Deion Sanders admits Colorado is missing passion from beginning of season

Colorado needs more passion and more energy to finish the season, according to head coach Deion Sanders.

The Buffaloes lack that passionate edge that was present within the first three games of the season. Colorado got off to a 3-0 start with wins over TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State. 

Since then, Sanders and company are 1-5 in Pac-12 play with near misses in two conference games that could have this team feeling a bit different.

“I don’t think it’s the same passion,” Sanders said following a 26-19 loss to Oregon State. “I do sense the same attention to detail, the film time has gone up. Less mistakes. I think penalty wise we had some penalties in some crazy situations. But we’ve condensed that over the last couple of weeks. We’ve been pretty good with that. It’s just some little foolish darn penalties that we gathered today. 

“But the passion, the passion of it, like the passion of that first game, the passion of those games, we’re missing that and that’s still something we’re trying to apprehend. We try to locate it as well.”

Deion Sanders wants Colorado players to recapture passion

What is that passion Sanders is talking about? Well, remember how big of a win it was to beat TCU on the road? Last year’s runner ups?

Yeah, Colorado arrived at that moment. Then an old school Big 12 rival was in the way and the Buffaloes dispatched the Huskers.

Then, Sanders and crew won a heated battle over in-state rival Colorado State. Yes, the team from Boulder was on top of the world and ranked earlier this season.

Would that same passion make them undefeated, put them in the College Football Playoff race or even the Pac-12 title race? Probably not, although anything’s possible.

But that’s hindsight and a big hypothetical. There’s no doubt Colorado has massive struggles on defense and has very little semblance of a running game this year.

Despite that, Sanders and Colorado won four games being one dimensional and were arguably a few plays away from beating USC and not blowing a lead against Stanford. You flip those games around and Colorado is 6-3, bowl eligible and thinking about a quality postseason game.

The only game Colorado was completely overmatched was its loss to Oregon, the first loss to humble Sanders’ team. Coach Prime won’t apologize for being brash and confident and nor will his players.

But there’s no question this team is not the same passionate crew the college football world saw in September. This might put it back into perspective just how massive this rebuilding job is for Sanders moving forward.