Without a chance to go bowling for the second consecutive season, Head Coach Deion Sanders and his Colorado Buffaloes are playing for the future when they host Arizona Sate on Saturday evening at Folsom Field.
“You want to win, but you’re evaluating, young men as well as the staff,” Sanders told the media at his weekly media briefing. “Like, where do you go? You’re doing a lot of evaluation when you’re coming down the home stretch and you want to see that passion.”
Player and Staff Evaluations Are Coming
Without naming names, Sanders made it clear that what has happened on the field during what is currently a three-win season isn’t satisfactory, and that changes are coming. He talked about the inevitability of the transfer portal shaking up the roster – with both additions and subtractions – and talked about what he envisioned for his offense (and his play caller) moving forward.
“Being creative, and understanding what we have,” Deion responded during Tuesday’s media availability. “You understand what we have on offense. Like, it’s hard to deal with four (junior wideout Omarion Miller.) Nine (senior wideout Sincere Brown) can fly. Eight (sophomore wideout Joseph Williams) can do his thing, and we have tight end (junior Zach Atkins) this kid can play. I mean this kid can really play. I think this kid has pro ability. We just have not gotten him in the situations that we should have.
“The line has been suitable and valuable, they’ve had ups and downs a little bit during the season here and there,” Sanders continued. “For the most part, these guys have been blocking their butts off. And we’ve got running backs who can run. So with all of that that I’ve just said, we should move the ball, and we should have some consistency in that.”
CU Offense Has Underachieved This Season
That sounded very much like an indictment of the current offensive coaching staff.
The word “creative” and current CU Offensive Coordinator Pat Shurmur aren’t typically mentioned in the same sentence. Shurmur is an old school play caller who’s offenses have typically been NFL-style predictable. There had already been speculation that this would be Shurmur’s final season in Boulder before the season started.
So somewhat predictably, on the heels of consecutive blow out losses against Utah and Arizona, offensive play calling duties were taken off Shurmur’s plate prior to the Buffs trip to West Virginia. Some took that as a sign that the veteran coach would be on the way out after the season.
During Sanders’ first season in Boulder, a similar move was made with then OC Sean Lewis, who relinquished play calling duties after a disheartening loss at UCLA before leaving CU after the season and accepting the head coaching job at San Diego State. It was Shurmur who took over the play calling duties then, and continued in that role during the 2024 season before giving the job up two weeks ago.
If he makes another change for next year, the new guy will become Deion’s fourth play caller in four seasons.
While Sanders noted that he and his staff were prepared for what lies ahead with the transfer portal, has not talked about any staff changes publicly.
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