Colorado head coach Deion Sanders has a nice home in the area, but he said he hasn’t seen it in a while.
“I haven’t been home yet. I’ve been here every night since (Saturday’s loss to Utah),” Sanders said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “I haven’t been home yet. So that’s how much I care (about getting things fixed). That’s how much I love (the job).”
Coming off the worst loss of his college coaching career, a 53-7 drubbing at the hands of now-No. 24 Utah in Salt Lake City, Sanders and the Buffs are searching for answers, but eager to move forward as they host Arizona on Saturday at Folsom Field (5 p.m., FS1).
“Let’s flush the darn toilet and let’s move on, and that’s what we’ve done,” he said. “We flushed the toilet and moved on.”
Not that the Buffs (3-5, 1-4 Big 12) haven’t taken the time to review the Utah game and learn from it. But, it was out of character for this team, which upset then-No. 22 Iowa State prior to the loss to Utah, and lost by just a single score to two teams that are still undefeated and ranked top 10 nationally – No. 8 Georgia Tech and No. 10 BYU, who are both 8-0.
“Going back from Iowa State and what we just did (at Utah), that’s two different teams,” Sanders said of the CU squad that showed up for those games. “That’s two different teams with us, not them. … Now, we’ve got to get back to that former team and then improve on that. And we’re very much capable.”
Following Saturday’s humiliation in Salt Lake City, Sanders said everyone – starting with himself and the coaches – has to get better.
Asked if there’s been any changes in coaching responsibilities, Sanders said, “Well, you always do that. We do that from game to game anyway. It’s not something that we don’t do. We just don’t tell you all the time that we do it.
“We’re always looking to improve in every area of getting the guys prepared, and not only that, what’s being called from play to play, situation to situation.”
While Sanders leads the operation, coordinators Pat Shurmur (offense) and Robert Livingston (defense) have been calling plays since the start of the 2024 season.
CU also has defensive ends coach George Helow as a defensive run game coordinator and cornerbacks coach Kevin Mathis as the defensive pass game coordinator. And on offense, line coach Gunnar White is the run game coordinator and tight ends coach Brett Bartolone the pass game coordinator.
“That’s being challenged all the time,” Sanders said. “And I challenge these guys all the time and I challenge myself all the time to get it right. We’ve just got to get it right. We’re not achieving what we’re capable of achieving at this point.”
Sanders also said after the game he wanted to identify all the “whys” from what happened against the Utes.
Asked if he got those answers, he said, “Yeah, most definitely. I don’t want to share those. Most definitely I found out the whys.”
Players, meanwhile, have apparently responded well to Saturday’s loss, as they look to rebound against Arizona.
“We can’t dwell on the past,” defensive back Preston Hodge said. “We’re not going to get anywhere if we always think about that last game. (As a leader) just telling everybody to keep going. We still got four more games ahead of us, hopefully five, and just telling everybody just keep going, just keep trying to chase to the top.”
Receiver Sincere Brown added, “I love how we came out on Monday practice and we responded well. Like, we didn’t flinch, we didn’t hold back, we wasn’t as sluggish, we was going all out. We automatically forget it and just focus on the next week. We’re ready for Arizona this week right here.”