Near the end of Deion Sanders\u2019 Tuesday news conference, he spilled the cup of ice water he\u2019d been sipping on throughout his time answering questions from reporters.<\/p>\n
When he was finished, he asked for something to sop up the spill.<\/p>\n
\u201cGotta clean up my own mess, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Buffaloes have been a mess through nine games this season, but Sanders says he\u2019s committed to cleaning it up now and in the future, despite his health issues. He also said his offseason bladder removal following a cancer diagnosis, as well as surgery last month to remove blood clots from his leg, haven\u2019t affected Colorado\u2019s results in his third season as coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ain\u2019t playing. I wish the world I could. Especially corner right now,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, the Buffaloes trailed Utah 43-0 at halftime en route to a 53-7 loss, the most lopsided defeat for Sanders in his college coaching career. Last week, at home against Arizona, the Buffaloes trailed 38-7 at halftime and lost 52-17.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not happy. We\u2019re underachieving and I\u2019ve gotta fix it,\u201d Sanders said, adding that Colorado fans deserve much more and that he hopes they will stick with the team.<\/p>\n
Sanders said, however, he was happy with his team\u2019s practice habits, acknowledging that it was hard to believe considering the poor play in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trending in the right direction if you look behind the curtains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There will be a change ahead of Saturday\u2019s game at West Virginia, which upset Houston last week under new coach Rich Rodriguez, who led the Mountaineers to four Big East titles in his first stint at the school.<\/p>\n
True freshman Julian Lewis, a one-time USC commit and the highest-rated prospect from Colorado\u2019s 2025 recruiting class, will make his first career start in Morgantown.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
\u201cCommon sense,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n
Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter, who arrived at Colorado alongside Lewis before spring practice and won the preseason quarterback competition, is being benched for the second time this season. He was 11-of-15 for 49 yards against Arizona with one touchdown and one interception and was replaced as the Wildcats\u2019 lead piled up. Against Utah, Salter was 9-of-22 for 37 yards, no touchdowns and an interception.<\/p>\n
Lewis threw his first career touchdown pass in the fourth quarter when he hit Omarion Miller downfield for a 59-yard score. He injured his arm late in the game, and Dominiq Ponder was forced to finish the game. Sanders said Lewis was fine to play this week.<\/p>\n
Sanders said his \u201cfatherly spirit\u201d led to his decision not to allow any players or assistant coaches to speak with the media after Saturday\u2019s loss or during Tuesday\u2019s news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to shield my guys from certain things that may harm them,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cMy job is to protect them and put an umbrella around them until I feel like they\u2019re ready for the attacks and assaults and the social media gambit they\u2019re dealing with right now. That\u2019s just me being a protector, guardian and father, which we all called coach back in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders also alluded to the possibility he\u2019d already shuffled around responsibilities on his coaching staff, but declined to elaborate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might have already changed it, and you don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t do stuff and blow the whistle and make major announcements. I don\u2019t do that stuff. I do it and let you take shots, and you don\u2019t realize you might be shooting at the wrong target. That\u2019s up to you to notice them. They may have already happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders demoted offensive coordinator Sean Lewis in his first season at Colorado and promoted Pat Shurmur, who had joined the program in preseason camp as an analyst, to offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Near the end of Deion Sanders\u2019 Tuesday news conference, he spilled the cup of ice water he\u2019d been…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":355842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1428,22748,1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-355841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-colorado-buffaloes","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115493422233963287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}