Everything Deion Sanders Said Before Facing the Baylor Bears

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In Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders' Tuesday press conference, he addressed the Buffs' blowout loss to the Northwestern Wildcats one final time. In addition, he gave insight into his team's preparation for the Baylor Bears.

Colorado has a long week ahead of itself between navigating player dismissals and gearing up for another road trip. Here's a look at everything Sanders had to say ahead of those tasks.

Opening statement:

"Coach [David] Braun and Coach [Chip] Kelly from Northwestern. I have the utmost respect. Both of them came over to speak to me, and we had great conversations, and they went on to kick our butts. But I have the utmost respect for that school, that team, what they're doing with the program, and some foolishness came out of it, and we want to correct our wrongs and make it right now," Sanders said.

"We have our task this week. Coach [Dave] Aranda is one of my favorite guys in the Big 12. Always personable. For some reason, we always are seated right by one another, and I enjoy him immensely. What he's done with the program, style of coaching, and we've had several guys leave here and go there. One of my kids who played for me in high school went there, and he has always been a straight shooter," Sanders said.

"When he asks me about our guys, I always tell him the truth. Much love, much respect. The guys that have left here and gone there, they're doing some phenomenal things with them and for them. But he's one of the guys. I love all those guys in the Big 12. They treat me really kindly. But he is one of the ones that I think we've come to have a personal relationship with, and I wish him the best," Sanders said.

"Now for the team, pretty darn good. These guys run a tempo type of offense. We got to be on our P's and Q's. The defense has been very opportunistic. They're physical. They get to the ball. They got some guys that are straight going downhill. The front line, defensive line- they're probably bull rushing. They're not swimming and just trying to go for sacks. They're doing their jobs, and I got much respect for them," Sanders said.

"I think we go in there with the same record. It's going to be a wonderful setting, you know, back in Texas, and I look forward to it. We look forward to it. We're preparing with a little change. I felt the preparation was excellent last week, and we went there and got our butts kicked. So we're changing a few things, but nothing alarming. But we're just asking more of the kids as well as the coaches," Sanders said.

"I'm taking full responsibility for what transpired yesterday, and I will correct it today, and that's where we are," Sanders said.

Taking responsibility for his team's shortcomings

"I'm gonna always do that. I think I've always done that since I've been here. I don't push the buck and push the blame on anyone else. It's on me. Me and the quarterback are probably the only ones- I said this when Shedeur [Sanders] was here: we're the only ones who get the win or the loss, so that comes with a lot, a lot of responsibility. We just got to do better," Sanders said.

"There's no way somebody could have told me that that would have transpired, but the difference in what you guys think is, I don't care about the margin of loss. If it's by one point, it's a loss. It hurts me. Like, I want to win. So a loss by 10, a loss by three, a loss by 30, it hurts me. It's no degrees of loss. Like there are no degrees of sin. A sin is a sin. Loss is loss to me," Sanders said.

"You may measure it differently and find different holes, but it's hard to win a game when you have several turnovers and 90 yards worth of penalties. You can't account for that," Sanders said.

Winning the right way

"We want to win. That's number one. But we want to win the right way, and we want to do what's right. But the whole thing is about winning, and we don't want to ever employ a losing type of sentiment. Like, we don't want to do things that are associated with losers, badmouth opponents and do that kind of stuff. That's not who we are," Sanders said.

How he's handling Julian Lewis' development

"Some things you eliminate. See, you guys take everything for granted. Like some things, I really tell you the truth, and you don't believe me, right? Have I lied to you one time? Haven't I told you the truth the whole way? And I sat there a while ago. I said he'd be coming right around the mountain when he comes, right? So what does that mean? He's not there yet. Okay, so we can't expect that from a person if that's not who he is; he's a football player," Sanders said.

"I expect leadership from that guy [pointing to Tyler Martinez], from that other guy that just walked out of here [Ben Finneseth], and from several other guys, that whole linebacker core, from a couple of safeties. Like, I don't expect that from certain positions, because that's not the makeup of who they are. My job as a coach is I gotta find the best that you can be in you, and highlight that and put you in those situations to succeed," Sanders said.

"I can't expect something out of you that's not in you. It does not matter. Like, just so happens in the NFL, they make mistakes and they put a C on every quarterback's shirt. He's not the captain of that durn team. If you really thought about it, he's not that. But that's the right thing to do. We don't placate like that. [Martinez] is a bona fide leader and a dog. He should have the L and D on his durn shirt. But that's just who we are," Sanders said.

"And I try to shoot you guys straight, but we don't expect that. And that's not an insult to him, to you, or to nobody. But we don't expect that out of some people," Sanders said.

Challenging his players to be disciplined

"The penalties are tough on me because everything we do, and these guys will tell you, is about discipline. The height, the level of their socks, everything they do, the shirts, you know, and everything they do is discipline, discipline, discipline. Then when you get out on the field and you're undisciplined, I don't understand. Like, that's hard to fathom. That means pressure is bringing out certain things that shouldn't be in you," Sanders said.

"But it's coming out, and it shouldn't, because we are disciplining every other area. I don't want to compare a team to a team, but even the nonsense things like being late to breakfast or missing this or being late to this or missing that or not weighing in, we've cut that off by like 80 percent," Sanders said.

"So I still don't understand some of those things, but we are really on that right now, and they can tell you we are on everything right now with a microscope. We're challenging them to be who they say they want to be," Sanders said.

Why he chose to dismiss players from the team

"No, it's never one [incident]. Those guys could tell you I'm the most loving and giving and forgiving man you could ever meet. But when you start having conduct detrimental to the team, that will set us back in things that you're doing; you don't care about the team. You care about you. I have a problem with that. And a year ago, I didn't put my foot down in it enough. You know, it lingered a little bit. Then it imploded. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that anymore," Sanders said.

"No, that's me. I ain't got to consult with nobody to do what I know was right. I don't have to do that. I got to protect them. I got to protect that whole group. And we got a group of young men that I love to life, and I love all of them. But they came up to me yesterday and they said, 'We want to get ahead of anything. Tell us who may be on that list next. So let's get ahead of it. We want to go and get on them, and make sure they're doing the right thing, and make sure they're where they're supposed to be, and make sure they're not going out of bounds,'" Sanders said.

"So I applaud them for that, for coming to me ready to get ahead of it," Sanders said.

If he expects to see Danny Scudero or Demetrius Hunter this week

"I don't expect to see them on Saturday. No, not whatsoever," Sanders said.

How he approaches film review after a blowout loss

"Yeah, well, they know that. I don't want to show them tape to make them feel good after they made me feel bad. We don't do that. Like, we're an honest team. That's what they respect the most. That we shoot them straight. We show them the bull junk that we did, and we've got to clean that up if we want to go to the next level," Sanders said.

"And we show them statistics, and what would happen if we do this, where we're ranked here, where we rank there, and how crazy that is with the talent level that we feel as though we have in that locker room," Sanders said.

Safety Randon Fontenette's impact

"He's a big physical, pro-style safety. Loves the game. Challenges his teammates. Has matured a lot, and I love it. He practices right; therefore, he knows what he's going to get out of the game because of the level of practice that he has. Proud of him," Sanders said.

If this week is of particular importance for a bounceback

"Every week is important, man. Like it's not one more important than the other. You thought I was crazy when I came yelling after the game that we won. Don't you think I know these games? Don't you think I saw something? Don't you think I saw something that I wanted to get on top of right then, so we wouldn't have that shutdown that we did, or that lap backwards that we took. So I see it, and I try to put the light out early to make sure we're straight," Sanders said.

"They got the message, and they understand what we're trying to accomplish, and that's to win out. We're trying to win, man. But that was not indicative of who we are whatsoever," Sanders said.

How both sides of the ball have disappointed him

"Offense is not doing what it's supposed to do. You take away the cupcake game that we had, right? I think we're edging 9.9, 10 points a game, something like that out of the two. It's not good. It's not going to win for you whatsoever. And we're giving up a multitude of points on defense as well, so that's not good. I don't care what the offense does. Defense, you still got to stop them," Sanders said.

"I don't care what situation they put us in or what we put each other in. We still got to stop it, and we got to score. So no, that's not satisfactory whatsoever. There are guys just not doing what they're supposed to be doing. That's on me. That's not on them. That's on me. I shouldn't allow that," Sanders said.

Learning from Aidan Chiles' performance in Week 3

"You've got to take something from it. You've got to force him into doing some things. [Chiles] played a great game, and I pray to God that he didn't take that as an insult. But he played a great game against us. Chip Kelly called a great game. Let's put that mess to bed and look ahead. But going ahead, we got to take some things away and keep applying pressure. We can't sit back and wait for them to make mistakes because they're not," Sanders said.

"We got to apply the pressure, force them into making mistakes," Sanders said.

How having Shedeur Sanders made him take quarterback for granted

"I took for granted that position and how valuable it was because that position was always one room over in my house. So it's easy to take that for granted when it's right there. My whole life of coaching youth ball, coaching junior high, coaching high school, coaching college- it was right there sleeping, you know. All I had to do was wake it up, and it was going to do what it was going to do," Sanders said.

"So that was my fault, taking that for granted. But you understand, when it was always there, it gave you comfort," Sanders said.

Why patience has no role in college football these days

"Well, you guys don't have patience anymore, and we don't have patience. We've seen some younger. No, no, you don't. You don't have patience with us, and we don't have patience with those types of things. You know why? It's because this is a transfer-led situation with collegiates now, okay," Sanders said.

"I was talking to some previous wonderful Buffs a week ago, and I was telling them, 'Your four years is two years now. When you did four, that's equivalent to two. Two is like four now. So if you get a kid for two years, that's a long time. So they're not staying. The reason you're so tight and you knew the fight song by heart and all that, you knew all that because you was there for four or five darn years, and it meant something,'" Sanders said.

"'And you guys did everything together. It's not like that anymore in college football. Everybody's scattered. Everybody's everywhere. Guys got homes. They got condos. They got this. They got that. And I want them to have that thirst and that hunger and that fire and that passion for this game, and we got some guys that really have that. [Martinez] is one of them.'"

Players' role in their development

"That word development is really rich because many people from the media think it's just one-sided. It's, 'we [coaches] got to do all that. When, honestly, no, it's two-sided. Like not only do we have to do everything, but they [the players] have got to do their part too," Sanders said.

"If they don't want to get in here and watch film, if they don't want to get up there and get in the weight room, get a little extra running, they don't want to do a little extra after practice with conditioning and getting to know their teammates and working on certain things that we don't have to push them and force them to do. That's really development, man," Sanders said.

"It's not just us sitting up there with them, with our hands on their shoulders and saying, 'You know, watch this now, right?' That's not what it is. It's twofold. So don't ever think it's onefold. It's twofold," Sanders said.

If he sees those traits in Julian Lewis

"Oh yeah, we know exactly what time it is," Sanders said.

Why the Colorado Buffaloes struggled against the wheel route in Week 3

"It's schematic. That's what that is. Schematic is not something that lingers with you and plagues you. They found something that we had a problem with, and they ran until the cows. came home, which you have to respect. They did it. I mean, it's sort of like we did the same thing, and it's what we averaged six yards per carry, and still found a way to lose the game. So, it's not something that can't be stopped," Sanders said.

"It's something that a call eliminates. A cover two eliminates that. A this that cover four eliminates that. Certain things eliminate that, but we weren't in that per se call at the time," Sanders said.

How he attempts to combat turnovers

"It's hard because you can't prepare for that. That's not on the script. That's not on the sheet. That's not on the only thing you can do is yell sudden change, and they run out there and you try to make sure they're ready to go. So it's not like you can do anything about that. Those are things that just happen. It's like when they had a turnover. What happened? We go down and score. So hopefully that's the same token," Sanders said.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/colorado as Everything Deion Sanders Said Before Facing the Baylor Bears.

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