Deion Sanders promises Colorado will not be most penalized team in the Big 12 again

Colorado committed 100 penalties last season for a total loss of 882 yards, the most in the Big 12. After the Buffaloes’ spring game on Saturday, head coach Deion Sanders promised fans that Colorado will clean up its penalty issues this offseason.

“We’re gonna fix that,” Sanders said. “That’s personnel as well as discipline. We’re going to fix that. I mean, we’re so darn disciplined around here, I don’t know why we don’t take the disciplinary things on the field. So we’re going to fix that. I’m glad you pointed that out.

“We got to fix that. We have officials at practice, so we call it then, and they have disciplinary actions when they’re offsides or do something stupid to cause us a penalty. But we got to be better with that. We will not be the most penalized team in the Big 12 again, this season. I’m putting my name on that.”

The 2024 campaign was the second consecutive season Colorado faced discipline issues on the field. In Sanders’ first season at the helm of the Buffaloes in 2023, the team committed 107 penalties for a total loss of 854 yards.

Last season, Colorado overcame its penalty problems to have a successful season but there’s no telling what the Buffaloes would’ve been capable of without penalties holding them back. Deion Sanders intends to curve the recurring issue in the upcoming season.

Of course, Sanders doesn’t plan on changing too much about his Buffaloes. After all, Colorado posted a 9-3 record in the regular season last year and were on the cusp of a College Football Playoff appearance.

“We [are going to] do what we do,” Sanders said when asked what the team will do different in the 2025 campaign. “So it’s not really a new version of how we plan on executing. Offense is the offense, but we have certain guys with certain gifts, and we got to utilize those gifts. Shedeur, Travis and all those guys had certain gifts. So we got to utilize those gifts. JuJu [Lewis], [Kaidon] Salter, they’re different, man.

“We know what they’re good at, and we got to implement that in our offense so we can move the ball consistently. Defensively, the same way. I feel like we’re going to be strong up front. We’re going to force teams to throw the ball. I don’t feel like they’re going to be able to successfully run the ball against us. So we got to be more stout on the back end, and you probably going to see that portal jumping on the back end in the next few days.”