Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders is feeling the pressure of an imminent fourth losing season.
Colorado, 2-5 overall and dead last in the Big 12 at 0-4, hosts Kansas State (4-3, 1-3 Big 12) and is attempting to climb out of a five-game losing streak on Saturday, as Collin Klein and the Wildcats travel to Boulder with concerns of their own at QB.
The loss of Avery Johnson and backup Jacob Knuth surely played a role in moving the spread to Colorado’s favor as a 1.5-point favorite this weekend, but the Buffs are coming off one of their worst defensive performances of Big 12 play in last week’s 57-24 loss at No. 24 Oklahoma State. Colorado notably gave then-No. 11 Utah a scare two weeks ago in a 27-24 home loss.
Backup Isaac Wilson is expected to start at quarterback for Colorado again this week following news of Julian Lewis enduring a “medical emergency” midweek. Wilson’s started three straight weeks since a 23-13 loss at Baylor saw Sanders sideline Lewis.
Eli Whitney of the Boulder Daily Camera asked Sanders about how he’s handling Colorado’s latest woes versus previous downturns from last year and the 2023 campaign.
“Pain is pain,” Sanders said. “I hate losing because I don’t consider myself one. We have different young men on this team, and I think a lot of those guys are winners. We just haven’t gotten it together to do what the expectation is to do, which is not good. We’ve gotta fix that; I’ve gotta fix that… It’s the same hard feeling. It’s tough, it really is tough.”
Sanders is just 5-15, including four losses by 30 or more points, across Colorado’s last 20 games. The former NFL star and two-time Super Bowl champion is under a $54 million contract with the Buffs through 2029.
It’s unclear whether Colorado could reasonably fire Sanders midseason, and doing so could pose bigger problems internally when you think about a school severing ties with a man once considered the savior of the football program. Sports Illustrated coverage and the consistent media swirl, it’d be a major story should the school choose to fire Sanders before his fourth season ends.
More realistically, Colorado takes a hard look at Sanders and the direction of football in the offseason. Is offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brennan Marion a potential pivot? Or are we starting from scratch? A loss to Kansas State this week could speed up some of those answers if the Buffs hang a sixth consecutive loss on the schedule.
