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    • Deion Sanders speaks out on Colorado’s near-disastrous decisions in victory
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    Deion Sanders speaks out on Colorado’s near-disastrous decisions in victory

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    Colorado head coach discusses his team’s bizarre time management late in the game

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    BOULDER, Colo. – Colorado football coach Deion Sanders opened his postgame press conference Thursday night with an apology. But it wasn’t for the way his team played in a 31-26 home win over North Dakota State.

    Instead, he just felt hot after the air conditioning was turned off.

    “They tend to turn off the air conditioning to save some money,” Sanders said. “I don’t know why we’re trying to save money unless we’re broke here. But it’s hot right now, right? I apologize on behalf of the university. We can do better than that.”

    Sanders then told everyone how he really felt: not just excited, but irritated at how close his team had come to another collapse at the end.

    “Have you ever felt like you won, but you didn’t?” he asked.

    That’s how it went Thursday to open Sanders’ second season with Colorado. After a hot start on offense, the Buffaloes almost had to apologize for something far more sloppy — bizarre time management late and another defensive misstep. Otherwise, Colorado would have gotten two more explosive performances from its two biggest stars: quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Travis Hunter.

    Shedeur Sanders, son of Deion, completed 26 of 34 passes for 445 yards and four touchdowns, including three to Hunter before 49,438 fans at Folsom Field. The win snaps a six-game losing streak for all of them since last year.

    Deion Sanders also noted that the narrow victory at the end was partly due to his quarterback son’s desire to be nice and throw long passes instead of running with the ball to stall for time.

    “I just remind him of that damn clock,” Deion Sanders said. “I say, ‘You see that big thing up there? That’s the clock. Them numbers up there going down like that? That’s for you, okay? Look at that.'”

    What else did Deion Sanders say?

    He said 31 NFL scouts came to his team.

    “They saw what they came to see,” he said.

    He also noted that Colorado is one step closer to one of its goals this season: participating in a bowl game in honor of Colorado’s 99-year-old superfan, Peggy Coppom.

    Yet it nearly ended in disaster against a team from the lower Football Championship Subdivision. Colorado had a 31-20 lead after a spectacular 3-yard touchdown catch by Hunter with 7:57 remaining.

    All that was left for the Buffs to do was defend the fort.

    They didn’t. Instead, they allowed a 20-yard touchdown run from Bison quarterback Cam Miller, cutting Colorado’s lead to 31-26 with 2:19 left. The Bison’s scoring drive went 75 yards on 11 plays and lasted 5:38.

    “Let’s move on,” Deion Sanders said. “I’m going to do my best to hold my anger in, but we got the W, so I’m happy.”

    What about that time management at the end?

    Colorado had two timeouts with 2:19 left when it began its final drive at its own 25-yard line. But Shedeur Sanders threw four passes instead of running the ball to run out the clock. One of them came on first down with 1:41 left — a long pass to the left side of the field intended for receiver LaJohntay Wester. It fell incomplete and stopped the clock with 1:34 left.

    Shedeur’s father said afterward that his son wanted to show Wester some love after two other Colorado receivers had already had big games: Hunter and Jimmy Horn Jr., who had seven catches for 198 yards and a touchdown.

    “Shedeur’s such a good kid; sometimes it costs him because at the end of the game, we just want to run the ball (and) let’s get out of here,” Deion Sanders said. “And he took a shot at LaJohntay because he wanted LaJohntay to make a big play … and he knew he was going to get a one-on-one matchup. He just didn’t throw it far enough. But that’s his nature. I’m like, ‘Dawg. Come on, dawg. Not now. This is not the time to be the good kid. This is the time to … throw this game away.'”

    The incomplete pass intended for Wester came on the next play after Wester was given a pass interference penalty for another long pass attempt. Fortunately for the Buffs, the penalty gave them a first down. But the drive eventually stalled and the Buffs punted back to the Bison, who fielded the ball on their own 4-yard line with 31 seconds left.

    North Dakota State then ran six plays for 88 yards, capped by a Hail Mary from Miller as time expired. The pass worked—to a point. Miller’s 49-yard pass was caught by receiver Tyler Terhark. It just didn’t go far enough, with Terhark coming down on the 4-yard line as the Folsom Field crowd held its breath.

    What did Shedeur Sanders say about time management?

    Shedeur Sanders admitted afterward that he should have managed the clock better.

    “Everything in my life, I’ve always been able to learn from it,” Shedeur Sanders said. “So it’s not too many mistakes that you see me make twice. So that’s just something that I’m going to learn and understand. And even if it looks super tempting … still, you just have to keep going with it. So it’s a lot of situations like play clock and everything that gets us back into the flow of the game. But I’m just excited about the starting point and excited to get everybody involved.”

    His father, who said he had talked to him about it, also downplayed concerns about the running game and the offensive line, both sore spots from last year, when the Buffs finished 4-8 and were last in the nation in rushing yards per game with 68.9. On Thursday, five Colorado players accounted for 59 rushing yards on 23 carries. Shedeur Sanders was sacked just once but still felt pressure from crumbling pass protection.

    “You’d like to run the ball a little bit more, but shooting, when you’ve got 500-plus yards of total offense, I’m pretty good,” Deion Sanders said. “I’m going to go home (and) I’m going to sleep well, really well … so I’m fine with that. We’d like to see a little bit more balance, but what is balance? Balance is winning, really. That’s what balance is.”

    About that Colorado defense

    North Dakota State led 20-17 at halftime after scoring on each of its first four possessions. It looked similar to the Buffs’ defense from last year, even though they’ve revamped the roster and brought in several promising defenders, especially on the defensive line. The difference this time came after halftime.

    “Coach yelled at us at halftime, let us know what we’ve got to do,” said Hunter, who had three tackles. “We’ve got to stop them. We’ve got to stop them.”

    The Bisons needed to score on their first two attacks of the second half and could have been shutout after halftime if Colorado’s defense hadn’t suffered such a setback.

    Colorado next plays Nebraska on September 7.

    “We’ve got a target on our back,” Hunter said. “We’ve got to go out there and win. We’ve got to make a statement. We’ve got to let everybody know we’re here to stay.”

    Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email address: [email protected]

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