Current:Home > Contact-usDeion Sanders doubles down on vow to 99-year-old Colorado superfan-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Deion Sanders doubles down on vow to 99-year-old Colorado superfan
View Date:2024-12-23 16:00:40
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders has slightly adjusted his preseason promise to Colorado superfan Peggy Coppom.
Before the season, he vowed to get his team to a postseason bowl game in her honor. But now the Buffaloes control their own destiny in their quest for the Big 12 Conference championship. Coppom also turns 100 years old next week.
Sanders wants more for her.
“I was really dedicated to get Peggy to a bowl game,” Sanders said Tuesday at his weekly news conference in Boulder. “Now we trying to get Peggy to the game. Yeah, it was a bowl game. Now it’s the game.”
The Buffaloes (7-2) are now in position to go to the playoff — if they keep winning. If they win their final three regular-season games against Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma State, they will play for the Big 12 Conference championship on Dec. 7 in Arlington, Texas. If they win that, they will get a berth in the new 12-team College Football Playoff and might even earn a first-round bye if they are among the four highest-ranked conference champions.
On Tuesday, they moved up to 17th in the playoff rankings after debuting last week at No. 20.
Deion Sanders credits 'flipping the dern roster' for success
This is all happening a year after the Buffs finished 4-8 in Sanders’ first season as coach − and just two years after they finished 1-11. His defense is noticeably more physical than last year, leading to a question about the transformation Tuesday.
“We flipped the dern roster, remember?” said Sanders, who was hired in December 2022. “Remember all the changes? Yeah, we flipped the roster. That probably has a lot to do with it. We got the people that we wanted. You can’t keep forgetting: We got here in December a couple of years ago, right? That’s kind of tough. Backs were up against the wall. It was kind of tough. We flipped the dern roster, and I’m proud of them. I’m proud of these young men. I’m proud of the coaching staff. Flipped that, too.”
In his first year, he overhauled the roster with an unprecedented influx of 51 scholarship transfer players in 2023, retaining just nine returning scholarship players last year out of a roster limit of 85. Then he flipped the roster again with 39 new scholarship transfers after last season. He also recast his coaching staff this year after his top two assistant coaches left for other jobs.
Deion Sanders talks Utah game
Colorado plays Utah at home in a "Big Noon" game Saturday on Fox. The Utes don’t have a great record (4-5) but do have a stingy defense under head coach Kyle Whittingham. The Utes rank No. 1 nationally in third-down defense, with opponents converting only 23.8% of third downs against them. They also rank 1 in scoring defense (17.1 points allowed per game) and eighth in team pass efficiency defense (107.07).
Sanders called Whittingham a “true legend.”
“You cannot take this team lightly,” Sanders said. “I don’t give a dern what their record is. As long as he’s over there on that sideline, you better be prepared for a tough game. Thank God it’s at home and it’s early. I like it like that.”
How does the atmosphere in the SEC compare to the Big 12?
Receiver Will Sheppard transferred to Colorado from Vanderbilt and had eight catches for 79 yards and a touchdown in last week’s win at Texas Tech, where fans threw tortillas and trash on the field. On Tuesday, he was asked how the game-day atmosphere in the Big 12 compares with playing in large, hostile stadiums in the Southeastern Conference.
He didn’t try to sugarcoat it.
“Nah, it doesn’t stack up,” Sheppard said.
What is Deion Sanders earning for this stretch run?
As his team keeps winning, Sanders also is in position to keep improving his stakes. His contract with Colorado gave him $150,000 for reaching six wins and now gives him $100,000 for each additional win after that in the regular season.
“I heard you get like, you know, $100K extra per win,” his quarterback son Shedeur recently asked his father, as shown on Well Off Media. “Where mine at?”
“I don’t know what y’all talking about,” Deion Sanders replied on the video.
Sanders’ bonuses are in addition to his $5.7 million in regular guaranteed pay this year. His contract also says he will get a $450,000 bonus if his team is invited to a playoff bowl game.
Colorado's other postseason possibilities
If the Buffaloes lose one or more of their final three regular-season games, it could drop them out of the Big 12 title game and instead land them in a non-playoff bowl game such as the Alamo, Holiday or Las Vegas bowl in late December.
Either way, this will be the Buffaloes’ best season since 2016, when they finished in the Alamo Bowl with a record of 10-4.
Fox’s "Big Noon" pregame show will travel to Boulder this week for the game.
On Tuesday, Sanders was asked if he’s gotten a chance to “take a step back” to appreciate the transformation of his program.
“I never take a step back,” Sanders said. “I try to take a step up. I’m always with my head out the window: I’m trying to see around the corner, not trying to see straight ahead. It’s normalcy to see what’s in front of them. I’m trying to see around the corner.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]
(This story was updated to add new information.)
veryGood! (47)
Related
- NFL Week 10 injury report: Live updates on active, inactive players for Sunday's games
- Norah O’Donnell leaving as anchor of CBS evening newscast after election
- Canada loses its appeal against a points deduction for drone spying in Olympic women’s soccer
- One Extraordinary Olympic Photo: David J. Phillip captures swimming from the bottom of the pool
- What that 'Disclaimer' twist says about the misogyny in all of us
- A union for Amazon warehouse workers elects a new leader in wake of Teamsters affiliation
- Biden prods Congress to act to curb fentanyl from Mexico as Trump paints Harris as weak on border
- Ex-clients of Social Security fraudster Eric Conn won’t owe back payments to government
- Oprah Winfrey Addresses Claim She Was Paid $1 Million by Kamala Harris' Campaign
- Here's where the economy stands as the Fed makes its interest rate decision this week
Ranking
- See Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani's Winning NFL Outing With Kids Zuma and Apollo
- Jodie Sweetin defends Olympics amid Last Supper controversy, Candace Cameron critiques
- One Extraordinary Olympic Photo: David J. Phillip captures swimming from the bottom of the pool
- Tesla recalls 1.85 million vehicles over hood latch issue that could increase risk of crash
- Chet Holmgren injury update: Oklahoma City Thunder star suffers hip fracture
- Former ballerina in Florida is convicted of manslaughter in her estranged husband’s 2020 shooting
- Florida school board suspends employee who allowed her transgender daughter to play girls volleyball
- Former ballerina in Florida is convicted of manslaughter in her estranged husband’s 2020 shooting
Recommendation
-
Judge recuses himself in Arizona fake elector case after urging response to attacks on Kamala Harris
-
Criticism mounts against Venezuela’s Maduro and the electoral council that declared him a victor
-
2024 Olympics: Stephen Nedoroscik’s Girlfriend Tess McCracken “Almost Fainted” Over Pommel Horse Routine
-
Republican challenge to New York’s mail voting expansion reaches state’s highest court
-
Democrat Ruben Gallego wins Arizona US Senate race against Republican Kari Lake
-
Here's where the economy stands as the Fed makes its interest rate decision this week
-
The Latest: Project 2025’s director steps down, and Trump says Harris ‘doesn’t like Jewish people’
-
Paychecks grew more slowly this spring, a sign inflation may keep cooling