Deion Sanders breaks his own rule after Colorado’s near-upset of 11 Utah

Deion Sanders doesn’t do moral victories — on Saturday, he made an exception.

Not long after Colorado’s 27-24 loss to No. 11 Utah at Folsom Field, Coach Prime said he had broken one of his own rules in the locker room.

“I did something I never do after the loss,” Sanders said. “I stood up there on the podium and told those kids, ‘I’m really proud of y’all, man.’ Because they fought. They didn’t give up. They had a chance.”

The loss was the Buffaloes’ fourth straight and dropped them to 2-4, 0-3 Big 12. Utah (6-0) stretched its winning streak to 12, the longest active run in the nation after a chaotic Saturday in college football.

Colorado nearly joined that chaos by scoring their biggest upset win in nearly 20 years — coming within a play of sending the Utah back across the Rocky Mountains losers. Last year, the Buffaloes came back to Boulder, downed 53-7 by Utah.

“It’s a whole different tone in this press conference,” Sanders said, “but I am proud of them, man.”

Things didn’t look that way at halftime. Colorado trailed 13-0 and had more penalty yards (82) than offensive yards (70) in a first half Sanders called “atrocious penalty-wise.”

Then the Buffs woke up behind new starter Isaac Wilson. The Utah transfer, facing his former team, flipped a short pass to Jaquail Smith, who went 68 yards for a touchdown. DeKalon Taylor’s 18-yard run capped another 75-yard drive, and Colorado scored 17 straight points to lead 17-13 in the third quarter.

Utah went back ahead 20-17. With 5:17 left, Wilson threw his second interception, and that set up Devon Dampier’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Braden Pegan. Wilson answered with an 83-yard scoring drive that cut it to 27-24 with 1:21 left, and the defense got the Buffs ball back with 56 seconds to go and nearly a full field away from the end zone.

On the last drive, Wilson scrambled and pitched to a teammate, which looked like it would set up a tying field goal try. Officials ruled the pitch went forward, and a final heave fell incomplete.

Sanders was pleased, but he made it clear he wasn’t satisfied.

“I don’t like to lose whatsoever,” Sanders said. “I don’t like to lose for this fan base, this university, for the kids, their parents and for anybody involved — even for you. I know some of you love it, but I hate it.”

That last line was aimed at the reporters in the room. Earlier, asked about the “bad narratives” around Colorado’s losing streak, Sanders pushed back: “You guys are responsible for narratives, not us.”

He also argued the record doesn’t reflect his team.

“I may sound foolish of what I’m about to say, but every team that have beat us this year, I feel like we could have won,” Sanders said, though he admitted the Buffs “got our butts kicked” at Northwestern. “I really hate that the record tells a different story than who they really are.”

Asked whether a close loss could turn the season around, Sanders wouldn’t promise anything.

“I have no idea. I’m going to wait and see next week,” he said. “I know we going to practice our butts off. We’re not going to have a pity party because ain’t nobody care.”

Wilson finished 18 of 30 for 256 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

“I wanted this one bad,” Wilson said. “I wanted this one really bad.”

Colorado plays at Oklahoma State next week — maybe a moral victory is what the Buffaloes needed after some tough luck and bad losses in the prior weeks.

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