Tonight was an emotional ending for interim head coach Mike Sanford and the Buffs as they close out their season with another tough 63-21 loss to Utah. They finish 1-11 overall and 1-8 in the Pac-12.

Here's everything that Sanford said after the game:

Opening statement

A really emotional locker room that I just left. It was obviously not not the start that we wanted. Maddox Kopp in there, our fourth starting quarterback of the season when which is obviously never a great situation. But even just watching him grow throughout the game, watching him settle in throughout the game, I think that's a little bit indicative of our season and when we got to halftime obviously it was a situation in which nobody felt good about it senior night, senior day. I was able to talk to the group about Ben Finneseth of all people and I said to our team at halftime, I said, you know Ben Finneseth, he went down in a blaze of glory. That's what I wanted to see from the entire team in the second half. I told the team after the game in locker room that I don't believe in moral victories normally, but tonight I did and not what we want, but I was really proud of us coming into the halftime in the spot we were in and at the end of the day, we won the second half. That might sound like ‘you're playing against their backups or their third string players.’ For that team, that locker room of players to not only not quit, but actually go fight and put together a really good second half of football. It speaks to exactly what's going on in that group and in our organization right now. It's been fight. It's been character. It's been fighting through all the adversity that we continue to face and Noah Fenske, he came up to me after the game, you know, I was mad at him for the 15 yard penalty after Frank Filip’s touchdown, gave me a hug and he told me coach he made football fun for me for the first time in my life. It really hit me, It struck me right into the eyes. That I told the team this is that this group of players made football fun for me again. And you know, as hard as that probably is to understand on the outside looking in. This profession is really hard. There's a lot of challenges with it. To have a group of players do what they did and continue to fight. I'll never forget this. I'm so grateful to this group of players. It really has been the most enjoyable season in my life. I told him before the game one of my favorite scriptures is I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race and I've kept the faith. I don't think there's anything that could define this group of players, coaches, and everybody inside of these walls more than that. I'm really proud of them.

On Sanford connecting with the players

I think when I stood up here and I made a proclamation eight weeks ago, I think it was Sunday, eight weeks ago that for the next two months I was gonna make this thing all about the players. I think when I put myself out there that way, there was accountability truly to myself to make it that way. This industry is a cutthroat business. Everybody uses social media to further their own causes and I'm sick and tired of it to be honest. The coaching profession that my dad was in from 1976 Till even now but really in that core of the 60s 70s 80s 90s and not 60 Sorry, Dad 70s 80s 90s, this is what the profession was about. It was about relationships, it was about demanding respect but also building relationships that are transformative and I think when I came out, and said I was gonna make it about these players. I really truly did that for two months. I think the group of players saw that I was genuine in that as opposed to just speaking with a microphone in front of me and then doing something completely different.

On players not leaving to the portal after the firing of Karl Dorrell

It shows the character in that locker room, it shows the investment from our coaches into those players and those players into our coaches. The thing that's that I think is absolutely insane at this stage of the season being over, is those players believe, they truly believe, they believe in the coaches they believe in the schemes and usually when you're not having the tangible on field success, players start thinking oh, it's the play callers faults or somebody else's fault. I've never been a part of adversity in football where that the players believe in the coaches and the coaches believing the players all the way to the bitter end. Of course we all want different results, we did. I think this final four game stretch of the season. It's proven to be a pretty ridiculous task and what I'm proud of is that we had guys that were playing extremely banged up. Nothing that was worrisome for their football futures, but, we were playing with a lot of guys that really gutted it out. And that just shows to your point, not only that I'm not going to enter the portal, I'm going to keep fighting, even if everything externally is negative about what we're doing. Everything internally is positive. That to me is the biggest accomplishment of this group of players is just to not only stay together as a team, but also fight to the bitter end and I think tonight was really indicative of that theme of this season.

On Frank Fillip’s touchdown

I told Coach Patterson, I'm gonna get into some extreme sarcasm here, but I told Coach Patterson before the game I said, “Clay, if you don't call the Frank Fillip pass in the game, I'm going to fire you after the game.” You can imagine there's a lot of you know, it's kind of a slapstick statement. I told the team that in the locker room afterwards, and they were just, I mean, it was pandemonium in there. I think that offensive line group in particular to me, it is the backbone of this football team. I do bed checks every night before the game. Every road game, home game, it just just the camaraderie that they have together and that I've had the chance to have with them. I mean, there's times where Bryan McGinnis is walking me around. He's trying to keep me on schedule, and I get in there with Casey Roddick and Tommy and it's 20 minutes or so in their room. I just think that their commitment level, their love for each other and their love for CU is so real. And I've always said that football is a game that's all about the moments and memories and obviously the scoreboard wasn't what we want it to be and I told them don't look at the stinking thing for the second half. That is a moment and a memory that Frank Philip will never forget. That's a moment for I guarantee you that Tommy Brown will never forget. And those little victories to me, they add up to big W's. That's something that we've been talking about internally is we got to celebrate the little V's because we're in a situation where it was gonna be challenging with the schedule that we had, and what was coming, and our lack of depth at certain places that we we had to be able to find the joy in those little victories and that's I'd say that was that was a big victory for the team in terms of just fighting through it.

On Maddox Kopp

Maddox, he's been a pro since day one. I'll be real candid, there was a time where we're legitimately he was probably the sixth string quarterback on the roster. I'm being 100% honest. He had he went through a pretty long period of time and fall camp even into the first four weeks of the season where he had the Yips, throwing the football like I'm talking major Yips, whether it was something physically he told me it was never anything physically, but it was to the point and I was honest with him, I said, “I love your professionalism.” I love how well you study the game. But I have to be able to see you make some throws. It's really weird. The last two, three weeks I've watched his growth, throwing the football, his confidence grow and I expected him to play well today because of how he had been growing and because his management of the offense. A lot of the stuff that sometimes, if you just look at the stats, you don't see it all but snap count, I mean everything tonight was fairly clean with that regard. Managing the shot clock out of bang a couple of timeouts that was more on us as coaches. He managed the game admirably well. But if you think about this, he's playing his first college snap in game 12 against the best defense in our conference, go get a kid. But what I loved about it is that you watched him kind of grow into the role as the game went on. And that was to be expected. Right? Utah plays a ton of man coverage, they pressure you. They blitzed us back to the Stone Age in the first half and in the second half, they kept blitzing us, but I was really proud of just how he competed, he look on his face, the buy-in from the players. I was really, really proud of Maddox, if you think about that, coming from where he was probably would have been sixth quarterback to go into a game two months ago, and now he's out there and arguably played some of the better quarterback play as the game went on that we've seen all year.

On J.T. Shrout being hurt

J.T. was really banged up. He practiced on Tuesday, he limped around. And like I've said from the beginning, both it was a decision that was made by myself…I wanted to give our team the best chance to go be successful. I didn't want it to look like he was out there just trying to get it out with a lower leg injury. It wasn’t anything major, something that's going to end his career and is it wouldn't have ended season but he was really banged up. It was really his touchdown run against SC started it and then he played through it against Washington and it got worse and a couple of hits that he sustained in that game and then he was to a point where I think he just couldn't function at a level where he could get away from the rush. Drew [Carter] took a little bit of a knock in the Washington game too. But ultimately Drew was up. Maddox was up and that was about it. So I'm glad we made it through the game because Brady Russell would have gone out with a bang if you would have had to play a little quarterback there at the end. So a lot of really proud of just Maddox just stepped in and I thought he played very fiercely as the game went on.

On Sanford’s favorite moment

Even my mom and dad told me that you won't remember some of the scores or the games, you'll remember some of the interactions. I would just say this week of practice was some of the most fun I've ever had coaching football, because it was going to be a massive challenge to get our players to be ready to go play another game after the result that we had at Washington. And I think it's funny because there was a video that went out with the penalty kick shootout and then Coach Turley stopping Andrew Hamstra, a trainer. It's the national rivalry of strength staff versus sports medicine staff and then when Coach Turley hit the gritty, I don't think that I've ever seen a team erupt like that until Friday night when Frank Phillip caught a touchdown. So it's really a lot of those moments. There's been a lot of them. You know, and I think the big thing coming back to it is just even have players like Noah Fenske and there were quite a few players who came up to me after the game just telling me that you made football fun again for us. Like that meant more than me then I think probably anything that that could have ever happened. That probably just seeing a young man that went through a lot at Iowa transfer here and say that like that's he went through a lot and I'm just that meant a lot to me.

On the legacy of the senior class

I think this is a legacy of a senior class that I think went through more adversity than any other CU, Buff senior class in the history of of the program. And for them to fight in fourth quarter down, frankly 42 to nothing and find joy in that situation. I think that's our legacy, staying together, loving each other. Making it about what it's really about and it's about these relationships and competition and fighting. We had a moment last night where it was just me and the seniors and it was a team meeting. And T Lang [Terrance] got up and said something that I just absolutely loved. He said that from my time here at CU. Not only have I grown, but I become a man that can look adversity straight in the face. He said “I'm gonna go punch it in the beep beep mouth. I thought about it, the fact that he at 23 years old can recognize that and understand that no matter what comes his way and he said football and in life, like that's a legacy because they finished well. Didn't finish a win, they didn't finish with the conference championship, but they finished together at the place that they started on the field fighting to the very bitter end and there's no adversity it's going to be able to get in the way of these guys. I believe that.

On relief that the season is over

No, I think it's closure. In terms of knowing that you did fight, fight the fight until the end that you ran the race until the end. The feeling that I got in that locker room after tonight's game is that there's nobody who's glad the season's over. And that’s a testament to everybody that was inside of these walls, working their tails off. Players, coaches, support staff, trainers, strength staff, everybody that nobody's like, ‘whew get out of here.’ That's why I'm laid up here is that you know everybody's sticking around and just didn't really want it to end. So, you know, I just, I'm just proud that there's no relief. There might be a relief to fans, right but not to us. We love being together every day.

On Sanford’s future

I told Mark Johnson on the radio after the game, I'm gonna be here. I'm gonna be here for these players. We have our banquet tomorrow. We're gonna go attack the heck out of the banquet. We're gonna fight through adversity in the banquet. I'm gonna meet with every single one of the players. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I'll take a pretty solid break there on Tuesday to watch the third match of the World Cup against Iran. Other than that, I just want to be here for them to just just love them up, reassure him that everything's gonna be okay. And ultimately, I just want to continue to serve this group of players as long as they'll have me and I think it's important for me is just to be that presence for them and not doing a selfish manner. Doing it in a way that truly does show them that I care about them no matter what. And I love them no matter what. And I'm here for him no matter what. So you know, I'd say that's where I'm at right now. I think that I don't know exactly what the future holds. And I'm just glad that I know Who holds the future and I do think that that's to me personally that's bigger than Rick George is bigger than Phil DiStefano, it's bigger than the old President Saliman. That is where I think my undying faith in this was an assignment I was called to do. And I wanted to do this assignment very well. And then just trust for whatever lies ahead.

On meeting with the players individually again

I think it's gonna be really important for them, too. I think that they have a lot of uncertainty, and they don't know what to think about what's going to happen, what's going on. There's going to be all kinds of different, there already have been all kinds of different ebbs and flows with regards to you know what the future holds, who's gonna be here? I just want to be an adult that is here for them and cares for them in that moment. And it might be that I don't know what the future holds. But you know, I think even just kind of started that process with the players in the locker room after the game just to let him know I'm here for them, period. I think that they really do trust me because I think they've seen that I've been genuine through it all. I just want to be here for them and here for CU too. I'm employed by CU but I'm employed by CU to serve these players. And that's one thing that I think we always have to remember in these positions of coaching and these positions of leadership at every level of a university. We are in a higher end institution that we are called to serve the student body to serve the student athletes in our instance. And that's what I'm going to continue to do.