Weekly Press Conference Quotes

Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders

Opening Statement
"I'm thankful to be here, thankful to be in front of you and thankful for being here coaching CU. Wonderful win. We didn't attain it the way we desired but a win is a win. You're going to have those types of games, those types of contests throughout the season. The best thing to do is to be resilient when you're not playing your best, to be resilient when your opponents are playing their butts off and you're able to come back and win the football game in the manner that we did. So we're thankful, we're appreciative. But now it's on to the next chapter. Announced a sell out for all the home games this season. It's the first time in history we sold out every home game in a season. ESPN announced 9.3 million viewers, the most watched late game ever and the fourth best regular season game in the last six years. It was ESPN's fifth most watched game ever. Most streamed game of all time, peaked at 11.1 million viewers from 9:00 to 9:15 mountain time. CU had 25.3 million viewers through three weeks, which means a lot of eyeballs. We're the fourth team in FBS history to start 3-0 after being defeated in 11 games. The last team to do it was Minnesota in 2008 under Tim Brewster. Amen. We forced four turnovers for the second straight game which is the first time this happened in back-to-back games in 20 years. This is incredible, the kids are getting eyeballs, they're getting viewers, getting scouts out every day to watch them do what they're gifted to do. They're excelling in the classroom, the things I hear about them when they're amongst the community, they're very respectful. So not only do I want to and desire to win on the field but I desire to win off the field as well. And I think we're winning. Let's go."

On Travis Hunter
"Travis is doing great. He got out of the hospital yesterday. He's at home doing schoolwork, playing video games, being Travis. Wonderful man. He can't wait to get back to continue to do what he's capable of doing."

On If Cormani Is Ready
"No. The plan at corner is corner by committee. That's why we practice we're going to see who steps up and takes over that role."

On Who Will Replace Travis' Presence
"We're looking for the next man up. We're looking for someone else to step up and take control of this. Travis Jay had a great practice today. He still has a little limp, slightly, but he competed his butt off today. We have talent, we just have to get the talent to be talented and do what they're capable of doing. But no one in the country can fill Travis Hunter's shoes. You got to understand he's a unique player. He's one of a kind. He's the best player on offense, the best player on defense. That's just who he is in the country, not just on his team. So having guys step up, they just got to step up and do the job and we're asking them to do."

On Michael Harrison
"Mikey's versatile. I mean Mike is kind of a small tight end and a very large receiver which don't fare well at times. But he overcomes that by his work ethic, by what he applies to the game, his knowledge of the game, being where he's supposed to be, doing what he's supposed to do and going full speed at all times. Practice is where you build trust with your quarterback. So just being here and the time that he's been here and being able to be on the field and work with Shedeur has created a level of trust that he has found to be dependable in certain situations. And that's what he was."

On If Shilo Reminds Him Of Himself
"I never compare my kids to me. That's not fair as a father and a lot of fathers do that, they want the kids to walk in their footsteps and live their life. My kids and I, our deal we made when they were young lads just getting into sports is that you don't have to be me. Be the best you that you can be and give me your best. That's our deal. So that's who Shilo is. Shilo is a bonafide leader. He's a dog back there. He plays hard and plays tough. He's a physical kid, and he loves the game of football. He loves playing for Coach Kelly. He really does."

On Attention On CU Athletics
"I don't know. I'm kind of immune to that kind of stuff. I'm so focused and locked in on what we do from day to day, week to week. But I'm happy when I see that our different athletics are benefiting. I want to see the girls basketball team hosting visits and bringing the girls to our games and bringing them to me so I could meet them and we could close, as well as the boys, as well as other sports. This is a great time to bring people up for visits so they can see the true atmosphere of what we possess and what we bring. CU athletics, we're rolling right now and we want to keep it going but we want to help one another."

On Resiliency
"Well, we're not trying to just be resilient and we don't want to get to that point where we have to be resilient and we want to get out to a great start. We have not played a complete game. We have not played a game where the offense, defense as well as special teams have all shown up in the same manner. If the offense is playing well the defense is hot garbage and if the defense is playing well the offense is horrible and special teams aren't special. So we got to put it all together to be able to defeat a team like Oregon in that manner. We got to put it together."

On The Uniforms This Year
"Well, it all starts with Smitty. We have a wonderful equipment man that's seasoned, poised and understands me. So us traveling with Rick up to Nike to talk about these different things that kids desire, you got to understand the team that we're playing right now, that's what they're known for. They play great football, don't get me wrong, but it's the versatility in the uniforms and the flashiness and what they bring. I can remember coaching high school, my kids in the locker room were talking about Oregon and the uniforms which is wonderful. So we can simulate that and emulate that and imitate that in certain ways. It's productive because kids want options, shoot you all want options. That's why you're working, right, so that you have options to go buy what you want to buy, get what you want to get, do what you want to do. So just giving the kids those types of options is phenomenal for young men."

On Relationship With Nike
"It's been wonderful. They've been above board. They've been excellent. They've committed to the program. They've committed to me personally and I love every bit of it. The fans and CU is benefitting also so it's a beautiful marriage."

On Targeting Star Players To Potentially Injure Them
"That's not having character. I don't know how you're going to have success and longevity in his game coaching in that aspect. I don't condone that. I don't teach that. I didn't condone it when I played the game from any of my teammates as well. You want to be dominant but you want to play clean because at the end of the day, you want your opponents respect. You do. I'm not saying that's what transpired but it's unfortunate if it did. What's the gentleman's name?

On CSU S Henry Blackburn's Late Hit On ATH Travis Hunter
I want you guys to record this and run with this. [CSU S] Henry Blackburn is a good player who played a phenomenal game. He made a tremendous hit on [CU ATH] Travis [Hunter] on the sideline. You could call it dirty. You could call it he was just playing the game of football. But whatever it was, it does not constitute that he shouldn't be receiving death threats. This is still a young man trying to make it in life. God is trying to live his dream and hopefully graduate with honors or a degree -- committed to excellence and go to the NFL. He does not deserve a death threat over a game. At the end of the day, this is a game. Someone must win. Someone must lose. Everybody continues their life the next day. Very unfortunate. I'm saddened if there's any of our fans, that's on the other side of those threats. I would hope and pray not, but that kid was just playing [to] the best of his ability and he made a mistake. So I forgive him. CU -- my team forgives him. Travis, he's forgiven him. Let's move on. But that kid does not deserve that."

On If There's A Target On QB Shedeur Sanders
"I think there's a target on every great players back last time I checked. That should really challenge your offensive line to do their job shouldn't it? If you stop the quarterback. If you stop [CU ATH] Travis Hunter. If you stop [CU WR] Jimmy [Horn Jr.]. If you stop [CU WR Xavier Weaver] 'Zay'. if you stop these guys, you are stopping offense. [Oregon QB] Bo Nix is pretty darn good too. We want to stop him but we're not going to do anything absurdly dirty. We don't believe in that. This is a game. I mean, we want to win but we don't want to step outside the lines to win. Character is everything to us."

On If QB Shedeur Sanders Continues To Impress Him
"Consistency impresses me. When I see him in a presser it impresses me. When I saw him on stage with [ESPN Anchor] Stephen A [Smith] as well as [Hall of Fame TE/ESPN Anchor] Shannon [Sharpe] -- that impressed me. He's a really knowledgeable kid. Sometimes he was reluctant to let his personality go, but now he's home he is -- remember when I said I'm about to get comfortable? He's gotten comfortable. I know him -- as my son I know when he opens up like he's opened up he's comfortable and I'm proud of him in every aspect."

On First Year Cornerbacks In The NFL
"I don't follow the NFL so I don't know. I don't know if that's true. I have no idea. I don't really follow the NFL game and I haven't followed it for since I was out commentating and broadcasting. So I don't know how true that is. I'm happy for those youngsters if they're able to come in and show immediate impact. That's not easy by any standards. I'm happy for them man. I wish I followed them a little more so I could ride with you on your statement. I just don't. I'm so into what we do and what our opponents are doing. That's what I'm into. I don't really look outside these blinders."

On Oregon HC Dan Lanning's Comments About Colorado
"I respect the heck out of this man [Oregon HC Dan Lanning]. What he's accomplished stepping in taking over a program and keeping it not only rock steady but but accelerating it. I'm not a fan of anybody. Except for you know, some of the celebrities that got His tremendous gift but not in sports. I respect the heck out of him. I love what he's accomplishing. I love who he is the way he runs his team. I love the way he operates. I've got a lot of respect for him."

On Colorado's Defense Being "Hot Garbage"
No no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't take my quotes and run with it. It was moments in the game. Our defense had really played pretty good football this year. I mean, it was moments that they played badly. Moments that were hot garbage. Offense have been to. Special teams have been to. I have been to. Coaches have been to. We all have been hot garbage in moments.

On Colorado's Defensive Turnovers
We get to the ball. We practice getting to the football. We practice [with] a certain physicality. The way you practice is normally the way you play. It's hard to practice soft and then go out there and play hard and vice versa. But I attribute that to the way we attack when we're on the field. When we're not playing well, that's one guy blowing the coverage. One guy not carrying the receiver in the seam. One guy not being in his zone to carry that crossing route. It's always one guy just doing his own thing instead of having a unity. That's what makes us hot garbage -- one guy."

On If RB Alton McCaskill Will Play This Week
"No. We took off his yellow shirt [non-contact jersey] today. He's practicing. He's able to be hit. He's ready. I feel like he's ready. I don't care what the ratio is -- run [or] pass. I really don't. I care what the ratio is on the scoreboard. That's what I care about. I don't give a darn about run [or] pass.

On Slow Starts
"I don't like us to run the ball just for the sake of running the ball. It's a two yard loss or a one yard gain. I don't believe in that. Everything you do in life should have a purpose. Let's be purposeful when we do things not just do it just to do it."

On Being Aggressive
"I don't believe in gut [feelings]. It's what your team is doing. It's what your team is showing you. I'm aggressive because I'm aggressive by nature. I'm a go getter. I'm going to do it. I'm an attacker. I don't sit back and wait on nothing to happen. I'm going to go make it happen. One thing that -- I have gotten this question yet and I can't believe it is [my decision in] over time. We wanted the ball. Why'd y'all not ask me about that? Why did I want the ball? I wanted the offense out there why? [You wanted the ball in QB Shedeur Sanders hands] You go girl. You go girl. I want to put the darn ball in Shedeur's hand. Why? Because I know what he's gonna do and he's gonna put pressure on them to do something that they're not prepared to do consistently. [S] Shilo's [Sanders] like 'Daddy' -- yeah he called me 'Daddy'. I'm like I'm not your Dad, I'm your coach right now. He said '[Are] You putting the defense out there first?' and I said no, your brother's gonna take this and he's going to do what he does. That was really the conversation."

On If He Thought Possessions Would Flip For Second OT
"Yeah, we thought so but they told us no. I don't know where it came from. So I was gonna put Shedeur out there and let him do what he's capable of doing and it all worked out. But we're gonna always -- oftentimes take the aggressive approach. We're going to take the aggressive approach and put pressure on people and not allow the pressure [to be] placed on us. Thank you. God bless. Let's pray for that kid [CSU S Henry Blackburn] man. That's absurd for people to be threatening him. I don't mind getting death threats -- I get them every week but a kid, that's not good."

Shilo Sanders, Gr., S

On CSU's Success With Short Passing Game
"We just got to get good, matching those underneath routes. That's what we worked on today and it should be fixed now. The best teams make the best adjustments week-to-week, just how we did from TCU to Nebraska. We're real good at making adjustments because we got the best coaching staff in the country."

On The Decision To Start On Offense In OT
"I asked, "Why aren't you putting the defense out first," and he responded with, "You haven't stopped them all day!" So he went and the offense went out first and that's how the conversation went on the field."

On Playing DB And Studying His Dad
"He played a lot of press coverage, but sometimes I'll look at his off coverage. But the biggest thing he did is use instinct and just break on a route and believe what he's seen. So that's really something that I took from him. When I was younger, I was always a quarterback and played both sides, as safety on the other side. In high school I mainly played baseball but my junior year I started to play football. My dad told me he could get me a lot of offers if I played corner, and that he would just teach me. That's how I started playing DB, got some scholarship offers and started playing corner from there. My freshman year at South Carolina we were thin in the secondary and needed safeties and that's when I stepped in."

On All Games Being Sold Out
"Everything happens for a reason. Whenever we are in that close game, I wasn't worried, just knew it was a bigger stage to make bigger plays. I looked at it as an opportunity, more people tuning in instead of a game that is 60-0."

On Secondary Without Travis Hunter
"Right now, we have a lot of guys working in a lot of different places. Different schemes, but I feel like as a secondary we are going to be solid for sure."

On Playing A Full Game Defensively
"Everyone just needs to do their job at all times. It's football, name of the game is seeing who can make the least amount of mistakes. If everyone does their job on offense and defense, then we are going to be the dominant team we need to be. I think that's going to happen this weekend for sure."

On The Defense's Three Interceptions
"We left so much on the table, and each could have had two each. So there's always room for improvement. Our defense, we just get to that ball and we specialize in hustle, playing fast, and it shows up."

On Oregon's Offense
"It's just football. We just play the calls that coach Kelly makes because he's the mastermind behind everything. We just do our assignments and make plays. It's not really that complicated."

On His Interception
"Not really, I always shoot for more than one interception a game. Coach Kelly and I went over that exact play throughout the whole week. He even showed me videos of Jordan Battle doing it Alabama, that same exact play. So I just follow the blueprint. Basically."

On Winning Games In Different Ways
"Every game is a big battle. You can't really compare teams with the rankings, because I don't know what TCU was ranked whenever we beat them but we're not really looking at it as the biggest battle. Every week is the biggest battle because we try to win every game. We didn't think CSU was gonna be that close, that was a big battle. That was the biggest battle of the season and nobody thought that. At the end of day, we just had to fix what we messed up in practice, which we're doing, and continue to get better and better each week."

On If Resilience Against CSU Helps Going Forward
"Yeah, for sure. But if we eliminate mistakes, we won't get to that point. So just as a team, with the coaching staff we have, we're improving and improving and getting better and better every week."

On The Brotherly Competition With Shedeur Sanders
"It was like that in high school too. So, we've been doing this for a long time, competing in practice. If he's playing against guys like us in practice every day, I tell him all the time that you shouldn't be worried about nobody playing against us every day."

On Playing At Different Times Of The Day
"I love the 10 a.m. ones, if they could do the same time, we practice which is nine that'd be great too. I just like going ahead and getting it over with, just doing what we do early in the morning, so you have the rest of the day to relax. Whenever it's an eight-thirty game or eight you have to wait around all day for that game. I did make a big play late at night. So hey, I might like the night games better. For everyone in the city, for everyone watching, because people were up at like 1am-2am and other places were watching the game, so I think I'm gonna go with early games."

On Talking To Travis Hunter After The Game
"Travis is my guy, every time we stay in the same hotel room and we usually switch off like ordering each other food like in the mornings, for the second game he ordered me so much food from McDonald's. The next time I was like bro, what do you want, you know I got you, and I got him some Chick fil A. Losing Travis is like losing two players because he played offense and defense. I just had to make sure he was all right. I really wanted to whoop that dude that did that to him after the game or something. lf I see him just around here somewhere you gotta watch out but that really that really made me mad, just seeing him trying to play dirty like that. I thought something would happen; punishment wise but if I did that, I think it'd be way crazier."

On Playing In The Pac-12 Conference
"I love this conference. They throw it and I like how they put the ball in the air in this conference for sure. You got a lot of good quarterbacks and a lot of good receivers and players in this conference, and I feel like should Shedeur is doing his thing."