Paul KasabianFeatured Columnist IIDecember 22, 2023
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Colorado football head coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders stated he “might have been a little bit more hands-on” when asked by ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith what he might have done in a different way in his very first season leading the Buffaloes (10:13 mark).
“The procedure of choice and the procedure of who you permit into your area into that locker space, on that personnel, in your environment– it might have been more thoroughly picked. It might have been.
“Now, I needed to go back to, ‘OK, if it’s going to be on me, it’s going to be on me. It’s going to be on me.’
“I’m making all these choices, I’m ensuring I’m crossing my t’s and dotting my i’s. I’m ensuring I’m hands on every darn thing from the uniforms to what takes place on the field, so I might have been a little bit more hands-on.”
Colorado took the college football world by storm after a 3-0 start, that included a 45-42 win over safeguarding nationwide runner-up TCU, a 36-14 blowout over Nebraska and a 43-35 double overtime win over in-state competing CSU.
That run rose Colorado into the No. 19 area in the Associated Press survey and established a substantial match with No. 10 Oregon.
Whatever that might fail did from that point forward. Colorado lost 42-6 and continued to go simply 1-8 in Pac-12 play. The Buffaloes completed last in the conference and 4-8 total.
To the Buffaloes’ credit, they did stay competitive for much of the conference slate, with 6 of their last 7 losses visiting simply one rating. Colorado under Coach Prime likewise eventually quadrupled its win overall after taking control of a group that went 1-11 in 2022.
Now he’ll return to the drawing board in year 2 in hopes of taking the next action for the program, which will be going back to the Big 12 after 13 years in the Pac-12.