After Colorado completely crumbled on Friday, head coach Deion Sanders was far from pleased with his players' performances.
Here's everything Sanders said after CU's 46-43 double overtime loss to Stanford:
Opening Statement: “Hats off to our opposition today, they came back and played a heck of a game in the second quarter, and went on to get the victory. I’m truly upset and truly disturbed. I’m going to try my best to stay composed and do the best of my ability to handle this press conference because you deserve my best, and I’m gonna try my best to give it to you. Started off the game wonderfully, finally put it together in the first half like I desire, like we desire, like our players desire and the fans. Wonderful first half, 29 to nothing I believe the score was, am I correct? And you surrender I believe three touchdowns unanswered, which I can’t fathom right now. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, and then the thing just kept going. At halftime, I talked to them about, you know, the old cliche people say ‘it’s 0-0’, but that’s not true, it’s not 0-0 it’s 29 to nothing. I felt complacency going into the half because we stalled offensively, gave up some yardage as well, and just didn’t like how it felt going in at halftime. We come back out, and here comes the complacency. Here comes that team that I can’t stand, that you can’t stand, that you can’t understand how in the world that happens to us. But it did. And didn’t turn it back on I think until late in the fourth quarter, we were able to go down and get a score, and they were able to go down and they tie it up and we got overtime, and you don’t wanna go into overtime because they have nothing to lose. They have nothing to lose. So I was surprised that they kicked the field goal first, I thought they were gonna go for two and try their best to get it over with. But they were resilient. Big win by them, horrible loss by us. Let’s go.”
On the matchup between Travis Hunter and Elic Ayomenor in the second half: “Well, we didn’t play well, not just Travis. I think it all started when we gave up a 97-yard touchdown, which was flat out ridiculous. That’s when it all started. That’s when all the foolishness, all the complacency, all the mess started. I mean, how in the world do we give up a (97-yard touchdown)? Jesus. Our secondary did not play their best game, especially at the cornerback position.”
On the illegal substitution penalties: “So many different packages that you run, and so many different personnel. But you gotta understand, we’re basing our change in personnel on what they’re changing, so that kinda happens when they’re having different personnel groups and the referee is holding the game up so we get a chance to substitute as well. What was happening is one guy was coming off the field, appropriately, and he saw something and he stopped. So that gives us 12 men on the field. It was things like that that was transpiring. We can’t even wrap our head around it because we practice this stuff, repeatedly.”
On people starting to point fingers after this loss: “Well if you’re gonna point the fingers, point them at me, because if I’m allowing it, it should be on me not (Charles Kelly). Point it at me. We go over this stuff. We go over this stuff. And, there are times where you know what group is in, you know what group you’re on, but you have a lapse of understanding in those crucial moments. Right now, we’re not built for the moment. We’re not built for the moment. Some of our players aren’t built for the moment where they have to make a play, or they have to keep contain, or they have to make a block, or they have to get another yard. We’re not built for the moment right now.”
On the penalties: “Wow. I didn’t know it was that many. Not being smart. Not being disciplined. Not understanding the moment, That’s what that is. That’s what that is.”
On Trevor Woods playing linebacker: “I love him in that role. I really do. We have some good safeties, and Trevor is that kind of team guy that’s gonna do whatever he needs to do to help his team, and that’s something that he says, ‘I’ll do that’, and I think he played well. I haven't watched the film yet, but thank God that he’s willing to sacrifice what he’s accustomed to doing to help us improve ourselves.”
On Travis Hunter’s conditioning: “His conditioning is great. There was some plays he made, some plays he didn’t. It just so happens that the plays that he didn't make at the end are magnified, but the plays he made kept us in the game.”
On Shedeur Sanders’ final interception: “First of all, he should’ve never thrown the ball. I don’t know if they played it on replay, to show what happened with receivers on that play. Did they show it? What happened? Because I wanna see it cause I don’t know what happened, I wanna see what they showed. Something else transpired on that play that shouldn’t have happened. He shouldn’t have never thrown the ball though. Just give us another down and let’s kick the field goal, stay in it.”
On the kickoff out of bounds: “I don’t think we had that problem today. The kickoff that we did have go that went out of bounds was gonna be marked at the 20 regardless, so it was a moot point. Other than that, I think Jace (Feely) did a great job on kickoffs today. We improved in that area today.”
On taking the ball first in overtime: “We have a really good quarterback, and I trust him. That’s why. And we went right down and scored.”
On if it’s a good time for a bye week: “No, it’s not a good time for a bye week. I mean, if you’re having problems where you’re injured, and you’re having quite a few injuries then it’s a good time for a bye week, but when you’re playing like we played, you don’t want a bye week. You wanna work it out, you wanna make it happen. I wish we could play again next week, I really do.”
On if the offense needs to score to help the defense out in the second half: “Yes. You’re right. I don’t need to talk about it, you said it.”
On Juwan Mitchell’s absence: “Ask him what happened.”
On how the team moves forward from this loss: “You have no choice but to go forward, that’s life. This ain’t the only thing that’s going on in life. I mean, all you guys are dealing with something, you’re still moving, still progressing, you’re still going forward. We gotta do the same darn thing. We didn’t expect that. There’s a lot of things that goes on in life that’s unexpected, and this is one of them. We gotta knuckle up and let’s go. We can’t sit down and have no pity party, y’all don’t feel bad for us. Some of y’all are ecstatic about what transpired today, and I know that. But that’s cool. We’re gonna take this one on the chin, cause we deserve it. I’ve never been in one of these. I don’t remember, from youth on, I don’t remember being up 29 to nothing and losing a football game. I really don’t. This is a little tough for me, and I’m trying my best and I thank you all for your patience and thank you for your heart, because this is really tough for me. You can see when I’m amping up and I kinda see this stuff coming. You can see why I go at it like I go at it, because I can feel my team. I could feel what’s about to transpire and here we go.”
On how important the next 24 to 48 hours are: “What I just said in the locker room to the team is that they gotta make up their mind. Are they in love with this game or are they in like with it? Because when you love something you get to it unconditionally, you give everything you got to it, but when you like it that’s just a button you push. Like, that’s what they do on social media. So they’ve gotta figure out, do they love it or do they like it? And it’s hard for me because I love this. I love it. I, without a shadow of a doubt, I am truly 100% in love with this thing. And I just want people to match me. Just match my passion, match my heart, match my love, match my consistency, just match my mannerisms, just match every darn thing I give to this game. I love this. Sadly, I love it so much but the game don’t even occupy the ability to love you back. That’s a strange love isn’t it?”
On how the coaching staff is going to improve the secondary over the bye week: “Well, you always look at personnel, but it is what it is. It is what it is. So that was hard to look at. Defensive backs either play to make a play or play to stop a play from being made. I like the guys who play to make a play. I really do. We gotta get to that point. Thank you. God bless.”
