Coach Deion Sanders can’t blame slow start on money or tough schedule

According to NCAA statistics, Deion Sanders’ Colorado football team has faced the nation’s most difficult schedule through five games.
Despite a 2-3 record, Coach Sanders believes his team is competitive, having lost two games to ranked opponents by a total of only 10 points.
Sanders has dismissed the idea that a disparity in NIL resources is to blame for his team’s close losses.

Coach Deion Sanders and his Colorado football team have faced the toughest schedule in the nation after five games this season, as of Oct. 2, according to NCAA statistics.

They don’t have the same resources for players as some other teams.

And Sanders says he can’t make it through a game without needing to urinate after having his cancerous bladder removed in May.

Yet Sanders sees the light – and the heat − starting Saturday at TCU (Fox, 7:30 ET). Temperatures are forecast to be near 90 degrees in Fort Worth, prompting Sanders to say he might wear a short-sleeved shirt, which he never does.

“Never, ever,” Sanders said on the Colorado Football Coaches Show Thursday Oct. 2.

His team is 2-3 including two losses that came by a combined 10 points against teams in the US LBM Coaches Poll – No. 16 Georgia Tech (27-20) and No. 23 Brigham Young (24-21).

“We feel like we have a pretty darn good football team, even though the record don’t display that,” Sanders said this week at his weekly news conference in Boulder. “Two games to ranked opponents by 10 points in total makes us think, darn, a play here, a play there (and) we get it going.”

Deion Sanders’ team has played nation’s toughest schedule

NCAA statistics rank the nation’s toughest schedules by the combined win-loss totals of past opponents, regardless of the quality of their wins. Colorado’s five opponents so far have a combined record of 15-1, not including wins and losses against Colorado. That opponents’ winning percentage (93.8%) ranks first nationally after five weeks.

And now comes a return to TCU, where Sanders started his tenure at Colorado in 2023 with an astonishing 45-42 win in the season opener. The Horned Frogs are 3-1 this season.

“That (game) was a lot why I came here, so I was hyped about it,” Colorado sophomore running back Micah Welch said this week. “I’m ready to play them.”

Colorado’s gauntlet continues next week at home against No. 12 Iowa State, followed by an off weekend Oct. 18 and then a game at No. 25 Utah on Oct. 25.  

It might be easier for Sanders if there was more funding for Colorado players, but he rejected that notion this week.

Resources disparity at Colorado

Every school in major college sports this year is allowed pay athletes this year up to $20.5 million combined for their names, images and likenesses (NIL).  Some players get paid beyond that from external donor collectives, such as at Big 12 Conference rival Texas Tech, where The Matador Club raised $63 million since it was formed in 2022.

“We can’t blame it on the money,” Sanders said at his news conference.

Colorado is among some schools that cut ties with its NIL donor collective before this season to streamline fundraising in-house. But the true extent of the disparity between what players receive compared to those at other schools isn’t known because NIL contracts are private.

“I’m happy, I’m thankful – I’m not gonna cry broke just because we dropped (those two close losses),” Sanders said. “Money had nothing to do with those two games that we dropped.”

How Sanders plans to get Colorado over the hump

After shuffling through three quarterbacks in the first three games, Sanders is expected to stick with Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter as his starter for the third consecutive week. Salter started off hot in last week’s loss against BYU, leading his team to 14-0 advantage, but then sputtered in the second half and threw an interception on his last series to seal the loss.

Colorado still has gotten improved play from its offensive line, better than in Sanders’ previous two seasons at Colorado.  Two top running backs, Simeon Price and DeKalon Taylor, are expected to be out with injuries against TCU. But Sanders has repurposed sophomore receiver Dre’Lon Miller to be more of an all-purpose weapon now for the Buffaloes, as a receiver, running back or wildcat taking direct snaps from center. He scored two touchdowns against BYU last week.

“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,” Sanders said of his offense. “The payment for a home is on the line, like they have children depending on them as some do. I just want them to play with full intensity and passion. And when you look back on the field, you look back and say, ‘I gave ‘em my all.’ That’s all any coach wants.”

Sanders got that the last time his team played TCU. If he doesn’t get it this time, he might be in for a rough October.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com