Deion Sanders on leadership: ‘When you say you’re a dog, you better bark’
Colorado remains winless in Big 12 play after back-to-back losses to BYU and TCU, including last Saturday’s 35-21 defeat to the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth to fall to 2-4 overall and 0-3 in league play. It’s been a particularly difficult season for third-year Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders, who revealed he’s facing more medical issues in his legs following the game.
The 58-year-old Sanders announced Tuesday he will be undergo a four-hour surgical procedure later in the day to address the blood clots. He’s planning to attend Colorado’s next practice Wednesday.
But in the meantime, Sanders is also working through a lack of leadership within the Buffaloes locker room after another offseason roster overhaul that included losing sons Shedeur and Shilo to the NFL. And while he made it a point to avoid criticizing Colorado’s current roster, Coach Prime didn’t hold back about what he expects from players that consider themselves leaders.
“I’m not going to point the finger at just this group. But you’ve got to understand, man, when you come into an environment like this and you say you’re a dog, you better bark,” Sanders said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. “Because if not, the fanbase is going to tell you who you are. And if you’re crazy enough to look at that and allow them to tell you what you are, you are not that. … Like if you’re going to stand up in the locker room and proclaim ‘this is my team and I’m that leader,’ you better play. Because they’re going to call you out. That’s what today’s society is.”
Sanders then suggested some of Colorado’s veterans might be too anxious of criticism to assert themselves as leaders on a remodeled Buffs roster.
“So you have a lot of guys that might be scared to take that leap of faith, of leadership, because they don’t have the game to back it up,” Sanders continued. “But there’s some tremendous young men in there that are doing a tremendous job of leading, and I’m proud of them. I really am. And some of them are leading from the back. You don’t always have to lead from the front. You can lead from the front, the middle or the back.”
Deion Sanders bothered by fly during press conference: ‘Are we that stinky?’
Deion Sanders was bothered a lot after Colorado’s 35-21 loss to TCU on Saturday and that included a buzzing fly during his postgame press conference. If anything, the fly was a metaphor for the Buffaloes’ recent results.
“Where are flies coming from,” Sanders asked while he was in the middle of answering a question. “Are we that (stinky) that the flies are buzzing around … Jesus.”
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sanders felt that’s where his squad is at through the halfway point of the season.
“Truly disappointed,” Sanders said Saturday. “When I addressed the team at the conclusion of the game, I challenged them in that moment. It is one thing to lose, and it is another thing to feel like you beat yourselves. We were beat at Houston. These other games, we had opportunities, ample opportunities to win the game. And for some strange reasons we’re not preparing these young men and equipping them enough to get over that hump.
“The thing I told our team is, ‘If we keep doing the same thing, we are going to keep getting the same results.’ I am challenging the coaching staff right now to figure this thing out. We are so much better than what we’ve shown in the second half.”
