Three Things Colorado Coach Deion Sanders Said ahead of OSU’s Trip to Boulder

The eyes of the college football world have been on Colorado since Deion Sanders took over in Boulder going into last season. That means that there will also be a lot of eyes on the Cowboys this Friday.

Oklahoma State plays the Buffaloes at 11 a.m. (Central) Friday from Folsom Field. Sanders spoke with reporters this week to preview the game. Here are three things he said. You can watch his full news conference below.

1. ‘I Got a Lot of Love and Admiration For (Mike Gundy)’

It’s tough to say whether Mike Gundy and Deion Sanders are polar opposites or kindred spirits.

Both are larger-than-life leaders of programs in the Big 12, but they have built their programs different ways. Gundy has always taken a blue-collared approach, finding diamonds in the rough on the recruiting trail and building through development. Sanders has been flashier, building through the transfer portal and emerging as a destination for star players.

Regardless of whether they’re the same or different, they’ve both spoken glowingly about each other. Here is what Sanders said about Gundy’s program and Gundy himself.

“We have a tremendous task at hand,” Sanders said. “This team, just like the last one (Kansas), they’re not playing indicative of their record. They’re much better. They have a winning program, one of the most heralded coaches in the Big 12, and he’s been that way for a while.

“I have the utmost respect for him, and he is flat-out hilarious to me. I mean, just seeing him sit at the head table like the grand poobah of the Big 12 meetings. Like, he’s our guy. I got a lot of love and admiration for him, and I start smiling when I think of him and I watch his press conferences. And he is honest, real and hilarious because there’s a lot of truth in all his humor. So, I got the utmost respect for he and his team.”

2. Sanders Not Happy with Thorpe Award

Many national awards are starting to release their finalists as this season winds down. Colorado star two-way player Travis Hunter is a finalist for a lot of them — but not all of them.

A Heisman favorite, Hunter, who stars at wide receiver and cornerback, was named a finalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year, the Maxwell Award, the Bednarik Award (given to college football’s best defender) and the Biletnikoff Award (give to the best wide receiver). However, Hunter wasn’t named a finalist for the Thorpe Award, given to the best defensive back in the country.

Funnily enough, it’s an award Sanders himself won back in 1988 with Florida State, but Sanders doesn’t seem to value that hardware too much following the announcement of this year’s finalists.

“How?” Sanders said. “How is Travis Hunter snubbed by the Jim Thorpe Award? You can have my award. You can have it back. Matter of fact, I’m gonna give him mine. I ain’t using it. It’s just sitting up there collecting dust. So Travis can have my Thorpe Award because if this ain’t the most idiotic thing in college football that he’s not a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, and he is — I would say arguably, but I don’t think it’s really an argument about this young man being the best defensive back in college football.

“I ain’t said nothing about the receiver part of it. I’m just talking about defensive back. He rarely gets thrown at. He’s won a game for tackling for us, and he’s always on point. So if you bring up the statistics, I don’t know how in the world is Travis Hunter not a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. They just pretty much messed up all the integrity of the award, and he can have mine. Whoever’s voting down there, whoever’s bringing it home, thank you because I don’t even want mine now. God bless you.”

There’s sort of an Oklahoma element in this, as Jim Thorpe, the award’s namesake, was an Oklahoman. The official presentation of the award also takes place in Oklahoma City.

‘We Had an Opportunity. We Squandered It’

The Buffaloes’ loss to Kansas this past weekend further threw the Big 12 title picture into chaos, and now Colorado is going to need some help to get into the Big 12 title game.

Nine teams could still play in Arlington. Of the 31 possible outcomes (according to this handy flow chart), CU is in the title game in just seven of them. All of those seven involve the Buffaloes beating the Cowboys on Friday, but it is no longer guaranteed that if CU wins it’ll be in. Even if Colorado wins, there are four scenarios that see them sitting at home during conference championship week.

Because OSU and CU play on Friday, Sanders was asked whether he’ll spend his Saturday watching along.

“I’m not the type of guy to sit down and wish everyone loses so we can reach our goal,” Sanders said. “I’m not built like that. We had an opportunity. We squandered it. OK, let’s go out here and kick butt, and whatever happens, happens. But I’m not gonna sit up there, ‘I wish they lose so we could …,’ I’m not like that. I don’t wish wrong on somebody so we could be right. I’m not built like that, man. We want to go out there and play the best game that we can play for ourselves — period — regardless of what happens thereafter.”