Colorado football coach Deion Sanders provided some additional context about why he kicked some players off his team after a 41-7 loss last week at Northwestern, saying the players were “knuckleheads that I didn’t want to poison the team.”
Sanders talked about it on his weekly Colorado Football Coaches Show on Wednesday, Sept. 23, as his team prepares to play at Baylor on Sept. 26. His team is 2-1 this season but is coming off the fifth-worst loss of his four seasons on the job.
“People made a big deal out of last week, about us, you know, getting rid of a few kids,” Sanders said. “But it wasn't a team thing. It was just a few knuckleheads. Every occupation we have, it's a few knuckleheads, right?”
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Sanders said the problem wasn’t the team as a whole.
“No, it was the few knuckleheads that I didn't want to poison the team,” Sanders told the show’s host Mark Johnson.
Deion Sanders indicated the players got several chances
Sanders didn’t identify the players who were kicked off the team. He first revealed the player dismissals at his weekly news conference in Boulder on Tuesday and indicated Wednesday it was two or three players. Sanders also said the dismissals were related to conduct detrimental to the team and were not the result of a single incident. He said he gives his players several chances to change their behavior.
“First of all, my kids know me, man,” Sanders said. “They know, I give seconds and thirds, and sometimes fourths, but when it gets to about that fifth, you gotta go.”
The Colorado athletic department said Tuesday that “any potential roster changes have not been finalized” and that an updated roster will be released later in the week.
Deion Sanders the team hasn't 'broken glass in case of emergency'
The Buffaloes committed four turnovers against Northwestern, contributing to the lopsided score. Sanders downplayed the losing margin, saying it doesn’t count as a “capital L” in the loss column. But the fact remains the Buffs are 2-11 against Power Four conference teams dating to the end of the 2024 season. The blowout loss at Northwestern reminded fans of last year, when Colorado finished 3-9, including two blowout losses down the stretch.
“We haven’t broken glass in case of emergency,” Sanders said. “We’re 2-1. We want to be 3-0, but we good.”
Sanders said he has a “good group of kinds that… love this game.”
“And they’re not gonna allow two or three young men to dissolve what they have,” Sanders said.
Colorado plays at Baylor on Saturday at noon ET on ESPN2.
"We're super ready to bounce back from last week and show we've been working our tails off," Colorado defensive back Jason Stokes told reporters Wednesday.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Deion Sanders said he dismissed 'knuckleheads' he didn't want poisoning team
