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At a team meeting on Tuesday morning, Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders had a simple question for his players.
“Are you underachieving or overachieving?” Sanders asked his players.
“There’s only one answer or the other,” he said.
Individually, there are some players who could answer that question differently, but as a collective unit, the answer is fairly easy. At 2-3 (0-2 Big 12), CU hasn’t met the expectations it had coming into this season, but hopes to turn that around with a visit to TCU (3-1, 0-1) on Saturday (5:30 p.m., Fox).
Why the Buffs aren’t playing to their potential is an answer Sanders is still trying to solve.
“If I had that answer, man, it’d be worth a lot of money, because I think a multitude of us coaches are asking that same question,” he said. “We know what we need to do. We just gotta do it. We know exactly what we need to do. We just gotta do it. It’s not a mystery.”
CU enters this week coming off a 24-21 loss to then-No. 25 BYU (now No. 23). It was the second one-score loss this season to a top-25 opponent. In the opener, CU lost 27-20 to unranked Georgia Tech, which is now 5-0 and ranked No. 17.
“I feel like we have a pretty darn good football team, even though the record don’t display that,” Sanders said. “Two games to ranked opponents by 10 points in total makes us think, ‘Darn, a play here and play there, we get it going.’”
Offensively, particularly in the Georgia Tech and BYU games, the Buffs haven’t come up with enough key plays at key moments.
Against Georgia Tech, quarterback Kaidon Salter led the Buffs to a quick 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game. The Buffs found the end zone just one more time in the last 57 minutes and failed on two crucial drives late in the game.
Against BYU, Salter and the offense were impressive in building a 14-0 lead less than 10 minutes in. In the last 50 minutes, CU scored seven points, and managed just 19 total yards in its last three possessions – all with a chance to win or tie the game.
“I want them to play like their life is on the line, like their careers are on the line, like the payment for a car is on the line, the payment for a home is on the line, like they have children depending on them, and some do,” Sanders said of his message to the offense this week. “I just want them to play with full intensity and passion. And when you walk off that field, you look back and say, ‘I gave my all.’ That’s all any coach wants. That’s all I desire.”
That same message could apply to the defense, which has had some good moments, but not enough. BYU had its lowest point total of the season against CU, while Georgia Tech had his second-lowest against the Buffs. But both teams put together fourth quarter drives to win the game.
CU’s also been vulnerable to giving up big plays to the opposition.
Sanders said he’s pleased with the defensive line, but added, “We’ve just got to play better at the linebacker position and the secondary. We got to play better.”
While players are underachieving, Sanders pointed the finger at himself, too.
“I am as well, because I’m part of it,” he said, adding that he needs to be more demanding. “That’s what I’ve been the last two weeks, more demanding of what I want to see. I’m going to see what I want to see. We’re going to do it over and over and over until I see it.”
That goes for practice, and Sanders hopes that goes for game day, too, because he still believes the Buffs have potential to get more positive results going forward.
“No one could have told me we’d be sitting where I’m sitting right now with the record that we possess, because of the talent that we have inside that locker room,” he said. “But I’ve learned that talent just don’t win games alone. It takes heart, it takes determination, it takes that dawg, it takes the knowledge, it takes the preparation, that want-to and that desire. I will take that any day over talent.”
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Originally Published:
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Brian Howell
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