Deion Sanders kicks players off Colorado after blowout loss at Northwestern

Three days after Colorado's 41-7 embarrassment at Northwestern, Deion Sanders said at his weekly news conference that multiple players have been dismissed from the team

BY JAKE SHAPIRO

Sep 22, 2026, 12:32 PM

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Watch: Coach Prime’s Colorado Buffaloes get exposed by Northwestern. What went wrong? | Shapiro and Piro | 19 mins

Deion Sanders said Saturday night he was going to put his foot in it, not on it.

On Tuesday, he did.

Three days after Colorado’s 41-7 embarrassment at Northwestern — one of the five worst losses of the Coach Prime era — Sanders said at his weekly news conference that multiple players have been dismissed from the team. He didn’t name them or say much at all about it.

“There’s a few guys who aren’t on the team anymore, just so you know,” Sanders said.

The dismissals are a direct response to what Sanders saw walking off the field in Evanston: players laughing, joking, showing what he called “joy in a loss” while he seethed right behind them. Sanders said Saturday he couldn’t understand it. By Tuesday, he’d gotten rid of the problem.

“It’s never one,” Sanders said of whatever threshold was crossed. “I’m the most loving and giving and forgiving man you could ever meet. But when you start being conduct detrimental to the team … that will set us back.”

Before Sanders even took questions, he brought safety Ben Finneseth to the podium. A pregame video had gone viral over the weekend showing Colorado players mocking Northwestern’s temporary Martin Stadium — the 12,000-seat lakefront facility the Wildcats have called home while their new stadium is under construction. Players were caught on camera calling the place trash before a game in which they got run out of it.

Finneseth, identified as one of the voices in the video, apologized publicly.

“It’ll never happen again,” Finneseth said. “It was childish, a stupid thing I said. The way I handled it was horrible.”

Sanders backed him while making clear the situation was handled internally.

“I have the utmost respect for that school, and some foolishness came out of it and we want to correct our wrongs and make it right, right now,” Sanders said.

If that was the accountability portion of the afternoon, what followed was the hard truth portion. Sanders turned his attention to an offense that has been almost nonfunctional against real competition. Take away the 52-21 win over Weber State — “the cupcake game,” as Sanders called it — and Colorado is averaging roughly 9-10 points a game through its first three weeks.

“It’s not good,” Sanders said. “It’s not gonna win for you.”

Then came Julian Lewis.

The sophomore quarterback threw the first two interceptions of his college career Saturday and finished with 168 yards passing and a single touchdown in a game where the Buffs moved the ball but couldn’t finish a drive. Sanders has been publicly patient with Lewis through the early growing pains. On Tuesday, the tone shifted.

“I told y’all he’ll be coming around the mountain, so what does that mean?” Sanders said. “He ain’t there yet.”

He paused.

“I can’t expect something out of you that’s not in you. That’s not an insult.”

Maybe not, but it’s not exactly a vote of confidence, either, especially when he also admits at the same news conference that he took his son, Shedeur, being quarterback for granted. For Lewis, who was billed as a program-changer when he arrived in Boulder, “not in you” lands hard — even when Sanders frames it as a developmental reality around one of the youngest starters in the country rather than a personal shot. At some point, “coming around the mountain” needs to arrive — even if it’s not this year.

The players who spoke Tuesday echoed the accountability message. Defensive back Randon Fontenette talked about keeping the locker room together and addressing anyone not meeting the standard. Linebacker Tyler Martinez was more blunt about the dismissals.

“It sucks in the moment,” Martinez said. “But when you look at the big picture, if it’s gonna help us win, we gotta do it. I’m sorry to see those guys go. We have games to win here. Whatever it takes.”

Colorado (2-1) opens Big 12 play Saturday at Baylor.

The foot went in. Now we find out if the message lands when the Buffs take the field in Waco.