For Deion Sanders and Shedeur Sanders, Colorado's defeat of Nebraska was 'personal'
BOULDER, Colorado – Deion Sanders preached all week about how Saturday’s game against Nebraska was deeply “personal.”
There were plenty of reasons for this.
∎ It was his first home game as head football coach at Colorado.
∎ It was a sold-out game against the Cornhuskers, Colorado’s hated old rivals.
∎ For his quarterback and son Shedeur, it also was a direct confrontation with Matt Rhule, the Nebraska coach who managed to offend him at times this year, including during pregame warmups when he said he saw him standing on the Buffaloes’ logo at midfield.
“It was extremely personal,” Shedeur Sanders said after the Buffs beat Nebraska at Folsom Field 36-14. “We go out there and warm up, and we got the head coach for the other team trying to stand in the middle of the Buff. It’s OK if a couple players do it – It’s fine, like just enjoy the scenery. But when you’ve got the whole team trying to disrespect it, you know I’m not going for that at all. I went in there and disrupted it.”
Shedeur Sanders said he considered it “extreme disrespect.” And it wasn’t the first time he took issue with Rhule.
“The coach said a lot of things about my pops, about the program, and now he want to act nice,” Shedeur said. ‘I don’t respect that because you hatin’ on another man. You shouldn’t do that.”
It’s not clear if Rhule meant any disrespect or what exactly he said that offended Shedeur Sanders. But that’s how these Buffs roll – big chips on their shoulder pads and making things “personal” even when there’s not much there to support it sometimes.
It works. For the second week in a row, the Buffs held onto a grudge long enough to defy any remaining skeptics, this time on a warm sunny day in front of 53,241 fans -- their biggest home crowd since 2008. They are now 2-0 to start after last year’s team finished 1-11.
What did they do?
They started slow on offense before getting swarmed on the field by students and fans who stormed the field in celebration. After punting only three times all game last week in a 45-42 win at TCU, Colorado was forced to punt on their first four possessions. In the first half, Shedeur Sanders suffered four sacks as his team gained just two yards rushing on 12 carries.
But then they came alive and finished with seven scoring drives in seven possessions after the first quarter, including a 6-yard touchdown run by Sanders to cap the scoring for Colorado in the fourth quarter. Shedeur Sanders ended up completing 31 of 42 passes for 393 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Receiver Xavier Weaver, a graduate transfer from South Florida, caught 10 balls for 170 yards and one touchdown – a 12-yard pass from Sanders in the third quarter that helped put the Buffs up 20-7.
Weaver also told his own story afterward about Nebraska’s “disrespect.”
“When he told us it was personal, we did our homework and see why he meant that and why he said that,” Weaver said of his coach afterward. “It was a lot of disrespect going on. In the pregame, we was in the middle huddling up. They’re punting the ball and almost hit our head coach in the head. So yeah, it’s personal after that. We wanted to run the score up.”
What did Deion Sanders say?
He said the Buffs played like “hot garbage” in the first half before his quarterback son found his rhythm. He also heard what his son said about Rhule.
“To take the onus on himself when someone talks about me, that’s how he grew up,” Deion Sanders said.
After breaking nine school records last week against TCU, Shedeur Sanders even was fired up enough late in the game that he was willing to take a 15-yard penalty for pulling his helmet off after a close play in the end zone when the Buffs were up 29-7.
His father went up to him afterward and told him, “You cannot do that.”
“Dad, it’s personal,” Shedeur Sanders replied, eliciting laughter from his father.
“They really took it to heart, that whole theme,” Deion Sanders said.
What did Rhule actually say?
After the game, Rhule gave credit to Colorado and said, “They are well put together, fast, dynamic, explosive.”
But earlier this year, some in Colorado’s camp believed he made a vague criticism about Deion Sanders and how he was using dozens of transfer recruits to build his roster. On the day the transfer portal opened in the spring, Rhule said he loves players who “buy in” and accept his coaching, as opposed to having to constantly shop for new players in the transfer market.
“I hear other schools, they can’t wait for today, the transfer portal,” Rhule said. He didn’t mention Sanders by name.
“I can’t wait to coach my guys,” Rhule said then. “Let me tell you that. I’m not thinking about anybody else but this team out here.”
Sanders overhauled his roster to an unprecedented degree since his hiring in December, bringing in 68 scholarship newcomers out of a roster limit of 85, including 47 transfers from other four-year colleges.
What’s next?
Colorado faces Colorado State (0-1) at home next Saturday. ESPN's College GameDay will travel to Boulder and broadcast its show in the morning before ESPN shows the game at 10 p.m ET. Fox has shown the Buffaloes' first two games in in its coveted "Big Noon" timeslot and will bring its own "Big Noon Kickoff" pregame show to Boulder again to compete on the same campus with ESPN.
Both television companies know Sanders brings big viewership, like he did last week, when Fox averaged 7.3 million viewers during his coaching debut for Colorado at TCU – the biggest audience of the day for any network. Colorado also issued a school-record 848 media credentials for Saturday's game after last week's win vaulted the Buffs into an even more intense national spotlight.
“We expect it,” Deion Sanders said. “I know it sounds kind of boastful. It sounds at the risk of sounding arrogant. We truly expect that (attention). And that’s why those kids come. They want the biggest stage and they’re getting that every darn week. The numbers justify.”
About two hours before the game, Sanders even rode a golf cart over to the set of the Big Noon Kickoff show for a pregame interview. Fans lined up behind a fence to await his arrival at Farrand Field outside the stadium on campus, leading one observer to liken it to waiting for a U.S. president. The crowd roared when he showed up, as they did when he took the field waving his arms before the game.
“It was phenomenal,” Deion Sanders said. “Just feeling the energy of the student body, as well as the fan base here, was unbelievable.”
By contrast, his team still has a ways to go in his estimation.
“This team hasn’t scratched the surface of what it’s capable of doing,” he said.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]