Colorado interim head coach Mike Sanford met with the media following the Buffs' 42-34 loss Saturday night at Folsom Field.

Watch the press conference here or scroll down for a full transcript of his comments.

Opening statement:

"First off, I wanted to just commend our team for the fight that they exhibited throughout the entirety of four quarters and the resolve. I think we started slow as we know defensively in the first half, built ourselves a bit of a hole. I really think the first half was probably the best offensive football that we played in the season. I was pleased with some of the playmaking. I was really pleased also with the fact that we had 100-yard rusher, 100-yard receiver. I believe it was the first time in a couple of years, at least a year and a half. Right now, we're at a place where I believe that the team is fighting. It's showing up on Saturdays, the way that they're fighting in practice, the way that they're going about their work every day. But obviously the missing link is playing that type of football when a defense gets to stop, the offense goes in scores or the Trevor Woods interception, we need to back that up with seven. If offense goes and it has a tremendous drive, the defense has to get to stop. Those are the things right now that I believe we're going to piece together throughout the course these next four weeks. We know that the challenges get even more significant, but we're up for the challenge and we're gonna keep fighting. I'm really proud of the resolve. We’ve just got to put it all together. Jordyn Tyson today was fantastic. I was really proud of just how he's practiced and how it showed up on game day and really impacted the game."

On how he fixes defensive inconsistencies:

“I think it's a combination of factors. I think a little bit of the bump that we got in the Cal game was as a result of Cal not knowing schematically what we were going to do. There was a little bit of that today, as well. You get a little bit of a bump when you go out and play no-huddle football which we practice and plan, but unless it's on film, you build your entire plan with what's on film. Obviously we prepared by going back in into 2015 to 2018 Chandler High School offense and it was different than that. There was probably more similarities in their offense that they'd done prior to this game but just in a no-huddle manner. Hats off to them, obviously, for getting going early. I think we did settle in in the second half. But obviously we have a really good opponent coming in. It will be good for us to be able to put our full preparation into what's on tape. I think that is a part of it. College football nowadays is so different. You have two interim head coaches. I was talking to the head coach here at ASU, the interim head coach, and this is college football in 2022. A lot of changes. There’s week to week changes, schematically, different coordinators. It's just different football than it’s been historically. But I was pleased with how our defense did settle in. I had the full belief at the end of the game that we were going to get a stop and that's why we attempted to really blast off the front line. We got the ball on the ground with returner. We pinned it back deep. Our time chart shows that if we get off the field in that scenario, which we had the last two drives defensively, then we're in a position to go put one together offensively. So I really do believe we did the right thing and putting our trust in our defense. We just didn't get this up.”

On Deion Smith’s resolve:

“Deion looked like that in practice this week. I think I said in one of the press conferences or after Tuesday. He was running harder in practice than he was before the injury. I think he ran his hardest as he probably has in his entire career. He ran physically. He looked fast. He made plays. He was communicating. It just says so much about how much he loves his game and just how much he loves his teammates. That’s what I think we're seeing right now – a whole bunch of fight for the brotherhood that exists on that on that team.”

On second-half defensive adjustments:

“It was great to come out and the first defensive stand of the second half was three and out. To my point, we need to go score a touchdown there. That’s the missing link and we didn't get that done. We went three and out and matched that. I went to the locker room and I saw the communication was happening amongst the staff. I see Gerald Chatman working with the front, Rod Chance up there diagramming all the different looks that they'd shown in the first half and changed some of the calls that we were making. I just had a lot of confidence in what they were going to do in the second half. I think there was a there was a resolve in the coaching staff that I think the players fed off of and I think that's something that they are really believing in right now – that our coaching staff on both sides of the ball is gonna make the adjustments that we need to give ourselves a chance to make the plays to win the game. Bourguet played, I think, really courageous football. We were getting some hits on him at times. Some of those throws, he's throwing off his back foot.There were probably about four of them that were really those 15 to 25, 30 yard throws where the ball is just flailing in the air. We have a defender there on a majority of them. But the tight end makes a great play, the receiver makes a great play. We were in position to make some of the plays, but a couple of those, the ball didn't really bounce our way or it didn't fall out way and I think our defenders know that when you're in those positions and you're guarding obviously in a retreating manner and you're not facing the ball, you’ve got to play through the catch point. That’s one thing to work on this week.”

On missed tackles:

“There's one obviously that jumps out. It was probably a four-on-one play. I think tackling is all technique. It's all fundamentals and it’s also want-to. I think we have guys that want to do it. We’ve got to continue to create calls that eliminate space because tackling with a lot of space is a lot more challenging, but it’s different than what I saw earlier in the year. It wasn't like there was a ton of space consistently in the run game, pass game. It was just being in that position, wrapping up and holding on for dear life. I saw Tyrin Taylor grow up in the second half in terms of tackling from the safety position. He's been playing the nickel position all year. I saw him hold on. I saw Simeon Harris hold on. There's going to be some stuff that we point to that were positives of guys that hadn't played in those positions. Really, Simeon hadn't played really any nickel minus a couple of snaps. Now, he’s our full-time starting nickel against 10 and 11 personnel and they have basically three wides or four wides on the field. I saw him kind of grow up as the game went on. I think that's where we're at. I mean it's just growing up through the course of the games, taking the experience of today and knowing I can get some of these big dudes on the ground. That's got to be our mentality. We’ve got to find a way to get ball-carriers and receivers to the Earth. We’ve got to get them to the Earth. However you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to hold on. Tyrin showed that and I was pleased with Simeon, as well.”

On the plan with Owen McCown and possibly redshirting him:

“I think we'll have the discussions. Those are ongoing discussions that we're having internally and like I've always said, I want to do what’s best for the student-athlete because that's what we're here for – to put those guys in the best positions possible. But I will say the fact that Owen was starting when he was, I don't think that was something that he probably envisioned, to be starting at 167 pounds, 172 pounds depending on the day. He went out and I think did the job admirably. I was really pleased with how he did, but his body was starting to break down and so when you get into this type of a stretch and you're already a little bit banged up, we have to think about how he's the type of player that probably traditionally would have redshirted. He's a developmental player. He comes from a lineage of Josh and Luke McCown that were both late bloomers. I'm pretty sure Josh didn't really play even at Sam Houston until his fourth or fifth year in a starting capacity. We're gonna do what's best for Owen, we're gonna do what's best for our program going forward and we'll make those decisions. We'll want to be obviously as candid and open about it with you guys as possible.”

On J.T. Shrout’s performance:

“I talked to them a couple of times on the sideline after a series. Your fundamentals are non-negotiable, standing the pocket, throwing from a great platform, hitting your back foot and letting the ball go. When he does that, I think he's really good. He did do some good things actually outside the pocket. Obviously, the touchdown to Jordyn Tyson stands out. On Montana's, we ran a double move to Montana and he created a little bit, but just trusting your protection, throwing from a base, throwing from a platform. I think he started faster this game, but the consistency obviously to get the completion percentage numbers, it's got to go up. We know it's not gonna get easier. But we’ve just got to continue to find those completions and make sure that we're playing with the appropriate fundamentals. The interception to me, that was one where just trusting your protection, it was a flea flicker. We had a run action with it. I felt like Jack Hestera really won on the route and that ball requires more of what J.T. loves to do, which is rip a ball with not a ton of air, but I don't think he really truly trusts his protection. He kind of threw the ball off his back foot and then it really gave the safety a chance to recover. That was a critical play in the game.”

On Jalin Conyers:

“It was one of those games. I watched him throughout the course of the year. He's a big tight end. On the sideline, we look at him and he looks like a blocking tight end. It was one of those games where he made some tremendous plays. The ball found him. It's almost like there were some of the plays that he made where there's a defender kind of draped all over him and the ball just literally like lodged into his chest and he did a great job making plays. A lot of guys have those types of days. II don't think he was a focal part of their game plan, per se. But I think he obviously made some spectacular plays when his number was called. I think they obviously found something in him. Not really having much to go off of, a seven-game sample size, it didn't really become a focal part of the game plan.”

On Jordyn Tyson:

“I think Jordyn Tyson's a superstar. I think he's gonna be a superstar in this conference for a while. I think he's gonna have a tremendous career in the game of football. What I love about Jordan is he's kind of embodied a little bit of the culture that we brought forth, just the juice, the joy, the smile that he has on his face at practice. He's an infectious guy. Even the fan base and the crowd fed off of his energy today. He's such a natural route runner. He's got tremendous ball skills. His drops this year are a little bit different. They're almost like he might have slipped out of a cut and balls just on him. There's not many of his drops that are just fundamental drops. He is turning into a sure-handed player, an explosive playmaker for us. Frankly, we need it. It's been a great emergence for us offensively. To be honest, through the first four weeks of the season, there were opportunities that were out there. I was always wondering who's gonna be the guy who's gonna make the play and bust an explosive play. I think tonight was the first time we really stringed together some explosive plays between some of the runs that Deion had, obviously some of the plays that Jordyn had. The punt return was just spectacular.

On balancing long-term versus short-term decisions given his role as an interim coach:

“What I said when I stood up here on that Sunday when I was put into this position is that this is about our student-athletes. This is about our players. I'm going to continue to do everything in my power to love these kids, to put them in the best positions to have success and then to create more memories. We’ve got four games left. We're gonna go create some memories out there on that field. I think we just found out the kick time for Oregon to be 1:30. We look forward to a packed house again. The student section today was incredible. Even towards the tail end, it was awesome watching those that stayed. They were witnessing what would have been one of the most incredible comebacks in Folsom history, but we just fell short. I think that's a big thing for me. I want to care for these players, their presents and their futures. I think it's less about him [McCowen] saying I want to redshirt. It's like what's best for you with where he's at in his developmental stage, what is best for him and also what's best for our team? You think about it from the flip side – if we just say, Owen, you have to play right and then he gets beat up, then obviously, I'm not looking out for the best interest of Owen McCown. Great my

On the challenges of preparing for a quarterback without a lot of tape:

“I think there's some challenges, especially when obviously Emory [Jones] was a big part of the plans for the majority of the year. We knew he was more of a passer and that showed up today. He exhibited toughness in the Washington game. It led to the win. It was a pretty similar scoreline, if I'm not mistaken. I anticipated him being a guy that can make the throws. And I think if we just had tackled better and there were probably about two significant coverage breakdowns that we had that I think allowed them to have some explosive plays. A lot of the balls that he was throwing up there were backfoot throws, where you see the ball in the air and you're like there's no way that's going to be completed. The ball just kept finding receivers. Credit to him for showing toughness.”

On preparing for the next four weeks:

“I think it is just living in the day. We built this thing all as a process. We've seen the results of that process in a positive manner. I would say that we saw some results today. Not the ultimate result that we all want, not the ultimate result that certainly I wanted, but we did see it in the fight, right? We hadn't we hadn't really exhibited that trait, right? You think about the scoreline being 42-20. What's happened throughout the course of this year when that scoreline looked like that? That's why a lot of people left. But I'm gonna tell those people that left, this team is gonna fight to the very end, and there will be a breakthrough and I believe that and I think the process that we're going about, the players believe in it, they're seeing some of the fruits of their labor. I think putting it all together, we're going to see that that'll come to fruition at some point. Obviously, we're going to take it, just like we do every single day in our preparation, where you take it one day at a time. We just have to be the better team out there on Saturday, just for that Saturday. We're certainly not going to be supposed to beat anybody on the remainder of our schedule, but we're going to have the mentality that we just got to be the better team that won Saturday. We saw tonight in glimpses, like, man, if we just piece that all together, you better watch out. I think that that's what we saw some of that growth tonight.”