Next on the schedule for the Colorado football team is an Iowa State squad ranked No. 22 in the country.
The most difficult challenge for the Buffaloes this week, however, might come within their own locker room.
Back-to-back come-from-ahead losses have put the Buffs at 2-4 at the midpoint of the season, including 0-3 in the Big 12 Conference.
Goals of winning the conference and getting to the College Football Playoff are gone. Bowl eligibility is slipping away, too.
But, for CU to salvage this season, it has to first keep the team together.
“That’s the most important thing going forward; 2-4, at this time, players start to think other things,” sophomore safety Tawfiq Byard said after the Buffs’ 35-21 loss at TCU on Saturday night in Fort Worth, Texas. “As leaders, we’ve got to bring them together.”
That won’t be easy for a team that has talked about a lack of leadership for much of the season, but Byard said leaders have to step up.
“We’ve got to keep (the players) on the same mission, because at the end of day, it’s our last name, and it’s that Colorado that’s on front that’s on the jerseys,” Byard said. “We’ve got to take it upon ourselves to do more and it starts in practice. And I know we keep saying it starts in practice, and everything starts in practice, but it’s real. Y’all see it out there on the field. We’ve just got to do better.”
CU has jumped out to 14-0 leads in back-to-back games, only to lose both: 24-21 against BYU on Sept. 27 and Saturday’s loss to TCU. It’s the first time in CU history that the Buffs have had 14-point leads in consecutive games and lost both.
Head coach Deion Sanders said his team has lacked a “killer” mentality, and it won’t be easy to change that.
“I don’t think you build that,” Sanders said. “I think that comes with the kid. And that’s tough stuff. You gotta have that somewhere inside of you, but that starts on the practice field, because if you’re having success there, you’re going to bring that over to the game, and you’re going to be successful there.”
Sanders reiterated Saturday night that CU players continue to underperform in practices, which is leading to struggles on game day.
“The thing that I told our team is, we keep doing the same old thing we always done, we gonna get the same old things that we’ve always got, and they’re not happy by any means about that,” he said.
Sanders didn’t put it all on the players, though, adding that he and the staff need to do a better job of preparing the players and helping them finish games. CU has been outscored 55-20 in the second halves of their three Big 12 games.
“The coaching staff, I’m challenging them right now to figure this thing out, and let’s prayerfully understand that we are so much better in the second halves than what we’re showing,” he said.
“We need to see more out of me, as well. Accountability, preparation for those moments.”
As far as Byard is concerned, though, it’s on the players, who have shown they can play with their opponents.
“The whole game, we’re in it,” he said. “We’re competing, going back and forth. Yeah, they might score, we get back and we get a touchdown. We never felt like they were doing too much that we couldn’t handle. It’s just us. We’ve got to take it upon ourselves to make plays when it matters.
“We just can’t finish. We’ve gotta finish.”
First step in that process, though, might be making sure players are bought in and committed to getting better.
“We’ve all got to stick together,” quarterback Kaidon Salter said. “It starts at practice. It starts with us getting up at six in the morning, going to meetings. Just stay together. We gotta stay together. And that’s one big thing that you have to do when you’re have a season like we’re having so far.”
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