BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Deion Sanders dismissed several players from the team on the heels of Colorado's first loss.
The Buffaloes coach didn't specify Tuesday which players were no longer with the program but indicated it was for a pattern of behavior and not just what transpired in a 41-7 loss at Northwestern.
“It's never one thing,” Sanders said. “Those guys will tell you: I’m the most loving, giving and forgiving man you can ever meet. But when you start being conduct detrimental to the team that will set us back in things that you’re doing — you don’t care about the team. You care about you. I have a problem with that.”
Sanders referenced last season when things went sideways and the team finished 3-9.
“A year ago, I didn’t put my foot down in it enough,” he said. “It lingered a little bit. Then, it imploded. I’m not doing that. I'm not doing that anymore.”
Defensive back Ben Finneseth spoke to reporters before Sanders did and apologized after he was caught in a video speaking harshly of Northwestern’s temporary stadium before the game. A player in a video posted on social media can be heard saying, “(expletive) sounds like a (expletive) library. It's football."
Finneseth said Tuesday: “It was childish. It was a stupid thing that I said. It won’t happen again, and the way I handled it was horrible. I promise you guys that it will not happen again, and it will be much more mature moving forward. So I apologize.”
Before Finneseth left, Sanders shook his hand and added, “that’s why I love you.”
Sanders expressed his frustration Saturday night and acknowledged that he got on a few players for their reaction after the loss. He said: “I don’t understand how you can have joy in a loss, especially when I’m upset and I’m walking right behind you.”
The coach took accountability, too.
“I don’t push the buck and push the blame on anyone else. It’s on me,” Sanders said Tuesday. “We want to win the right way, and we want to do what’s right. But the whole thing is about winning. We don’t want to ever employ a losing type of sentiment. We don’t want to do things that are associated with losers and bad-mouth opponents and do that kind of stuff. That’s not who we are.”
The Buffaloes (2-1) are trying to rebound after a game in which they had four turnovers and committed nine penalties for 80 yards.
“A loss by 10, a loss by three, a loss by 30 — it hurts me. There’s no degrees of loss,” Sanders said. “Like, there’s no degrees of sin. A sin is a sin. A loss is a loss to me."
Sanders is putting everything under a microscope as the Buffaloes prepare for Saturday's game at Baylor. At the top of the list: penalties.
Colorado has 28 penalties for 247 yards so far this season. It's frustrating to Sanders, who pointed out the team is disciplined in everything it does on the practice field.
“Then when you get out from the field and you’re undisciplined, I don’t understand,” Sanders said. "It’s hard to fathom.
"We’re challenging them to be who they say they want to be.”
The message hit home for players such as linebacker Tyler Martinez, who recently received a “D” patch — it stands for “Dawg” — from the coaching staff for being a playmaker.
“It's hard to see somebody go,” Martinez said of the dismissals. “Like Coach Prime said, it's about the team. If you're about yourself, got to do what's best for us.”
Sanders had several leaders approach him about how to get ahead of this so more dismissals don't occur. They want to help stay on top of the situation.
“I applaud them for that," Sanders said, "coming to me ready to get ahead of it.”
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