Colorado vs. Colorado State is one of college football’s oldest rivalries, with the first matchup between the Buffaloes and Rams happening in 1892.
And within the last two years, it has become one of the more emotionally charged and fierce rivalries in the sport — so much so that both teams have gone out to say they dislike each other several times.
That continued Saturday: Following the Buffaloes’ 28-9 win over the Rams, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders refused to shake the hand of Colorado State counterpart Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi at the 50-yard line. Shedeur also provided some colorful words to his counterpart as they passed each other. Here is a video of their encounter (warning: explicit language used).
Earlier in the week, Fowler-Nicolosi added some ‘trash talk’ to the rivalry with his thoughts on how last year’s game in Boulder turned out — a game that Colorado won 43-35 after two overtime periods.
‘They came out with that attitude and thought it was going to be a cakewalk,’ Fowler-Nicolosi said in an interview. ‘They saw the reports that it was 27.5 points. They got a rude, rude awakening real quick. I think it goes to show the hype, the media train, all that only gets you so far. At the end of the day, you have to line up 11 guys against our 11 guys and we’ll find out who wants it more. We’ll see how far Instagram followers gets them.”
Fowler-Nicolosi didn’t stop there. He also gave the ‘too small’ gesture during the game Saturday against Colorado’s Travis Hunter, who went on to intercept him later in the game.
Here’s a look at Hunter’s interception, which resulted in him receiving an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty afterwards:
Deion Sanders also mentioned ‘disrespect’ from Colorado State during his postgame news conference.
‘Wonderful game, personal game, heartfelt game, emotional game. They kind of make it like that. We just want to play some football. The disrespect was uncalled for throughout the week. A couple of their players took shots at the whole program and a few of our players so it is what it is. So we knew coming into the game that it’d be a bit personal, and it was,’ Deion Sanders said.
‘I just pray that our kids never act in that matter because I know you guys would have a field day if they did, but I know you won’t do anything or say anything when the opposing team does that versus us.’