On paper, Colorado had nothing to be upset about. The Buffaloes beat Weber State 52-21 on Saturday to move to 2-0, the kind of scoreline that usually means a loose, celebratory locker room. Deion Sanders walked in and gave his team the opposite of a pat on the back.
A video from inside the locker room caught him mid-speech, and he wasn’t holding back.
“And the sad thing about it, some of y’all are satisfied with that,” Sanders yelled at his players. “You definitely ain’t no dog. You ain’t no killer. And you’re definitely no pro if you can be satisfied with that. There’s going to be a lot of conditioning tomorrow. This is not the winning recipe to win it all. You guys are happy with winning the game, I’m trying to win it all.”
The numbers explain exactly what set him off. Colorado’s defense gave up 372 total yards to a Weber State team picked to finish in the middle of the Big Sky. Quarterback Nate Dahle threw for three touchdowns against a Big 12 defense, and the Wildcats finished with 23 first downs, just one shy of Colorado’s own offensive total on the night.
That’s not a complaint Sanders can pin on his offense. Julian Lewis was close to perfect, going 17-of-23 for 366 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. The issue is entirely on the other side of the ball, and it’s not the first time this season Colorado’s defense has drawn that kind of scrutiny after a shaky special teams showing against Georgia Tech in Week 1.
Penalties and Missed Chances Piled Up Too
The locker room speech was the headline moment, but Sanders widened the target even further in his postgame press conference. Special teams came up again, and this time he got specific about what actually bothered him.
“I think everybody chipped in on some of the nonsense,” Sanders said. “And when we’re trying to kick a field goal late, and the guy’s over there in a good conversation, not even running on the darn field, that bothers me. And the multiple penalties on special teams bother me. And we got to do a better job.”
He also wasn’t happy with how little his backups actually got to play, despite a 31-point lead that should have opened the door for it. Walk-on running back Titus Bautista broke free for a 73-yard touchdown on Colorado’s final drive that would have been the first score of his career, only to have it wiped out by a teammate’s holding penalty.
“It’s hard to even look the kid in the eye because he’s been busting his butt at practice, getting his opportunity. Finally got his opportunity,” Sanders said. “He hit it like he was supposed to, and he outlasted the guys scoring a touchdown. And he gets the call back because someone wants to hold on a particular play because they’re not getting their feet where they need to be to do the job.”
The penalty total backs up how frustrated he sounded. Colorado was flagged 13 times for 112 yards against Weber State, roughly double the output from a cleaner Week 1 performance.
“Yeah, it’s not good. It’s not good at all. That kind of happens when you get up, and you get kind of lackadaisical. I’m not happy with that,” Sanders said. “We’re going to take care of that. I think there was half the output of production that we had the first week, right? And we doubled it. We can’t win consistently with those types of penalties, and they’re mindless penalties.”
What makes the tape especially alarming is who did the damage on defense. Weber State enters Week 3 sitting at 1-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play, hardly an offensive juggernaut. If a team like that can move the ball at will, Colorado’s schedule isn’t about to make life any easier. Texas Tech, Utah and Houston are all still on the docket, along with road trips to Northwestern, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Arizona State and Cincinnati, a stretch that will punish exactly the kind of lapses Sanders was yelling about.
Sanders has never been shy about separating what it takes to win games from what it takes to win it all, and Saturday’s speech, plus everything he added afterward, laid that gap out in plain language. His players got the win. What they’re getting this week, by his own promise, is a lot more conditioning and a lot less patience for mindless mistakes.