Football: CU Buffs begin post-bye stretch run

10/24/2023 Deion Sanders would have preferred to coach a game last week. Instead, the Colorado head football coach bought a couple of ATVs for his property and got more sleep than he’s had in weeks. “I had a good time and got some rest,” he said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.

And now, it’s go time. CU (4-3, 1-3 Pac-12) returned from the bye week Sunday as it turns the focus to a matchup with No. 23 UCLA (5-2, 2-2) in Pasadena, Calif.

, on Saturday (5:30 p. m. , ABC).

“I don’t think we needed to get away and needed rest,” he said. “We needed to maintain and keep on going. … I want to keep on going.

I want to keep on moving. I want to keep on progressing. ” What the bye week did, however, was give Sanders and his staff an opportunity to step back, self-assess and work on how to progress.

Following a 3-0 start to the season that vaulted the Buffs into the Associated Press Top 25, the Buffs have lost three of four, including a stunning 46-43 double-overtime loss to Stanford in their last game, Oct. 13 at Folsom Field. CU led 29-0 at the half before collapsing for a devastating loss.

Asked what he had on his mind last week, Sanders said, “Everything. I don’t stop thinking. That’s my darn problem.

That’s why we can’t rest as humans sometimes. We gotta learn how to turn our mind off and it’s hard for me to shut this off because I enjoy it so much and I want to dominate it. ” The CU staff did some recruiting over the bye, as well as trying to fix issues that have plagued the team so far.

“We talked to some players and talked to some coaches as well as to what we’re gonna do when we get back in,” he said. “I compile a list that’s crazy. It may be a 50-point list of things that we’ve got to incorporate, things that we got to do.

So I never stop, which is unfortunate for me, but I’ve got to mix in some rest with that as well. ” Players had four days off last week, while coaches analyzed every aspect of the team. “The coaches had a task to pretty much give an analyzation of each player,” Sanders said.

“So I got a scouting report on each player and how they felt about each player, how they’re helping us; can they help us in the future, and so forth. So that was tremendous. That was a tremendous assessment of each player and where we are.

” Where they are is below what Sanders expects of his team. Going into the season, many pundits projected the Buffs to finish at or near the bottom of the Pac-12 and many expected no more than three wins. The Buffs have already exceeded some outside expectations, but haven’t matched their head coach’s standard.

“My expectations are lofty, so you know darn well how the season’s going with my expectations,” he said. “It depends on your expectation. You can’t mix my expectations and your expectations because they don’t coincide.

You know what mine are. I know where I feel like we should be, record-wise, and I know what we can accomplish. I just want to put it all together one game and give it to you and display it.

” .