Colorado Buffaloes College Football Pregame Quote, 09/05/2023

“Travis (Hunter) broke three school records, first player in 20 seasons to have 100 yards receiving and an interception nationally. Dylan (Edwards) broke three school records for true freshman last 27 years nationally to score a touchdown in his FBS debut. Jimmy (Horn Jr.) broke two school records. We’re the national team of the week. Four Buffs over 100 yards receiving. First time with two receivers having 11 plus catches. Shedeur broke nine school records and Kordell Stewart called me not happy about it. First player with 500 plus yards in FBS debut nationally since 1996. What that means is we have some gentlemen that can play this game, but that does not mean anything going into this week. It’s a whole new focus, whole new understanding on what’s at stake. This is a rivalry as we understand now. It’s a rivalry, we take it very seriously. First home game in front of Buff nation. And we had a good practice today. We really did. I thought we could have took it up a notch with our focus but we had a pretty good practice today overall.

On Building Outside In:

When you talk about it people say I build outside in because I’m a DB and I played receiver and I played skilled positions so you would think that. But our line, offensively, did pretty darn well. Defensively, it looks like we played like garbage because we surrendered so many yards and points and we’re gonna fix that. But we have depth at both of those positions to get us to the destinations that we desire. So it’s not like we’re just structured to build outside in, my attractability to skill level players is just a bit more than the d-line and o-line, but trust me, they comin. Those d-line and o-line, trust me they comin.

On Sean Lewis:

A guy that can take this offense to another level. We’ve always had success, defensively, tremendously at our prior stops. Offensively, we’ve had success as well. Brett Bartolone did a wonderful job, Coach Pollock did a wonderful job. They were my former two OC’s. We just wanted to up the ante and go to the next level and also take Shedeur to another level. And he was ready. He was ready for the challenge, not just with the play calling and the dynamics of the plays and the structure of the offense, but with the personnel as well. I mean, I’ve been telling you ladies and gentlemen we have some tremendous athletes on the offensive side of the ball as well as the defense as well.

On Going From HC To OC:

A tremendous opportunity. Not just the players seek opportunities. I think the coaching staff as well. We still have several coaches on the staff that their dreams and ambitions are to be a head coach at a power five level and it’s my objective to help them get there. I want that for them more than anything, especially since I know that’s what they desire. I’m going to help them get to their point.

On Offensive Line:

We felt like the line was suffice, we felt like we had backs that could run the ball, the line was gonna do its job and we know Shedeur is Shedeur. You guys didn’t know that because some guys are not intimate with this team and you’re outside of the crib, you know, commenting on what’s going on inside. But that offensive line you got to give them credit man. Everybody was talking about we’re small, but we got out there two 6’9″ guys. Where are you getting that from? But we got to improve running the football because the running backs that we have are tremendous. You’re gonna see a couple more things this week and featuring a couple more of those guys that didn’t really get a lot of touches last week. Hopefully they get opportunities this week. But that line did a phenomenal job, offensively, and they could do better.

On QB Shedeur Sanders And S Shilo Sanders Brotherly Competition:

Well they competed at everything. But as a parent it’s a good thing. I’m gonna say it, they argue about who has the most money in the bank. I like that because it’s not who’s spending the most, who has the most stuff, it’s like who has the most in the bank. I love to hear that argument. I love it and then it gets on my nerves and I say let’s stop it. But they go at it and compete all the time and I like it because it pushes them. They’ve been doing it since they were shorties, I mean, coming out the womb and I really like that Shilo in the back end he’s the verbal leader back there defensively and Shedeur does what he does. But I love the brotherly competition. It won’t stop, trust me.

On Nebraska Rivalry:

Well, rivalries are rivalries. There’s some more severe than others. I think everywhere you go coach from high school or from youth league on up you’re going to have rivalries and just learning the dynamics of the different rivalries. I like it, it’s delightful. So I’ve learned the severity, the serious nature of this rivalry and I’m embracing it 100%. This is personal. That’s the message of the week. This is personal.

On Nebraska:

They’re well coached. I do admire their coach tremendously. I mean, what he did at Baylor I know things didn’t go the way they desired to go in Carolina. But just that opportunity and doing what he did is something that some aspire to, I don’t aspire to go to the NFL, but some aspire to go to. But I like him, he’s done a phenomenal job with that team and trying to get them in the right direction. They play hard, they play tough, they’re physical, they dot I’s and cross T’s and trust me they’re not going to lay down at any means. They’re going to come in here and be prepared for a dogfight. They know the athleticism that we feature and what we come to the table with, so it should be a tough game. I think we may have a couple of players that played for me once that’s on that team as well.

On His Health:

Well forget me. I was thankful that the kids made it. You know what I’m really happy about? That we didn’t suffer from the heat exhaustion, we didn’t allow it to affect us. I think we ended up with six or seven penalties which was phenomenal. You guys say we just met, are you guys on the same page and all that, but this, it was phenomenal. Me. My health is my health. Just to lead them out and run out of the tunnel was enough for me. I did what I needed to do. Now it’s time for them to get on. My health is going to be crazy, I’m going to take meds, I’m going to shoot it up, I’m going to do what I have to do to make it through, but this is about the kids.

On The Heisman:

Well, I think we have three of them in Heisman contention right now. And Travis, what he’s capable of doing, I’ve been saying that since he got here and since he got to Jackson when I first laid eyes on him. The kid is different. As the young folks are saying now, he’s phenomenal. He loves the game. He gets upset. Like I told he and Dylan I don’t want to see them practicing until Wednesday so they’re gonna start work tomorrow which gave them a few days off to get their bodies recuperated. But this young man loves the game of football and you try to find out intangibles about his life so you can recruit to that. You try to find out what makes him tick. What makes him him and you recruit to that. You’re not going to find anyone in the country with that talent. But what the thought process and how he goes about life, that’s what you’re trying to identify and it goes like young men that can accompany him on his journey.

On ATH Travis Hunter:

I love him. Travis is like a darn son to me. Travis got a tear out of my eye last week, man. I’m a fisherman. He’s a fisherman and he brought me a little lunchbox looking thing which was a reel. It was a reel inside that was unbelievable. You know, you can’t even get tangled up with this reel, you can’t get a bird’s nest with this reel. It was phenomenal and he has the rod coming with it. He’s telling me but he’s teasing me, he’s giving me piece by piece. But just for him to care enough to understand that that’s what I love and that’s what we share in common. So I love that young man to life. It has nothing to do with his athleticism. I just love him as a person. He’s a tremendous human being.

On Nebraska Back In The Day:

They were unbelievable. One of my dearest friends Broderick Thomas played for Nebraska and I can remember on one of my bye weeks in college I went to see him play and I saw the crowd and the way they responded and it was unbelievable. But I think I played them, I don’t know, I think it was my freshman season. We went to play in Nebraska and I’m pretty sure we won. But it was a tremendous sight to see how they love football.

On Cormani McClain and Alton McCaskill:

Well, Cormani, he has to be ready. He has to get ready. He has to get ready to play. McCaskill, he’s close. He was mad today because he took it upon himself to take his gold jersey off and we didn’t tell him to. I’m like, I don’t want you hit in practice. I want you to make it to the game. But he wants it so bad. He wants it right now and we’re gonna monitor him and see. He shouldn’t have dressed out because I wasn’t going to play him, that wasn’t going to happen. But the kid wants to play right now and we got to make sure he’s ready and he’s prepared.

On Defense Not Winning Heisman:

Because they want action. They want action, they want to see plays made and it’s hard to make plays when the play is not designed for you to make it. You got to be so aggressive and so dominant as Charles Woodson was to be able to command that type of attention and make those types of plays where you actually win the Heisman. Just having the audacity to get on the offensive side of the ball and be dominant, that gives him the upper hand. He’s tremendous. You have so many young men in high school that play both ways. And all these coaches promise them that they’re going to be able to continue to do that when they come to this institution and they’re lying. They’re just doing it to get them. I haven’t seen it. I just haven’t seen it happen. And I told them I’m not hard to find. I know how to do it, I know how to monitor it, I know how to make sure that you are where you need to be. But the rule I have is that you must be dominant on one side of the ball before I allow you to go to the other side. You must be dominant. And I feel as though Travis had proved his dominance on either side of the ball and he’s in incredible shape as well.

On S Trevor Woods And S Myles Slusher:

Trevor has been consistent. That’s why he started. He’s been tremendously consistent at understanding the playbook, getting guys lined up and doing his job. And he did his job tremendously in that game. Slush has been a guy that’s been consistent. We ask a lot of him not only on the defensive side of the ball but on special teams. Well, Slush is banged up, I don’t think he’s going to play this week. He’s banged up and I want to do what’s best for him right now instead of what’s best for us right now. I don’t want him just lagging and continuing this. I’d rather him go if he has to get a minor surgery, let’s go get it right now so you’d be ready for the run because we’re going to make a run.

On Improvements:

We got to stop the run. We got to tackle a lot better. Linebackers got to do their jobs. Coach Kelly called a great game. We must execute the calls. Great game, great calls. You know what’s supposed to happen, but when it doesn’t happen you get upset and I can’t get upset with the coach, I’m upset with the kid because I know what’s supposed to happen. We got to hold those young men accountable, and we will and we have. So he called a great game, but we must be better defensively because that in turn gives us more opportunities to score. But the thing about that last game, the way it was going, and scoring scoring, I just said to myself as long as Shedeur has the ball last, we’re good. Because he’s gonna get us in, he’s gonna get us there. I’ve seen it his whole life so I’m very secure with him.

On The Hype:

I want them to read the headlines because I’m not stupid enough to think that they’re not. I hate when coaches say oh don’t read your clips. No, read your clips because you balled out. I want you to read, but you got to understand everything they say ain’t true. Either way, either way. And we start winning, not in the news press and not on Saturday, but we started today. We started with the scouting report today and understanding today. Yesterday, probably half the team was in watching film and getting prepared and studying. So I love that aspect of who these young men are and what they want but they’ve seen the results of hard work and labor. They’ve seen that all we got to do is win. You see all the attention we’re getting? Like that has registered now and I think there’s some things that they couldn’t fathom, that they didn’t understand that it could happen. Because the light is shining upon us and we’re thankful for that. But these young men they know now if we just balled out, we’re gonna get the love that we desire. That’s all they want. They want attention, focus and a little love and light. And ain’t nothing wrong with that as long as they use it in the right way.

On QB Shedeur Sanders Growth:

We’re in Boulder, Colorado at a power five. I think the press conferences are a little larger than they were last year. I think the notoriety and intelligence component it’s a little larger than it was last year, much larger than it was in high school even though we had shows that showed on social media and so forth. He’s been the consistent, same guy and that’s what I love about him. He’s rock steady. He doesn’t allow the attention and focus and the lights to turn him or deter him or to lead him in a certain direction. He is who he is unapologetically, he’s going to speak his mind. He’s not abrasive whatsoever, but he’s a very intelligent young man. So when he talks you might want to listen because what he’s saying is not to be offensive, he’s just saying to educate and inform because he’s trying to tell you what he sees. And that’s the first thing I ask him when he comes off the field. What do you see? What did you see? He says, I didn’t like that, that wasn’t good, that wasn’t good for us. That’s cool. Let’s go with it, next series, let’s be ready. So he shakes it off, and he’s ready for the next series. But he analyzes everything on and off the field and that’s something that you want from a quarterback. You want to know their lifestyle, how they act on and off the field, because that stuff translates.

On Alumni Showing Up:

I don’t know. I’m so locked in on what we have to do, I’m not locked in on who’s coming. Although I have some friends definitely coming in that you guys are gonna love. But I don’t know about the alumni. All I do know is if they decide to come, we have true instructions to take care of. To make sure they feel at home, to make sure they feel comfortable, to make sure they feel like they were a part of this process and they were. I wouldn’t be here in this building if it weren’t for them.

On AP Poll Ranking:

I don’t care what no one says about where we should be ranked. I don’t care about the ranking. I care about how we practice tomorrow. That’s what I’m caring about right now. That ranking doesn’t have a record does it? No, the ranking doesn’t have a record.”