Weekly Press Conference Quotes

Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders

Opening Statement
"Thank you all for coming. First things first, academic football students of the week are Chazz Wallace and Hank Zilinskas. Chazz Wallace, ethnic studies and Hank Zilinskas, exploratory studies. Those guys did a great job. I'd like to just commend them on their chase for greatness on and off the field. It's wonderful I love to hear it. Also a couple of my players came to me this past weekend and wanted to do something for single mothers. I thought that was so darn wonderful, because there was a period of time in my life where my mother was a single mother, and I just got love for that. So I told them anything they want to do, I'm all in. That was tremendous and that's the kind of character our young men have. Great game. We, as you know, didn't play our best football. We didn't put our best foot forward but we took care of all protocol, watching film, cleaning up and ready to go into this week. Great challenge ahead of us. First and foremost, I have the utmost respect and love and appreciation for their head coach. This is a bonafide winner not just a winner, a man who has put a plethora of young men into college and they care about the character of the men and I've been watching his journey because I was living in Texas for a while. So, you know, Barry Switzer is one of my great guys. So just watching his climb from there, and what he did for that program, and then going out to California, what he's doing for USC is commendable. I got love, respect and appreciation for everything that he's accomplished. He is one of the upper tier coaches and I admire him tremendously and his staff."

On Playing Till The Final Whistle
"Quite a few of them did. I don't think we really had anybody who just shut it down and quit. The effort might have not been 100% or 110% like we require, but I don't think any of them shut it down. I'm proud of them. You got to understand for some people, they have a disdain for where we are in what transpired. To be 3-1 and not satisfied. Doesn't that say a lot about this program? You're 3-1 and you're not satisfied and you know you can do better. So I'm happy with that understanding and that change of the thought process of this program. And I love where we're headed."

On Shilo Sanders' Status
"He's doing better. We went to the hospital right after we landed. He's doing much better. We're praying that he heals and he plays this weekend. He's a vital part of our secondary and our team defensively. He's one of the voices on the defense and he plays with a certain physicality that we desire and we want. He's giving me daily updates, trust me. I'm praying that he can play as a father as well as a coach."

On Alton McCaskill
"First of all, one of the best character young men that I've ever come to know. Wonderful family. His mother has done a wonderful job with him as well as his siblings. He's getting better and better. We want to see him hit it with more physicality and get the shoulders over a little bit. But as you can see, he has it. He just has to put it together in due time but he will. I don't doubt him for nothing. He's a great running back but we have a backfield full of guys that can get the job done but he's special."

On What Stands Out About Caleb Williams
"Everything. The kid is a playmaker. He deserved the Heisman Trophy a year ago, which he secured. I love to see his personality in commercials and pressers. He's the epitome of class and confidence in what he brings to the table. He makes plays. He makes that team go. He's a handful."

On When Shedeur Gets Hit
"I don't have emotions as a father when I'm out there, just emotions as a coach. You don't want your quarterback to get touched for the fact that we were giving up pressures, not only pressures but sacks. Sometimes you hold it waiting for guys to clear, waiting for guys to open. Sometimes there's nobody open. So it is what it is. We got to fix it. You don't want that because you want him to endure throughout the season because when he's doing his thing we do our thing. You always got to flip it to the positive side. Giving up the sacks we've given up the kid still has a 77% completion percentage and over 70% last week or something like that. You know how phenomenal that is? So you got to look at things positively as well. That's phenomenal considering what we've given up sack-wise and pressures. That means when he gets it off he's doing his job, which is tremendous. We just got to do a better job in protecting him and getting the ball out of there."

On Response After Oregon
"I want to see the coaches respond first. That's the thing. I know leaders are a lot, but I want to see how the coaches respond first. And the coaches, they have been responding. They've taken it on upon themselves as making the necessary changes, scheming a little differently because you got to understand they have four games of film on us right now to really predicate what we're going to do and where we are. We had a tremendous scout report today. That was tremendous, that opened a lot of eyes. The theme of the scouting report was the truth shall set you free. And we wanted to really give them the truth about some matters that are going on around here. So prayerfully there'll be free to do what they're capable of doing."

On Evaluating If The Staff Is Prepared
"There shouldn't be a multitude of surprises that we don't know about. When pressure is on people they resort back to what they know. We should know on this formation they're going to run the ball. We should know what's coming, there isn't a lot of surprises in football. It just comes down to can your team execute much better than they can and they executed much better than we could. So it's not a bunch of surprises. But now you got to adapt and adjust and make sure that we're forward thinking and not reacting. I hate being reactive. I like to be proactive."

On If The Offense Is Too One-Dimensional
"I don't know about one dimensional. We got to run the ball. Not only that we got to implement short and immediate as well as the deep passing game. But the main thing you got to protect your quarterback I don't care who you are. You got to protect the quarterback."

On What Cormani McClain Needs To Do
"Study. Prepare. Be on time. Show up to the darn meetings. Understand what we are doing as a scheme, want to play this game, and have a desire to play this game. Desire to be the best in this game, at practice, in the film room and on your own free time. I need film time from the whole staff on Thursday so I can see who's been preparing. And that's just not about commodity. It's about a multitude of them. So if I don't see that, you will be a fool to put somebody out there and they're unprepared. Can't do it won't do it. Can't do it. I'm old school. I'm sorry.

On If The Team Needs To Commit To The Run
"That's like asking your wife if you're committed to a good meal every night if she can't cook. We got to be able to cook the running game before we commit to it."

On Shelomi Starting Basketball Practice Today
"That's my baby girl and my heart. I love all my kids but I love them differently as I tell you all the time. She has a witness protection program with her brothers, she's never dated and probably won't get married until she's 40. I've seen her go out there and work and want it. Sit in there and put up 100 shots at the end of practice on her own. We have a tremendous head women's basketball coach and I told her any recruiting help you need it, you got me and they take me up on that and I love it when they bring the young women in. That's going to advance their program. I get to see my daughter come in my office and take a nap on the couch, put on all my clothes, and still get to see all of that. I'm living a wonderful double life here as a father and coach, and I love every minute of it."

On Playing Jerry Rice's Son
"I couldn't care less, don't give a darn about that. I care about all my kids, man. All my kids that have a Colorado buffalo uniform on. That's what I care about. I couldn't care less, I care about Mr. Williams. You know, Caleb Williams, and that whole host of young men that's coming. I'm happy for Jerry that his son is doing his thing. I saw him post about his son who scored a touchdown last week. And I'm happy with any man is there in their kid's life and doing a wonderful things. I really am. I'm into fatherhood, really.

On Former NFL WR Keyshawn Johnson's Comments On Undisputed
"Yes, that's ordinary. No, no, I was alluding to what I said. I was honest about what I said. That happens every week. That's not just [during] the Oregon game. That's life. I want our coaches to understand that we're not just playing against a team. We're playing against all of college football. There aren't too many people lined up to see us dominate and to see us win. They have to understand that as a whole -- our entire staff has to understand you're not just participating against that per se school, we call for information as well. So this is not a one-stop type of thing. But I know Keyshawn alluded to the gentleman saying that they have a plethora of calls trying to assist which is understandable. That doesn't make it any tougher -- no easier. We understand that's what we're up against."

On Shenandoah University S Haley Van Voorhis
"Awesome. I'm all for it. I'm happy for her. First of all, I'm concerned about her safety. I want to make sure she's safe, but I'm sure once she puts on the pads, she understands what goes along with that. But you know I believe in equality not just ethnicity but gender as well. So I'm all for it. God bless her."

On Keeping More Players In The Backfield
"[If] You keep more guys in the backfield than you have three guys to go out for a pass -- you have two guys go out for a pass and it's easy to double them. Everybody goes with tendencies. We just have to win when we're out there regardless of what personnel [we're in]. [If] We have a receiver out there, he has to win his matchup -- he has to win his battle. We just have to call things a little more understanding of the coverages as well, We will get there -- we'll do it. I think we're pretty we're still pretty good ranking-wise amongst college football. I know what 3-1 but I'm pretty sure it's a lot of schools that they would love to trade places."

On Message To The "Haters"
"Yeah, when I came out of the womb they were booing. I don't have a message to detractors or haters. I don't take my time to respond and to defend myself. Why would I do that? I'm giving you a microphone if I'm doing that. I'm giving you solace that you're in my life. I don't care. I really don't. So if it's been that way, all my life, you would think that I'm used to it. I'm not new to this, I'm true to this and I keep going. So I'm good with that, man. I'm good with that. This is a comfortable place for me."

On Message About Dealing With Haters
"It's about us. It's not about them. It's about us. Everywhere we go, even in your darn family you are going to have detractors - you have naysayers, you have pouters, even in your darn family. You guys are all shaking your head like 'Yeah, my aunt she ain't no good. My sister's ignorant -- she's ignorant. She's not telling the truth.' That's because it's going to be like that. God would always allow somebody to be in your path that have a disdain or dislike for you. It's up to you to keep going. I don't stop. I keep going. I don't have stop in me. Not whatsoever, man."

On Atmosphere In Locker Room
"We're still on a high. We're still on a high. We're not on a see-saw. We don't go up with the weight coming down. We don't do that. We rock steady baby. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you baby. I don't want to be vilified by calling a woman 'baby' in this climate. Okay, ma'am. Ma'am. We're still on a natural high. We still are working our butts off to achieve perfection. We're still loving what we do and doing what we love. We're still who we are. Things just happen in life but we can't stop. We have to continue to focus and go forward and move expeditiously and still walk our path. I'm loving our kids. I'm loving our staff. I'm loving the community. I'm loving the support [from] the student body. I'm loving every bit of it and I can't wait to see it show up and show out. You have to understand [that] David has to have a Goliath. If David doesn't have a Goliath, he doesn't get to use the stones. That was a good one. I'm going to end right there. Thank you. God bless you."

Closing Statement
"I didn't get [the notes for this week] I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You do a great job. ABC announced ten million viewers for the Oregon game -- most most-watched game this season. Second most-watched regular season game in CU history. We've now had 35 million viewers through four weeks averaging eight, almost nine million per week. Defense defense, defense offense, offense, offense. Our Chancellor Phil DiStefano. That's my guy, man. He did some wonderful things here even changing some things so a lot of our athletes could get in and then they proved themselves that they should have been in but he is a wonderful human being. [He] always greets me with a smile and a hug. He's going to be missed. I think he's going to continue his term through May and then he's gonna be part of the leadership which is phenomenal. I have much admiration, much love, much respect and he's a legend to me because he embraced us with open arms and made it possible for us to do some of the things that we're doing. Hats off and God bless him. He will be missed, but I'm sure he's going to stay around in some capacity, which is a good man. We must applaud our good men and good women while they're here and give them their roses while they can still smell them. God bless you."

Juwan Mitchell

On His College Football Journey
"It was kind of just the belief. They believed in me, believed in my situation. I also believed in them and what they had going and what they had building. The whole culture, there's a lot of underdogs and things of that sort. It just was the right place to come in with a chip on our shoulder, every single person and got something to prove."

On Coach Prime Saying The Truth Will Set You Free
"The truth is the film, the film don't lie. We got things we can work on. I'm just happy it happened at the time it did. I was sad for a little bit, that's why I took my hair out as you can see, but the film, don't lie, it's clarity. You got to be able to be a man and accept what you put in the film and go in and correct it day in and day out."

On Picking Up The System Quickly Late In Camp
"It's also a blessing to me playing on so many staff and things of that sort. I really learned coverages, I really learned how schemes fit. It may have different verbiage and things of that sort but a strong hook is a strong hook. A weak hook is a weak hook. I just need to know where it fit in, in the scheme and when we want to run it and what we are trying to stop so that's pretty much it."

On Responding Against USC After Oregon
"Everybody is waiting for us to respond. We don't have time for a pity party. So we went right back to work, right back where we started. Nobody expected us to be 3-0. People didn't expect us to win. So we gave people what they want in this game and it's time to get back to work and just focus on what's in the locker room."

On Playing Another Top-10 Team
"It's college football. It's any given Saturday, anything to happen. You saw USC play Arizona State, so they're vulnerable. I'm sure Lincoln (Riley) is telling them boys, they got to step it up this week too. It's pretty much who's going to come to work, be the most prepared day in and day out leading up to Saturday. We can't just flip the switch, we have to prepare."

On Travis Hunter
"We are all in this together. I'm sure that loss hurt Travis (Hunter) just as much with him sitting at home. Even when he is in the building he's all in, everybody's all in. We have to take our wounds and we're gonna take our wins the same way."

On What He Saw Watching The Film
"Everything. They executed us. They came and out executed us. It's not all on the coaches. We are the one's playing. We get the call, everybody has to be on the same page. We have to all be in the same spot. Everybody got to do they're one eleventh and just play ball."

On Cormani McClain
"That's funny, that was my roommate at theTCU game and I was like dang you gave me a freshman, but he is mature. Cormani (McClain) knows what he wants in life. He's gonna go get it. He has things he has to work on, we all do. But he real hungry. He comes every day ready to work. He long, real long, he can go play the ball. He's special. I expect to be back in a year or two, being one of those guys."

On His Journey
"It's been a blessing. I kind of been dealt a crazy hand, but I won't let that define me. My first year at Texas after that year, we had a whole different staff offensively and defensively going into my second year. Then after that year, (Tom) Herman got fired and they bought a (Steve) Sarkeesian, so that's when I went to Tennessee did my two years there, graduated so it's really been a blessing I've been a part of a culture at Texas where everybody is five stars, everybody is legit. Then I went to a culture in Tennessee where we were the underdogs. I came in with Coach (Josh) Heupel, so on paper we weren't those guys, so we were sneaking up on people. It made it fun. I've been able to be a part of both and take both of those and put them into one. I know I'm that guy but at the same time I'm humble enough to know I gotta work and prepare. I can't sleep on another opponent."

Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders

Juwan Mitchell

Players Mentioned

Travis Hunter

Alton McCaskill

Cormani McClain

Juwan Mitchell

Shilo Sanders

Chazz Wallace

Hank Zilinskas

Related Videos