Colorado football coach Deion Sanders said Tuesday, Sept. 22, that he’s dismissed "a few" players from the team after the Buffaloes suffered a 41-7 loss at Northwestern Sept. 19. Another Colorado player, safety Ben Finneseth, opened Sanders’ weekly news conference in Boulder by standing up and apologizing for comments he made before the game that disparaged Northwestern.
Both moves underscored the seriousness of the defeat last week for Sanders, whose team next plays at Baylor on Sept. 26. The Buffaloes are 2-1 in Sanders’ fourth season but have suffered three defeats of at least 34 points in their last eight games dating to last season, when they finished 3-9.
“It’s a few guys who are not on the team anymore,” Sanders said. "Just so you know.”
Sanders didn’t identify the dismissed players. He revealed this information after being asked a question about how certain players reacted to the loss at Northwestern on Saturday, including some he indicated were laughing after the game. Sanders described the dismissals as being for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
“A year ago, I didn’t put my foot down in it enough,” Sanders said .”It lingered a little bit. Then it imploded. I’m not doing that. I’m not doing that anymore.”
Colorado player Ben Finneseth apologizes to Northwestern
Before the Northwestern game, a video picked up sound from a group of Colorado players that was later posted on social media. Finneseth, a sixth-year safety, was among the group that was said “this place (expletive sucks)” and it “sounds like a (expletive) library.” It's not clear if Finneseth made one or both comments.
Sanders called it “foolishness” and said he wanted to “correct” it. So he brought in Finneseth to address the news media.
“I just want to apologize… first of all to you guys, to everyone that’s tied in with the university, to everyone at Northwestern, to everyone that supports us, to my teammates and my coaches,” Finneseth said. “It was childish. It was a stupid thing that I said. It won’t happen again. And the way I… handled it was horrible. And I promise you guys that it will not happen again, and it will be much more mature moving forward. So I apologize.”
“That’s why I love you,” Sanders told him.
Sanders said he is "changing a few things" after the loss, the fifth-worst of his tenure at Colorado, but said none of it is "alarming."
"We're just asking more of the kids as well as the coaches," Sanders said. ""I'm taking full responsibility for what transpired yesterday, and I will correct it today. And that's where we are."
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Deion Sanders kicks players off team after blowout loss. Then came a public apology
