Colorado’s woes continued on Saturday with a heartbreaking 34–31 home loss to No. 23 Arizona (7–3), an outcome that led to a startling post-game moment of honesty from coach Deion Sanders.
Despite leading 31-24 to start the fourth quarter, Sanders’s Buffaloes (4–6) dropped their sixth game in seven outings after giving up 10 unanswered points to close the game, including a walk-off field goal. As Sanders began his post-game press conference, the coach divulged that he just finished speaking with the team about where he believes the struggling program currently stands.
“We’re so close is what I told the team but yet so far,” Sanders said. “We just simply, truly don’t know how to win yet and it’s not for lack of effort, not for lack of coaching with the staff and the support staff. … Everybody around is doing a phenomenal job. We just can’t get over that hump.”
Given that the contest fell on Senior Day, Sanders took a moment to note that he apologized to the team’s seniors for not “sending them out right.” He also apologized to the fans for turning in a disappointing result in what was CU’s last home game of the year.
.@DeionSanders opens his postgame presser apologizing to the fans for not getting a win in the final home game of the season. Can sense the frustration in still being close but not close enough. “We still don’t know how to win yet” pic.twitter.com/tC32qoABkS
— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) November 11, 2023
After beginning the season with much promise and fanfare, Sanders and Co. now find themselves in a precarious position with the team needed to win both of their next games against Washington State and No. 18 Utah in order to become bowl eligible.
As the next week of preparation draws near, it’ll be fascinating to see if Sanders’s blunt admission has any effect on the final two weeks of a season where CU has lost four games by one score.
