BOULDER, Colo. — University of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders held his weekly news conference Tuesday morning as his Buffaloes football team prepares for its final game of the 2023 season.
Sanders and the CU Buffaloes (4-7) play Saturday against the Utah Utes (7-4) in Salt Lake City, Utah.
With one game remaining, the Buffaloes are two victories shy of bowl eligibility.
"I think you should always play to win, I don't know about pride. You got to play to win. You got to play to the best of your ability," Sanders said Tuesday. "You got to play because this is the life you chose, no one is forcing you to go out there and play."
Sanders was asked how he'd rate how the 2023 season went with the up and downs of selling out all its home games to failing to make a bowl game.
"We didn't accomplish what we wanted, but we accomplished what we needed," Sanders said. "I think hope is instilled tremendously in this city, in the student body, within this team, within this body. You see the direction that we're heading."
"The things you look to as a loss, I see it as a win. We didn't do certainly what I wanted to do, but we're doing tremendously much more than what was done. So you got to put it in perspective.
"There's some things that we accomplished that are tremondous, there's some things that we didn't, but we're taking a step in the right direction, two steps in the right direction as a matter of fact.
"I'm proud of these young men, I'm proud of the coaching staff, the student body and the support, the fans, nationally not just locally has been phenomenal," Sanders said. "We pretty much put a mark in college football and what we're going to do from here on it will never be the same, I can promise you that, because I know how we're recruiting, I know what I know, and I know where we're heading. You got to be crazy if you can't see it."
The Buffs lost to Washington State, 56-14, on Friday to fall to 4-7 on the season.
Last week, rumors were circulating in the national media that Sanders could be a possible head coaching candidate at Texas A&M after A&M fired Jimbo Fisher.
ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith said Sanders needs to go to Texas A&M and the SEC.
“That’s what I’ve been saying, Deion Sanders in the SEC,” Smith said last week. “With that vault that they have available to them. Them hogs that he could recruit. He doesn’t have them at Colorado, and he ain’t going to get them. I don’t think they’ll do it. Texas A&M. Primetime, Deion Sanders in the SEC? That needs to happen.”
Coach Prime immediately addressed the rumors and Smith's comments at his news conference last week.
"I want to win, I want to win a game," Sanders said last week. "So you think I really do sit down and think about that kind of stuff? Let what strikes me about that, about myself that you guys think I really sit down and say 'Ah yeah, Stephen A., yeah.' C'mon. I'm good. We got to win. Let's focus on this week when we play Friday so we lose a game of practice."
Colorado Buffaloes beat reporter Brian Howell said that should Sanders make another move, he’d either have to leave his children, Shedeur Sanders and Shilo Sanders, behind at CU or risk them having to sit out the 2024 season as two-time transfers.
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