Deion Sanders identifies 'big call' by officials in loss vs. USC

In the fourth quarter, as Colorado was trying to mount a furious comeback against USC — one the Buffaloes nearly pulled off — freshman cornerback Cormani McClain appeared to have hauled in a game-changing interception down the sideline. But there were yellow penalty markers down on the field.

Fellow defensive back Rodrick Ward was tagged for a pass interference call that wiped out the turnover. USC ended up scoring what would the game-decided touchdown on that drive to get to 48 points.

After the game, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders identified it as a pivotal call.

“That and the pass interference down the sideline was really — official’s like, ‘Is there anything I can help you with?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that pass interference down the sideline, you can help me with that.’ That was a big call. That was a big call. But they did a great job,” Sanders said in his postgame press conference.

He did quip about the penalty totals when told about the number USC had called — six penalties for 53 yards.

“That can’t be true. Boy, they had a couple double penalties one time, we should’ve took both of them. That would’ve helped,” Sanders said.

Sanders also discussed the need for his team to come out hotter

One of the lessons Sanders wanted his players to learn this week is that they don’t need him for motivation.

Sanders is more than capable of giving an excellent pregame or halftime speech, but he doesn’t want his team to have to rely on that.

“We challenged them tremendously at halftime,” Sanders said after a 48-41 loss to USC that included a tremendous comeback attempt in the second half. “Everybody say they want the light until they get in the light. Now when you get in the light, the thing about the light, it echoes your blemishes. So we challenged them to come out here.”

Sanders went on to explain that his challenge was about helping his guys understand that their belief is up to them. It isn’t dependent on results.

After a 3-0 start to the season, Colorado likely had a strong belief that it could compete with just about anyone. A 42-6 loss to Oregon likely disavowed many players of that notion.

But if that was the case, Saturday’s closer loss against a very quality USC team should be further reinforcement. If anything, it provides reinforcement precisely because it was Colorado’s belief that got them back into the game.

Not a fiery speech from Sanders.

“Like I ain’t got time to be trying to fire you up and get you the most dynamic speech that I could give, intellectual and use some true words that I have to look up in my vocabulary and the thesaurus,” Sanders said. “How do you say that word? Thesaurus. I ain’t got time for that thing.”