Deion Sanders praises Travis Hunter for big night on defense

Despite putting up a fight on Saturday night, the Colorado Buffaloes fell on the road to the UCLA Bruins. There wasn’t much the Buffaloes’ offense could do as their offensive line struggled to protect quarterback Shedeur Sanders and give him enough time to conduct the offense.

Still, in his second game back from injury, Travis Hunter played well for Colorado, on defense especially. And after the game, head coach Deion Sanders shared a few thoughts on how his two-way players performed in their 28-16 loss.

“Travis is Travis. I keep telling you that he’s one kid… I don’t concern myself about their play and their attitude,” said Sanders. “I knew he was gonna bounce back. He was coming off of injury, and he was taking the offensive side of the ball a lot more seriously than he was taking the defensive side of the ball when he first came back.

“He just had to reset. He didn’t go home on the break. He stayed, worked out, trained, and got his feet up under him, watched film intently, and studied the little things. So he was prepared and ready today, and he gave you a Travis Hunter performance.”

Hunter had a quiet game of offense, hauling in just three catches for seven yards. But on the defensive side of the ball, the two-way star balled out. Hunter finished the game with four total tackles, two solo, and recorded two interceptions in the game. The first one led to a field goal, which gave Colorado a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. The second came midway through the second quarter.

Sanders discusses his respect level for Chip Kelly

Saturday was the meeting of two friends in Los Angeles. Deion Sanders brought his Colorado team into the Rose Bowl to face off against UCLA‘s Chip Kelly, playing in prime time on ABC. The Bruins wound up the win for their sixth of the season, while Colorado fell to .500 at 4-4.

Kelly and Sanders shared a moment at midfield after the game, embracing one another before exchanging words. You could tell there is a lot of respect between the two and during his postgame press conference, Sanders confirmed as such.

In fact, he’s happy to get UCLA off the schedule so he can call Kelly. Sanders is still a young coach in the college football world despite all of the success. Learning from a veteran and somebody who has been there like Kelly is something he wants moving forward.

“I adore their head coach,” Sanders said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. He’s a great coach. I’m glad we finally got our contest over so I could call him and get advice from time to time. We discussed that before the game and after the game.

“He’s one of the real ones, he’s one of the good ones, and he knows what he’s doing.”

Kelly has been around the block a time or two in college football. There was a brief stint in the NFL but prior to then, he took Oregon to a level the program had never been at. He has gotten UCLA back to a consistent level too over the past few seasons.