Deion Sanders says Colorado must be consistent before Kansas State game

Deion Sanders says Colorado must be consistent before Kansas State game

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Deion Sanders Pinpoints Consistency as Colorado Prepares for Kansas State

Deion Sanders needed only two words to sum up his plan for beating Kansas State on Saturday. Asked during his Tuesday press conference what it would take to get a win, the Colorado Buffaloes coach kept it simple. Be consistent, he said.

Honestly speaking, the follow-up proved more revealing than the answer itself. Within seconds, Sanders admitted the one thing his team does consistently is draw flags. The remarks come as the program heads into a Halloween matchup at Folsom Field.

Sanders started with the one phase he believes is finally under control, sounding like a coach fishing for a little credit. I feel like the last couple weeks, special teams wise, I haven’t heard you guys ask any special teams questions, Sanders said. I told you how easy it was to bring solvency to that. I guess you didn’t believe it, but we pretty much did. We just gotta continue and be consistent in that area.

Deion Sanders press conference before Kansas State game in Boulder

He has a point. During an earlier defeat against Texas Tech, the Buffaloes failed on two field goals, flubbed a fake punt, fielded only nine blockers on a kick attempt, and allowed a punt to be downed on the 2-yard line immediately preceding an interception returned for a touchdown on the subsequent play. Back on September 26, 2026, kicker Elliott Arnold handled field goal duties against the Baylor Bears at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas, during a period when the unit struggled heavily.

In the matchup with Utah a fortnight later, Arnold successfully converted his sole field goal attempt alongside all three point-after tries, while punter Damon Greaves registered a 44.6-yard average and landed three punts inside the 20-yard line. For a special teams unit, silence from reporters remains the highest compliment.

Deion Sanders says Colorado must be consistent before Kansas State game

The Penalty Problem That Persists in Boulder

Be that as it may, the rest of Sanders’ answer read like a checklist of everything else that still needs fixing.

But defensively, offensively, running the ball, throwing the ball, creating turnovers, eliminating the penalties, we gotta have some kind of consistency, Sanders said. That’s the only thing we’re consistent in, is getting penalties. And that don’t make sense to me.

The numbers back him up entirely. Colorado has committed 66 penalties through seven games, averaging 9.4 per contest. The team has surrendered 590 yards and leads the Big 12 with 84.3 penalty yards per game. The 11 flags thrown at Oklahoma State added another 84 yards to that total.

Back in September, Sanders called the penalties hard to fathom. A month later, that same habit keeps showing up in the box score, regardless of the opponent or the stadium.

Sharing the Blame in the Locker Room

Looking beyond the penalty talk, the most striking moment came when Sanders refused to spread the blame around his roster. We just haven’t been able to get it together, Sanders said. That’s not ’we.’ I haven’t been able to get it together.

Coaches rarely speak that way in the middle of a slide. It gives his message real weight heading into the weekend. Achieving stability sounds straightforward until a squad must demonstrate it across an entire sixty minutes, and Sanders is well aware of where those preparations must commence. But we gotta do better, Sanders said. Gotta prepare much better.

More on Colorado: Colorado State plays Utah State in Logan on Saturday afternoon

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