Now in his third season as head coach, Deion Sanders has changed the national conversation around Colorado.
Yet, through the first eight games of the season, the Buffaloes have left some people skeptical about the future of the program after losing Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year (and Sanders’ son), Shedeur Sanders.
As Colorado returns to Folsom Field on Friday for a date with Arizona, Sanders had a simple message for his team: treat football like a hobby you love and give it everything you have.
“This is a wonderful place to live, a wonderful place to play the game, and I don’t know why young men wouldn’t want to go out there and give it their all,” Sanders told reporters on Tuesday.
“This week, we talked about hobbies. I asked the team about their hobbies. Some people said I like to fish, I like to hunt, I like to ski, I like to cook. I said, ‘Is anybody compensating you for that?’ They said, ‘No, I just like to do it.’ I said, ‘We didn’t even tell you to do it, but you like to do it, right?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘When you do that, do you give it your all?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, why don’t we do the same thing with this game? Because last time I checked, we’re getting a check to do this. So let’s give it your absolute all. Make it your hobby. Make it personal.'”
“I’ve never done anything in my life where I wanted to just compete. I’ve always wanted to win, and I’m trying to get that across,” Sanders added. “Everything you do in life, you’ve got to want to win, man. I don’t care if we walk into the cafeteria, and I’m going to be one step quicker. I’ve got to get there faster. I want to win, and I want to embody that every darn day, and I want that to bleed off into these young men. A plethora of them, it’s happening, and I like it, but it’s not happening as expeditiously as I would want.”
Read More: Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin Addresses Florida, LSU Rumors
The Buffaloes enter their home meeting against the Wildcats sitting 3-5 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 play after a 53-7 rout at Utah that exposed problems on both sides of the ball.
Utah piled up 587 total yards (422 rushing) and pressured Colorado into a night of offense that produced just 140 total yards and 12 first downs — Colorado’s worst margin of defeat in the Sanders era.
After the game, Sanders called it “probably the worst beating I’ve ever had, except for when my momma whooped me as a kid.”
Read More: David Pollack Gets Honest About Arch Manning, Texas After Mississippi State Win
Sanders took over a Colorado team that went 1-11 in 2022 and engineered one of the fastest turnarounds in modern college football — a 4-8 season in 2023 followed by a 9-4 record and a 7-2 Big 12 mark in 2024.
Despite all the success he’s had, Sanders is now staring down the possibility of another losing season in Boulder.
The Wildcats (4-3, 1-3 in Big 12) arrive as 4.5-point road favorites following a narrow 31-28 loss to No. 22 Houston in Week 8.
