Ethermac Exchange-Deion Sanders on play-calling for sliding Colorado football team: 'Let that go man'

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders seemed to be Ethermac Exchangein a good mood Tuesday at his weekly news conference in Boulder. He handed out candy to reporters, congratulated the Colorado women's basketball team for its big win Monday against No. 1 LSU and generally tried to focus on the positive aspects of his team this season despite its recent struggles.

But then came a question he didn't like.

It was about his team’s struggling offense and who was going to be calling the plays Saturday when the Buffaloes (4-5) host Arizona 6-3).

"Is the play-calling arrangement still going to be the play-calling arrangement?" a reporter asked him.

“Let that go man,” Sanders said. “Just let it go. You barkin’ up a tree you ain’t gonna get up. So just let it go. We’re some happy people around here, and we’re ecstatic. We’re blessed… We’re not where we want to be, but we ain’t where we used to be. And we going in the right direction. So we’re good … All that controversy and that stuff, we trying to raise these kids man. Grown folks’ problems, that don’t help kids. And I’ve been through two divorces, and I know that for a fact. Grown folks’ problems don’t help kids.”

What was the issue with Deion Sanders?

Sanders changed his team’s play caller on offense last week, promoting former NFL coach Pat Shurmur to the job in place of offensive coordinator Sean Lewis. Both now have the title of co-offensive coordinator. But the change didn’t seem to help the team in the first three quarters of its 26-19 loss at home Saturday against Oregon State.

The Buffs gained just 78 yards of total offense in those three quarters before quarterback Shedeur Sanders got some pain relief in the locker room and came back to engineer touchdown drives in the Buffs’ final two possessions of the game.

Now, with three games left in the regular season, Colorado needs two wins to become eligible for a postseason bowl game after losing five of their last six games. It will be the 10th game in a row that the Buffs have played in front of a sellout crowd – and the final game in front of fans at Folsom Field during a season that’s gone south after starting 3-0.

Sanders said he wants to leave those fans with “positive hope.”

“I wish you all could understand how close we are to being what we want to be and do what we want to do,” he said.

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Deion Sanders addresses Shedeur Sanders' future in NFL

He began the news conference by passing out his favorite candy – Now and Laters, a taffy-like treat. Then he rattled off several positive statistics about his team, including the fact that his team forced 18 turnovers, which ranks 10^th nationally, according to NCAA statistics.

“Sometimes when we’re losing like we’re losing, you gotta find positives to energize the staff and energize the young men that are working their butt off to make it happen,” Sanders said.

The problem for Colorado is there are other statistics that show where things have gone terribly wrong. Only one other team in the nation has given up more quarterback sacks than Colorado, which has given up 46. No other quarterback has been sacked more than Shedeur Sanders, who has suffered 45 of those sacks and has had to resort to painkiller injections in his last two games to help him finish, according to his father and coach.

“He’s getting more treatment because his body is tremendously sore,” Deion Sanders said. “His body is tremendously sore, tremendously sore, because I know some of the things that he don’t do that he’s doing now to make sure he can get out there and be his best.”

The beatings his son has taken and his potential to play in the NFL after this season have raised questions about whether Shedeur Sanders might stay in college in 2024. What might make him consider the NFL next year?

“Why would we when we having a great time here?” Sanders said. “When we appreciate and we love where we are, it’s hard to look at somewhere else.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com