Colorado’s offense wasn’t great on Friday night. The defense had plenty of problems, too.
But, as the Buffaloes prepare for a Week 2 matchup against Delaware, head coach Deion Sanders wasn’t going to entertain any hint of criticism about coordinators Pat Shurmur on offense or Robert Livingston on defense.
“We didn’t lose the game because of coach Shurmur, coach Livingston, or one specific thing,” Sanders said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “I’ve got to do a better job of preparing my team, challenging my coaches to go to the next level. That’s on me.”
Following a 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech in Friday’s opener, the Buffs (0-1) are looking to get back on track against Delaware on Saturday at Folsom Field (1:30 p.m., Fox).
While Sanders is the leader, it’ll be a collective effort to get better going forward. And, there could be a natural improvement just from having a game under their belt as a new team.
“Pretty much the first game, the first few games, you kind of see what you got,” Sanders said. “You kind of see who’s who.”
CU had 61 players see the field on Friday and for 29 of them, this is their first season as Buffs. For a few others, it was their first time in a key role. With all of that comes a learning curve.
“You got to understand, a lot of guys don’t understand the standard,” Sanders said.
Former Buffs stars Jimmy Horn Jr. and Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig were on the sidelines and few understand the Coach Prime standard like they do.
“You should have heard those guys getting on the guys,” Sanders said. “That was good because it’s a certain standard. It’s a certain level that we have expectations, and some may not understand that. The hype of it all, it’s kind of intoxicating, until you get out there, and then you start reading those comments after the game.”
Some of the comments after the game, especially on social media, weren’t kind and the players heard them.
“Now you’re understanding what we tried to tell you before the game,” Sanders said. “They understand now, I’ll put it like that. They get it.”
For Sanders, though, this is the start of his third year in the Boulder. He sets the standard, and some of the criticism was directed at him, especially for the Buffs’ clock management at the end of the game.
CU got the ball back with 67 seconds left in the game, down 27-20, with two timeouts in hand. The Buffs got to midfield before a final, desperation pass fell incomplete at the buzzer. They went home with a loss and those two unused timeouts.
Although it appeared CU could have saved some time by taking a timeout or two, Sanders doubled down on his postgame comments that he didn’t believe there was a necessary moment to call those timeouts.
Regardless, Sanders and his staff are looking to fix what didn’t go well in crunch time and throughout the night as they turn the page to Saturday.
“Sometimes it just don’t go like it’s supposed to go,” he said. “We pray to God it goes well this week. We’re trying to fix what was broken last week, and we’re on to this week.”
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