Everything head coach Deion Sanders said after the loss to Oregon State

Opening Statement: “First, thankful for another tremendous opportunity to glorify the Lord. Came up short once again. This is hard. This is hard. The reason it’s so hard is because you know you’re capable of doing better, playing better, performing better, calling better games, coaching better on my behalf. And you are coming up short when you have enough to get the job done. And it’s painful. It hurts myself, the team and all the coaches, the fans, some of you as well that actually care. They played a valiant game. I love their coach. I love what he stands for, I love what he’s about, I love the way he’s resurrected that entire program. But our kids fought hard. They really did. And I love the fact that they didn’t have any quit in them. That they rallied at the end and gave a heck of an effort. We just wish that we could do that in the midst of the game, in the first, second, third, and fourth quarter with consistency, and we haven’t found that level of consistency as of yet, and that’s what’s truly disheartening. Right before the half, we wanted to get out of there because we knew we were receiving the ball in the second half. So the plan was to either get a first down and try to go or if we don’t, we’re not successful on first down, okay, let’s hit the clock. Let’s hit the clock. We had a drop, I think we maybe had one or two dropped passes on that series which is very unfortunate, then they get a tremendous return and had three timeouts. We knew that going into it, they had a tremendous punt return and they were able to punch it in, which is crazy. And that hurt tremendously, the score before the half because we know we’re getting the ball in the second half. Had we not done that, the score is 7-3. 7-3 at halftime. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. At the end of the game, we had three timeouts. I was instructing one of the officials, and she’s done a wonderful job and I’m not blaming her that we want timeouts at the end of various plays, but they got a first down so when I made eye contact and I saw that (hand gesture), it was like we didn’t have timeouts and I just saw that (hand gesture). It confused me like we didn’t have any timeouts left. I’m pretty sure it’s on camera but it is what it is. It is what it is. I think we would’ve saved like 30-40 seconds at that. Let’s go.”

On if he sensed the same attention to detail in recent weeks: “Yeah. I don’t sense the same passion. I do sense the same attention to detail. The film time has gone up, less mistakes I think penalty-wise. We had some penalties in some crazy situations but we’ve condensed that. Over the last couple weeks we’ve been pretty good with that. It’s just some of the little foolish dern penalties that we gathered today. But the passion, the passion of it, the passion of that first game, the passion of those games, we’re missing that. And that’s still something we’re trying to apprehend and we’re trying to locate it as well.”

On the play calling: “It has so much to do—and that's a great question—but it's not just that, it's that, and execution of the play that is called. It's that and the timing of the play that's called. It's that and the thought process behind these things, a lot goes behind that. You guys are just seeing what you see. You're missing a whole lot of intangibles that transpired for us to be in this situation right now.”

On Shedeur’s pain level: “I mean, shoot, he’s been hurt. I think he went in to get an injection so he could finish (the game). So, it’s extraordinary. The kid is tough. He’s tough. He’s fighting through it, and he don’t make any excuses. He wasn’t raised like that. We’re not making any excuses. We don’t do that.”

On what Pat Shurmur provides that Sean Lewis doesn’t: “We're not going to demean Sean Lewis. We're not gonna do that, we’re not gonna take that tone. Sean is a good man, I think he's a good playcaller. We just needed change at the time. We just needed to try something else at the time. That's what we did and I don't look back on it, I don’t second guess myself whatsoever because there’s more to it than what you may know. So let's just trust the process. Let’s just trust the process. Sean is a, we’re not going to demean any coach on this staff by any means. I don’t get down like that, I don't move like that.”

On Tim Brewster now being an analyst: “You gotta understand now you only get so many coaches in college football. So when you make a move like we made, that means someone has to, I don’t call it a demotion. I think a move, everyone is making the same amount of money, so when you get demoted, that’s a hit on your check. So it’s a movement we had to make. I think we use, how many tight ends do we use throughout the games? So think about that. It’sd the proper move. You gotta think about that.”

On if Caleb Fauria is still with the team: “My focus is on winning these games, man. It’s not who shows up to practice and who doesn’t. I mean, let’s talk to (Tim Brewster) about that.”

On if not having in-line tight ends hurts them: “Nah, I mean, it’s scheming. You give them a look, you see what they’re in, then you call it based on what they’re in. Sometimes you go with it, sometimes we don’t have that particular guy that… I’m not gonna say that. We have some players that are pretty good at what they do. That’s just the preference of the OC or the call in the rhythm of the game at the time whether we use the tight end to block. If we’re gonna throw the dern ball I’d rather a receiver be out there. That’s my preference. We’ve got four or five pretty good guys that can really catch the ball, that can really run good routes, that can really get open. You saw that in the conclusion of the game.”

On when he decided to change playcallers: “I'm not going to disclose all my thoughts, man. I mean, my thoughts are my thoughts. I'm not going to disclose when I make a decision to do something. Just know I made a decision and I don't stumble or stutter or stutter on it, and I'm not looking back, it is what it is and that's what it's gonna be. I made a decision to help this team win. You guys don't know all the intangibles in it, you just from the outside of the crib looking in. I got tinted windows and you can't even see in the house but you're making conclusions on what I should or should not do.”

On what was different about the final two drives: “That could be what they presented to us defensively, as well as making up our mind that we want it. We gotta make up our mind. We saw a wonderful story today, last week I think I showed them a couple of days ago about the cows and buffaloes. When the storm comes, cows run from the storm, buffaloes run tio it. And I wanted them to make a decision which one they wanted to be. So they chose to run towards the storm, and they did a wonderful job and they finished strong and I was proud of them.”

On Shedeur throwing deep more than usual: “It’s not about taking chances, it's about taking what they give you. Like if they give us a one-on-one situation, we’re going to bet on our receivers. We have pretty good receivers, either they’re gonna come up with the catch or we’re gonna get a pass interference and that’s something that we did today. When they give us the looks, we’re gonna try our best to take advantage of what’s out there.”

On the recruits visiting this weekend: “Yeah, I think I’ve met with every recruit that came on an official. I met them earlier today.”

On the performance of the offensive line: “Well I know we got (more effort) in the end. I know we started off a little lackadaisical but I think we got it in the end. I always look at the statistics, I think we surrendered four sacks. I think that’s better than last week right? (laughs) So you gotta measure by that, you know our quarterback’s still hurting a little bit, but he was hurting coming into the game, we can’t put all of that on the line. But those guys, just looking them in the eyes today, they gave a better effort. A tremendously better effort. And I’m proud of them.”

On the defense’s performance: “The thing about defense is it’s different from the offense. When you’re listening to the calls, you know what’s supposed to happen. You know who’s supposed to be where, who’s supposed to do this, who’s supposed to do that. And coach (Charles) Kelly has done a tremendous job. I mean, he really has because I know he makes a certain call but if a certain guy don’t do what he’s asking him to do, that’s very problematic and we surrender points. He called a good game tonight. We had some situations where we didn’t do what was expected, but the guys rallied back and we still was able to provoke I think three or four turnovers? I didn't see that statistic. But those guys are coming along well and I’m truly proud of them. But it’s always one play here and there that causes you to sit in this seat and have this mood that I have right now.”

On the halftime message: “You gotta make up your mind right now. What you wanna be known as, what you wanna be. You know, we got some guys that say they wanna be pros, well we gotta act like it. We got some guys that say they wanna take care of their parents for the rest of their lives, well they gotta act like it. We got some guys that say they love this game, well I got to see it. We got some coaches that say the same thing and I want to see it, as well as myself. So I’m very critical of myself first and foremost, but we just gotta really act like we want it. There’s a difference between believing and thinking. You can think you're gonna win all day long, but when you believe it, that’s gotta be partnered with action. Belief comes with action. You know, faith without work is dead, that’s what my book tells me. So it’s okay to have that faith that you believe, but I gotta see that action behind it. And that’s what we challenged the young men to come out in the second half and show us the action of the belief. Not just sit up there and say ‘oh, we’re gonna win.’ That’s easy to say, but we need to see the action behind it. And that starts, not just on the field, that’s watching film, that’s preparing, that’s taking care of your body, getting the proper sleep, and just doing what we ask of you to do so we can win again.”

On the plan moving forward: “Well we take the proper courses every week. I mean, we motivate the guys, it’s hard to fathom that you need to motivate men that say they want it. We try to motivate these young men and they do a wonderful job, and I’m really proud of them fighting. I want to win, trust me. But as long as I don’t see quit I can deal with it a lot better than I could if I saw quit. I see guys fighting and trying their darndest, and you gotta see their faces when I’m talking to them in the locker room at the conclusion of the game. Like, that stuff hurts man. That truly hurts everyone in that locker room. If it don’t, there’s a problem. There’s a problem with your heart, there’s a problem with your unity, uniting and you loving what you say you love. There’s a problem. But we gotta get that passion back for this purpose. For what we’re trying to do, we gotta get it back.”

On if Pat Shurmur will continue calling plays: “You know how we've been doing it for the entire year? When we're in the big meeting room and we sit down, I’m right here. I think Coach Kelly, Coach Ray, Dennis Thurman, Coach Shurmur, then the OC and the DC sits on that side of the table. So, those guys right theorem Dennis Thurman and coach Shurmur, they’ve had a tremendous influence on suggesting things this entire season, that has not changed. Now you just have a tremendous influence on suggesting things this entire season. That has not changed. Now, you just have a tremendous influence on not just suggesting, but calling it. So, these things are not changing, it's still a group effort. It's not one guy doing good or one guy doing bad, this is a team effort last time I checked. So, we’re going to consistently do what we think is the best for us to win. I think both of these guys are really talented men, and both of them can contribute tremendously. You're looking at two different guys with two different references of experiences, and that's wonderful. When you have a guy that’s been dominant in college like a Coach Kelly defensively, and a Dennis Thurman as well. So, when you have a guy that’s gleaned almost 30 years, 20-some years from the pros as well as another guy from college, that's a phenomenal look. Because last week, we played against a pro guy, right? Defensive coordinator (D’Anton Lynn) for UCLA. So you need that unity, coaching-wise, as well. Great question. Thank you. We’re good? Thank you. God bless you all.”