to be ranked. Don't rank us, please! We don't like that. We’d rather be in the back, in the dark, just chilling in the cut. We good, we cool. We straight. All right, so don't feel pressure to rank us. We’re good, I promise you everybody, we are straight. So we're not thinking about that. We're thinking about going into this bye week, healing some injuries, correcting some things that we didn't do well, and having a good time and probably giving them a day or two off. They're not getting a whole week off, I promise you that, but a day or two off, they deserve that tremendously."
On the rotation at guard: "Tremendous. It keeps guys fresh. It throws the opposing team off when they're rotating, as well. And I think people should do that more in college football because the defensive line is rotating. So, having a fresh lineman to rotate means they're getting playing time now. They may not dip and jump in the portal at the conclusion of the season. It's tremendous that we have that type of depth to do that."
On whether Phil Loadholt dictates the rotation: "Yes. That's his line. That's his thing. And I love everything he stands for. I love the way he challenges those guys, the way he supports them, the way he shows them love, but he gets on them pretty tough. I love everything about it."
On the defense compared to last year: "Well, let's flush last year down the toilet. Let's not even look down there. Let's just flush it and walk away. I'm happy with whowe have and what we have: the staff and the players that we brought in. I'm truly happy with all of the above, and you guys and you ladies are starting to see everything come together, but we’re not nearly where we desire to be. Not nearly."
On the importance of making plays after a catch: "It's not that we stress that. We have those types of athletes that are capable of that. Those are the types of young men that we go and seek out. We want to sign them here because we know what they can do with the ball when it gets into their hands. Anybody can make a catch, but do you go to work with it after you make the catch? And those are the types of commitments we've garnished from a couple of guys up here this weekend. So, we want to keep that going and keep attracting those types of young men."
On Shedeur not being mentioned in the Heisman Trophy race: "You know darn well why is that. I don't care. I really don't. It's just strange. It's funny to me. I just think it's just ignorant, but it's funny. It's funny to us because Shedeur could care less. Shedeur wants to be drafted in a wonderful city. He wants to win out, and that's what he thinks about. He isn't thinking about no darn Heisman, man. Travis is the best college football player in the country. We all know that. Why are we even deliberating over that? What are we doing? When does that change? What are the criteria? Somebody needs to say, what are the criteria for that prestigious award? Because we're looking for the best college football player ever. There has never been a Travis Hunter, ever. And I'm up here saying that."
On running more than they throw and the development of the program: "Well, it's our program. We're on a wonderful journey. We know what direction we're going. We've done this before at seven different locations, from youth to all the way up. And this isn't nothing new to us, truly, and we're just happy that we've got an opportunity to show you what we're capable of doing. These young men are excited as well. They love it here. They love to play football for us, and they're attracting like-minded men that they're going to love it as well. I met with several of them today, and I can't wait to see them in a Buff uniform. I can't wait to see what they bring to the table."
On if he has seen anything like the Jimmy Horn Jr. overturned touchdown: "Well, there were a lot of things that you see here that you never seen before that we can't understand, like that pass interference in the corner that nobody saw, right? We're not upset. We don't get upset with that. We just have the expectation that things are going to be different. We're not crying by any means because it's just a part of the game. It's life. Jimmy is the best young man that you could ever fathom. When you're building a young man for your program and a receiver, you want all the attributes that Jimmy Horn has. So, getting it called back, I didn’t like it because I wanted him to get to six, he was so broken about what transpired. But we got him together and let him know we love him. We appreciate him, just don’t do that no more. But I'm proud of the way he plays. We’ve got to get him the ball more. He's so darn good."
On the goal of the season now that they’re bowl eligible: "That isn't the goal. I wanted to do that for Peggy, so that was kind of me. That goal wasn't about us. That was kind of what I wanted for Peggy because she deserves it. We had to have a rallying cry for some rhyme or reason. But we want so much more. We want so much more. That's why we practice the way we practice, and that's why we go at it the way we go about it. We want so much more. That was just the beginning of what we desire around here."
On if past winners and nominees should vote for the Heisman: "We think that same way about the Hall of Fame. We wish Hall of Famers would make the vote for the future Hall of Famers instead of committees that don't know what the heck they are talking about, what they are doing, or who's who. It is what it is. There are some voters out there who really are good at what they do. So, you can't discredit them as well because they're really good at what they do. You can never go right with that kind of stuff. Somebody's always going to have opposition. I just get a kick out of it."
On the mindset going into the Cincinnati game: "We wanted to win. We wanted to play good, solid football and be fundamentally strong. We didn't want to go in there and come out of there with a multitude of penalties because that just ruins it for you. We wanted to be balanced in every phase of our game: running the football, throwing the ball, stopping the run, defending the pass, special teams, and punting well. We knew Mata was gonna do his thing as well as Mate. But one thing that we're really trying to get is that ball in the end zone. On kickoffs, we are really trying to get that ball in the end zone. I think we had a couple of touchbacks today, and that's tremendous for us. But we have to get that ball in the end zone, so we don't even give them an opportunity. So, that was the mindset. We really wanted to go out there, home game, the best fan base ever. As a matter of fact, let me say this to whom it may concern: please don't throw bottles and things on the field. We're better than that. We're so much better than that. And the people doing that, you're better than that, and nobody deserves that. Somebody's going to get hit, somebody's going to get hurt, now you’re going to jail, you’re gonna second guess that. Now they’re throwing you out of school, it’s gonna be all of that and you don’t want that. We're better than that. So let’s not do that by any means. We are so much better than that as a university and as young men and women in the crowd. We are so much better than that. So, thank you for not doing that anymore. If you hear this message, it's critical because we are so much better than that."
On whether he thinks the Texas fans’ actions last weekset a precedent for fans throwing things: "No, no, no. What's good for them isn't good for us--some things you just don't tolerate. We don't tolerate certain things. We have one of the most beautiful campuses and a beautiful city; you barely ever see trash around here. I walk on campus every day. I even walked this morning. This place is so beautiful. And we just can't stoop to those types of lows because it may be the popular thing at the time. We're better than that. So that's what I'm trying to stabilize, that we are so much better than that. I think we have got the best fanbase in the country. You guys are doing a wonderful and phenomenal job."
