This season, the wins aren’t rolling in like Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders.
But there is no doubt that victory is coming.
“I really want to win,” Sanders said after Saturday night’s 28-16 loss to UCLA in the Rose Bowl.
“I’m used to winning, we’re going to win, we’re going to win.
Fasten your seat belt and hang in there. We will win and we will have to see what can happen with our team.
Sanders, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was hired to restore the glory of the CU program after a 1-11 season in 2022. He accomplished that by outscoring then-No.17 TCU, dominating rival Nebraska and a double-overtime win over rival Colorado State in September.
Still, the Pac-12 schedule was humbling to say the least.
Oregon outshot the Buffs 42-6.
That was followed by a close loss to USC (after a 34-7 deficit), a narrow win over Arizona State, an embarrassing overtime loss to last-place Stanford (after blowing a 29 -0) and Saturday’s loss.
Bruins.
“I mean, the only time we hit bottom was at Oregon State,” Sanders said.
“We messed up. There was no victory.
You can see how we beat this game in all our other games.
We can do the same.
This is why in our world we call it hope.
“I’m grateful and happy for that,” he said.
KU certainly could and should have beaten Stanford and taken the lead in the fourth inning.
And the Buffs defense played well enough to beat the Bruins on Saturday.
But the Buffs haven’t learned how to win consistently.
This is the normal nature of building a program, and CU is better than it was a year ago.
But the Buffs haven’t lived up to their expectations over the past five games.
“Every game is a big lesson,” Sanders said.
“Every day of life teaches us a great lesson.
So, unlike a lot of teams led by first-year coaches, the expectations for us are high and we want to live up to those expectations, so I think they’re going to learn at a faster pace.
“I was close.
I was close.
I mean, I did a great job.
We can see what we have, what we are building and what we need.
So they don’t like to recruit recruits and watch TV and see what we need?
“It’s easy to see what we need and that’s the type of defender we have.”
Sheder Sanders has been outstanding all year and is one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
But the Buffs don’t yet have the pieces or the consistency to make a big impact in the Pac-12.
Coming into the season, many pundits expected CU to win just three games, while some expected six wins to qualify for the Cup.
At 4-4, the Buffs have exceeded expectations, but the bowling will be a tough task.
But Sanders’ vision for the program far exceeds anything the Buffs can accomplish this season.
“It doesn’t matter if there are no dishes,” he said.
“We’re trying to win.
We’re trying to win and not say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to go to the ball.’ we will win I think we showed that in the first half (against UCLA).
I know we came back in the second half and gave up some explosive things early in the second half, but the guys played great.
I really did.
They played their ass off.
“We made a lot of mistakes, but we know we can do better. They pushed them, but we made some big defensive mistakes …
and that’s what allowed them to do what they did.”
Despite the mistakes and struggles in Pac-12 play, Sanders remains optimistic as the Buffs enter the final month of the season.
“We had the best week of practice,” he said of the week leading up to the UCLA game.
“We had the best practices on Friday and we are ready.
This is not due to lack of preparation or lack of need and desire.
I made a critical mistake at a critical moment.
“We have seven or 10 players in college football that can really do what we want them to do.”