Deion Sanders calls for people to 'disallow their disdain for me,' honor Colorado players

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders is ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s top-rated quarterback right now. He’s also the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week.

Sanders completed 30-of-43 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-27 win at Texas Tech — he also netted 16 rushing yards and scored on the ground once.

En route to earning his first Big 12 weekly award, Sanders guided his now-No. 17 Buffaloes to a comeback victory in Lubbock.

During this week’s edition of the “Colorado Football Coaches Show,” host Mark Johnson, the Buffaloes’ play-by-play announcer, highlighted Sanders’ conference honor.

Deion Sanders, the father and head coach of Shedeur, chimed in.

“Well, the week before he was 25-for-30, wasn’t he? … So what’s the difference? … What’s the difference week-to-week?”

Sanders was referring to Colorado’s previous game, a 34-23 win over Cincinnati, in which Sanders completed 25-of-30 passes for 323 yards and two touchdowns, not to mention the rushing score he notched that day, too.

“Well, you know what’s happening there, right?” Johnson said. “Because between he and Travis [Hunter] and other guys on your team, every week a Buff’s going to be in the running for that. They could give it to you guys every week.”

Sanders replied: “Why not?”

Johnson theorized that there’d be jealousy across the league if a Colorado player won a Big 12 weekly award every week.

“It’s been that way since we got here,” Sanders said, alluding to the outside noise surrounding the Buffaloes since he took over the program ahead of the 2023 season.

Sanders continued: “They gotta disallow their disdain for me and do not punish the kids for that. Allow them to receive their fruits of their labor. I mean, it’s just only right. It’s not right for what they do — because that’s why I wanted to make a point: Last week, [Shedeur] was 25-for-30, something like that. I think that was sharper than [this] week, right?”

Shedeur Sanders also earned Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week accolades only once last season despite throwing for 345-plus yards in each of Colorado’s three wins to start the year. Ultimately, though, the Buffaloes ended up going 1-8 in conference play in 2023. As a first-year member of the Big 12 in 2024, Colorado is currently contending for the league championship with a 5-1 mark against conference opponents so far, plus an overall record of 7-2.

Sanders has followed up a head-turning 2023 campaign with a 24:6 touchdown-to-interception ratio, along with four rushing scores, this season. He’s completed 72.9% of his passes while throwing for 2,882 yards.

But Week 11 marked the first time he was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week.