On Saturday night, Colorado safety Carter Stoutmire walked across the Folsom Field turf during warmups wearing a gray sweat suit.
Fashionably in the same attire was fellow safety Ben Finneseth, and cornerbacks DJ McKinney and RJ Johnson. That foursome represented the starting secondary when the Buffaloes opened the season on Aug. 29, and all of them were out with injuries for Saturday’s 42-17 loss to Arizona State.
Also in sweats were defensive lineman Brandon Davis-Swain and offensive tackles Jordan Seaton and Larry Johnson III. They, too, were opening day starters and out with injuries.
Head coach Deion Sanders wouldn’t use injuries as an excuse, but there’s no question the health of his team played a significant role in a season that will come to a merciful end on Saturday in Manhattan, Kansas, when the Buffs meet Kansas State (10 a.m. MT, FS1).
“There’s no excuse, man,” he said after the loss to Arizona State, which dropped CU to 3-8 (1-7 Big 12). “Everybody’s got injuries, man; everybody’s got injuries, so that’s no excuse. I’m not gonna sit here and say we’re not winning because we got half the darn team in the darn training room. No, come on, man. We’ve got to coach better. We got to do better. We got to plan better. We got to be better all the way around.”
Better coaching, planning, etc., certainly could have changed the trajectory of the season, but it can’t be ignored that darn near half the team has been injured.
Running backs Simeon Price and DeKalon Taylor, who combined for 226 rushing yards, 116 receiving yards and four total touchdowns in the first four games, have missed the last seven games.
That prompted the staff to move receivers Dre’Lon Miller and Kam Mikell, as well as walk-on Ronald Coleman, to running back. Mikell didn’t play Saturday, either, and Coleman’s fourth-quarter fumble on his first career touch was devastating.
CU went into Saturday’s game with only two healthy scholarship safeties – Tawfiq Byard and John Slaughter. Byard, who already has been playing with a broken hand, left the game in the second quarter with a different injury.
So, nickel back Preston Hodge moved back to safety. And Isaiah Hardge, another converted receiver, played 51 snaps on defense because the Buffs were also depleted at corner with Johnson and McKinney out.
At defensive line, CU had six of its nine players on the roster out with injury, including Davis-Swain and Amari McNeill, a five-game starter who has missed the last three games.
Three others – Gavriel Lightfoot, Tavian Coleman and Tawfiq Thomas – have played a total of nine out of 33 possible games this season. Lightfoot hasn’t played all year, Coleman has missed the last six games and Thomas has missed seven of the last eight. Freshman Christian Hudson has missed three games in a row, too.
Down to three healthy defensive linemen, CU used backup offensive lineman Mana Taimani for 17 snaps on defense against Arizona State.
Defensive end Samuel Okunlola, one of the Buffs’ top pass rushers in 2024 and a key piece coming into this year, has also missed all but one game this season. And inside linebacker Jeremiah Brown, who had started five straight games, was out with an injury Saturday.
All told, CU had 49 healthy scholarship players on Saturday night – and the number hasn’t been much higher in other recent games.
Sanders dismissed any notion that the rash of injuries has anything to do with CU’s training regimen.
“No, this had nothing to do with training, it has to do with the men,” he said. “We just played a team that didn’t have their starting quarterback, and they was missing a few other young men as well. So we’re not the only one with injuries. I’m not gonna make an excuse for that.”
No, the Buffs aren’t the only team with injuries, but they also don’t help themselves by choosing to have less quality depth than their opponents.
Many schools operate with the standard number of 85 scholarship players, while some go above that with the NCAA now allowing 105. In his three seasons at CU, Sanders has never had as many as 80 scholarship players. The Buffs went into the season with just 78 scholarship players and two have since left the team.
While not asked specifically about those numbers, Sanders did acknowledge that the staff has to improve its roster management.
“We got to do a better job. We compile the roster,” he said. “We got to do a better job of roster management and so forth, because you got to plan for this kind of stuff.”
Injuries may not be an excuse Sanders wants to employ, but addressing team health and roster management will be among the many things on Sanders’ offseason agenda.