Colorado, once again, couldn't find its rhythm as an explosive Ducks' offense and defense executed another dominant performance beating the Buffs, 49-10.
Here's what interim head coach Mike Sanford said after the game.
Transcript
Opening statement
Well, hats off to Oregon. Really good football team coming in. I thought at halftime we were competing at a fairly high level. You come out and put together a drive, put three on the board. But, just having answers consistently, both scoring after scores for our offense proved to be a challenge. I think where the game got away from us was really the two interceptions and that's on all of us. That's all me, it starts out with the head coach. We got to make sure that we put our guys in the best position. We started running the ball fairly well. I was pleased with Alex Fontenot's return.
I was pleased with Anthony Hankerson's return. Deion [Smith] was a little dinged up, and really, I thought our defense second half settled in fairly well. Obviously Oregon has an extremely dynamic offense and for the most part, we took away the chunk plays down the field, but as per usual with Oregon's offense, a lot of those check downs turn into chuck plays because everybody respects the speed so much. The most important thing for us right now is our thoughts and prayers are with Jordan Tyson. Looks like a lower leg injury. He's with our medical team right now, obviously, he's put together as impressive of a true freshman campaign that I've personally been a part of at the receiver position. And so proud of his continued growth. So, our thoughts are going to continue to be with him.
Does it look like it could be season ending for Jordyn Tyson?
We'll find out more information as we get that information. I think that we haven't had our imaging yet on it. But certainly from it was a significant injury and we'll, hope and pray for the best and we'll communicate that when we meet again.
The decision to bring Tyson back into the game?
No, I mean, I think that any time there's a targeting shot that happens at all in the game football, our medical team's gonna always tend to the student athlete, go through our protocol, which is very thorough and vet it out very well. He was clear to return and Jordan Tyson loves football. That's probably the number one trait about Jordan, that I personally love, is just how much he wants to be out there playing game with football. He obviously has turned into our most dynamic playmaker. When he wants to find a way to get back out the field that he's been cleared medically, obviously we feel like we're always in the fight. We're gonna continue a fight no matter what happens. We know we have a gotlet that started today, but I think Jordan's, his love for the game of football is what separates him. It just happens to be meshed with incredible physical attributes. There really wasn't a decision, you know, like to try to put him back in the game. Jordan was cleared medically and then put him in, he wanted to go back and play and that's who Jordyn Tyson is.
Anthony Hankerson using his redshirt this year?
Hank wants to play too. I think that's who he is. He's been banged up. There really weren't a lot of discussions and thoughts about him wanting to redshirt. I think he's gonna be a player that is gonna maximize his four years of football. As we all know, if you ever played in a season and you do have some type of sustained injury, you can still have that redshirt year available to you. So that it's just because you don't quote, unquote redshirt that first year, it doesn't mean by any stretch imagination, that you can't at some point in your career utilize that. He wants to play and as we saw today, 11 carries 54 yards against a really good football team.
He's gonna be a big part of being a playmaker for us. Once again, I just love the way he continued to just strive down the stretch and into the fourth quarter.
Using Oregon as a model for the future?
I think every program has its unique aspects to it. I mean, it's obviously very clear that the Nike part of Oregon is real. But we have what we believe are really significant positives of Boulder. Our support of our fan base, visiting, we have surrounding businesses that I believe are gonna be coming into a position to jump behind our players and support them.
Obviously they've had a very singular focus in terms of backing a program financially that's a reality. That is the one of the largest companies in the industry of sports. They have certainly a commitment from Nike to Oregon. That's not something really anything that's new. They're a good football team. They're well coached. I think that the thing that's always interesting about Oregon...I was brought up myself by a lot of coaches that came from Oregon, to Boise State who stayed from some of those really early [Mike] Bellotti staff and then Chris Peterson, Dirk Koetter, Mark Helfrich. Those are all people that directly impacted me as a young player. It's interesting that they're, certainly kind of going outside of, what was the traditional Oregon model. I think it's gonna be interesting to see what happens going forward.
On the Buffs' defense
Well, I thought, the biggest downside of our defensive effort today was the three scores in three drives. I thought our offense did, answer a score with the score, give us a chance to make it a ball game. I was proud with the second half effort. We did it against a highly dynamic, offense, one of the most dynamic offenses in college football. They're averaging in the forties as we know. They're averaging 450 to 550 depending on the day. I thought we settled in and fought and I thought we did have some answers in the second half. But the turnovers, I think playing on the short fields, really in the second half, that's where the score, I think kind of got out of, a little bit out of line for us.
But proud of our defensive effort, in terms of the fight to finish even getting forth down stop and finding ways to get stops in the second half. But as we know, they're a tough team to slow down. Bo Nix has played a lot of football. He had obviously a very efficient day, 20 or 24, there's four incompletions in there. He just takes, what the defense, gives him, and everybody's still mortified of the speed going down the field that a lot of those underneath routes, they become check downs for them that they get 15, 20 yards. It's nothing that's really new for Oregon, it's what they've been and if the team ever really truly wants to challenge them, then it's gonna be one of those type down the field throwing games and they have the ability to do that as well.
Retaining young talent
Well, I think it's just everything that we put forward as an athletic department and really more than that. It's just the communication that we're having with our families and with our supporters. I think obviously Jordan's a phenomenal talent. He's a freshman. I think not only the NIL space, but also just as a community to wrap our arms around a guy like him, because he really is with this program. He's going to trend towards just players like that that we identified early. Jordan didn't have one other Power Five offer. I don't know if anybody knows that he had zero. He had, it was Texas State, Texas Southern, something along those lines was really the only other offer. I think that is a niche for us both as a program and then certainly wrapping our arms around him as a football community, as a CU community, but I think that goes even further than just one player. I think we do have some good young players that are growing up. I think there's a lot of players that the retention of those players can be really important for our program. You just look out there where we are young and that's, that's nothing that, that is foreign to anybody. We're young, we're developing, we're growing. The margin for error is small cause of that youth. When you're a true freshman or a redshirt freshman playing 70 snaps a game in different positions there are some things from a developmental standpoint and maturity standpoint and the game football at this level that you need to, I think you need to continue to keep those types of players around that have gone through the hard times. But the thing that I'm most proud of this team is not once have I seen since, I've had a chance to look them in the eyes and on the sideline, I've never seen one person quit on the field. I think we're fighting for four quarters, and that's gonna be our calling card because, you just never know when it does all click and all of a sudden here we are well against one of the top teams in the country.
Fumbling the shotgun snaps?
It was honestly one of the most incredible things I've ever seen, especially in the late third, early fourth quarter. I was watching the snaps come back and, and they looked like right on the money and they were getting blown, like literally blown down, blown to the left, blown to the right. I mean, you saw when the ball was placed down on the field and maybe less, you know, the umpire was putting his foot on the walls, it was doing the same exact thing. So, um, yeah, I mean certainly the weather had an impact on the game. It did happen kind of later where those gusts really picked up. That's a hard thing to truly prepare for other than just going on your center every play, which we did obviously in that the true final drive, I just, you saw in Oregon too, there were some balls that were getting battered around by the in the air that it happened a little bit later in the game. Some of it too is just communication. There's times where we've had different centers playing, we've had different quarterbacks playing just the communication of the various tempos that we run and those are similar mistakes that I'm talking about that you have to, you have to grow up in those situations. If we do change tempo, just at the communications on a very high level. And that's something that we're gonna continue to harp this week in particular as we go and play in a hostile road environment.
J.T. Shrout's performance and Owen McCown
I think there were some throws that he made that I thought were really good. I thought he continues to see it better. I do see that, obviously we're in a position, with Owen, to give an update on Owen. He's, he's fully participating in practice. He's running scout team, but there are some limitations that he still does have so clearly we're gonna not put him in a position where we think we should just roll him out there and you don't know what's gonna happen. The quarterback position in particular I think is very different, particularly when you are a somewhat of an underdeveloped player as a true freshman. I think we're trending that direction to make sure that we make the best decision for Owen. With him not being like fully cleared and there's certainly movements that he does. He's clear to play football, but in terms of like throwing on the run, to the left, but he does have some limitations. I don't want to put him in those situations that either he can further aggravate an injury, or he's not just fully 100% healthy. So he's been fantastic in terms his commitment to the team. His preparation, our scout team is getting a really good look with a guy who's a Pac-12 starting quarterback, we're really running the scout team right now. He's trying in a get a good direction health wise, but we're making some decisions for the best his future.
Thoughts on Alex Fontenot's performance
I was pleased with it. I think one of the runs, 27-yard run, was spectacular. I thought he did a good job and you worry about just ball security coming back, not having really, any live licks in practice and not getting in full, full contact. I thought he ran well, ran fearlessly a couple times on our outside zone player. We took a negative on one that he ran. That's more for us kind of sorting through the different movements of Oregon's front and impressions that they were bringing. I think that gives us a lot of confidence in him, A lot of confidence going forward for these next three weeks. But I thought he he put on like eight, 10 pounds in his time. I thought he looked bigger, looked more physical, was running out of some tackles. And I think that is what we're talking about, about that maturity that season kind of veteran player. I think that's gonna help us as we play this last three games.
Adjusting defensively to the trick plays?
I think that's been a staple when you have really good players. You have to commit to the run fit. A lot of times in a run, once you commit to the run fit a quarterback is, can be challenging to peel off of. A lot of times that's a just almost like you have to smell a rat as a player. We worked a variety of trick plays because of how they do run the football and sometimes the tempo and obviously the timing, the call, that was a good call, particularly the throwback to Bo. And then, you know, they run a basically tackle eligible, an eligible jersey number. We're selling out to, to stop a run. They haven't released him on the season, but we did, from a coverage perspective, we did have somebody for him, it's just executing in that moment I think becomes, you know, something that, that is challenging when you're putting ears back and trying to stop yourself.
Thoughts on Bo Nix
Really good offensive line play. If you think about it, the way they throw the football balls out it balls out quickly. I don't think there's either they're moving the pocket or the balls out and some of their anti-quit game, some of the check downs that you see. I think there are challenges. I thought our pass rush got better as the game went on. Chance Main started to show up being in position to apply pressure chances. A guy that I expect to see his best ball out of him, in really, these last three weeks, I think he's eager to apply some pressure. Good offensive line play, the ball was getting out, They moved the pocket pretty well, pretty consistent with all their games this year, probably minus the Georgia game. Obviously Georgia is playing the NFL front, they have a good scheme and they have good pressure.
Retaining players such as former Buff Christian Gonzalez
Well, I mean, I think that's a great example of just the modern space of college football is just gonna become commonplace. What I know that we as a department are doing, and I know that this fan base wants to win and wants to win next season. That's gotta be our, our goal. We wanna win next week. But, certainly retention is multifaceted. We're gonna see, I think two more players, you know, that were on this team last year next week. That's the modern space that we live in. And certainly I think this is a reminder to all of us coaches, players, everybody that, we gotta make this the best place to be at in every way possible.
This has to be a place that, we know it's beautiful. We know it's a great academic institution, um, but there, our players experience here in every single way has gotta be the best experience. I think that's been something that I've taken to heart, personally in just leading this program through troubled times, is how can we continue to make this a great experience for our players. Um, and that's some of the stuff that I, I think I've been fairly proactive with, with regards to our current roster. And I think that there is greatness in that roster as they get older, as they continue to develop, there is greatness in that roster. We gotta make sure that, that those players know how much this institution, this coaching staff, and, and really this community that loves to do football is gonna care.
Wind playing a factor in Cole Becker's first kick?
It was interesting. Obviously Cameron Warchuck wasn't snapping. I think it's important for us to just, there's always moving parts, right? So snapper, you know, obviously the holder from the beginning of the season, Cole's been so good this year. I think the wind plays some bit of a factor. I think the laces were facing out, which myself as a former 4-year starting holder, I know that the value and the importance of us putting the ball down and presenting laces at the pipes. I think that was something that played factor in that sometimes it's the depth of the snap, if you're set up at seven yards instead of eight yards, that might just change the rotation by just a half spin.
Those types of things do all play a factor in, I always as a holder, and then I know my long snapper Clayton Adams and Clayton was our short snapper. We took great pride in making sure that we presented laces, and that's something I know we'll do going forward. It's football, it's the wind's blowing there's different factors. We got to make sure we continue to put him in the best position to be successful. He had plenty of leg as we know. I think the ball just pushed right over.
